This Genius Trick Will Change The Way You Eat Movie Theater Popcorn

You've been buttering your popcorn the wrong way this whole time.

'Penny Dreadful' Screening And Q&A With Reeve Carney — Getty Images | Rob Kim

Movie theater popcorn is the best. Or, maybe we’ve just been conditioned to believe that because the tub of buttery, fluffy popped corn is so darn expensive at the theaters.

Regardless, we’ve got one complaint about movie popcorn that’s keeping it from earning five stars, two thumbs up, a 100 percent—or however you like your ratings packaged. The distribution of butter to popcorn is always a tad off.

That’s to say the top layer of our popcorn—which, let’s be honest, we usually polish off before the previews even end—is drenched in the buttery goodness. Meanwhile, the lower layers are suffering from extreme butter drought. (Okay, that’s a bit dramatic, but you see where we’re going with this.)

Photo by Dustin O’Donnell

So, while our movies have gotten super high-tech (hello, 4D movies and out-of-this-world special effects!), our popcorn-to-butter distribution hasn’t made much progress over the years.

Until now.

In today’s “Why didn’t we think of this?!” news comes the genius “popcorn straw.” We can’t actually trace it to its origins, but we can give a hat tip to Titus Andromedon, the ever-so-crafty character on “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.” In one of the Netflix-original episodes, we spot him employing the trick and describing it as a “butter way” to do things.

Without further ado, here’s how to MacGyver (or Andromedon) your popcorn so the butter-to-popcorn ratio is spot on.

Grab a straw. If you can, snag a thick one that typically accompanies the slushies.
Set your bag or tub of popcorn under the butter dispenser per the usual. Then, align the straw with the butter dispenser.
As you’re pumping the butter through the straw, lift the straw up and down so you’re getting layers and layers of melty butter in the popcorn.
Stir your popcorn with the straw.
Sink into your movie chair and enjoy bursts of butter in every bite.

[h/t: PureWow]

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About the Author

Brittany Anas

Hi, I'm Brittany Anas (pronounced like the spice, anise ... see, that wasn't too embarrassing to say, now was it?) My professional writing career started when I was in elementary school and my grandma paid me $1 for each story I wrote for her. I'm a former newspaper reporter, with more than a decade of experience Hula-hooping at planning meetings and covering just about every beat from higher-education to crime to science for the Boulder Daily Camera and The Denver Post. Now, I'm a freelance writer, specializing in travel, health, food and adventure.

I've contributed to publications including Men's Journal, Forbes, Women's Health, American Way, TripSavvy, Eat This, Not That!, Apartment Therapy, Denver Life Magazine, 5280, Livability, The Denver Post, Simplemost, USA Today Travel Tips, Make it Better, AAA publications, Reader's Digest, Discover Life and more.