((PKG)) POPCORN FACTORY
((Banner: Popcorn….))
((Reporter: Lesia Bakalets))
((Camera: Artyom Kokhan, David Gogokhia))
((VOA Russian))
((Adapted by: Philip Alexiou))
((Map: Chapman, Nebraska))
((NATS))
((Sam Krug, General Manager, Preferred Popcorn))
Popcorn actually is one of the oldest grains in the world.
((NATS))
((Sam Krug, General Manager, Preferred Popcorn))
So this one is the popcorn. You see it’s long here, but it’s skinny. You can put your fingers all the way around the outside of this one. It’s very skinny on the top and this is the stuff that we use for the popcorn production and this is what you will explode when you put it in a pot or you put it in your microwave. We pop every 15 minutes. This lid will open and you will see them start to fall out of the popper.
((NATS))
((Sam Krug, General Manager, Preferred Popcorn))
This is a brand new popcorn facility with the very best technology in the entire world that you could have for popcorn. So, it all starts with farming. It starts with growing the right hybrids and knowing what popcorn customers want and caring about customers.
((NATS))
((Sam Krug, General Manager, Preferred Popcorn))
There you go. It’s brand new.
((NATS))
((Sam Krug, General Manager, Preferred Popcorn))
For popcorn and popcorn quality is to make sure we have a specific scientific methods to test the popcorn, to make sure it’s performing exactly the way that a customer wants and so, this machine is a very highly scientific machine that keeps all of the variables the same. So, we always pop at 480 degrees and we always use exactly the same amount of oil when we’re going to pop. This is, the industry standard is coconut oil. So, we’ll put the oil in and we’ll let it heat up to exactly 480 degrees. That’s the standard that popcorn will pop best. And so, what we will do, we also take exactly 250 grams of popcorn and it’s at the right moisture that it’s supposed to be at.
((NATS))
((Sam Krug, General Manager, Preferred Popcorn))
How many volumes am I going to get out? Is it going to be 47, 48? That’s very good high expansion, what we call platinum popcorn. So, this is the butterfly. You see, it looks like it has wings that go out like that. That’s what gives it the high expansion. So, the bigger these little chutes are or the wings that come off of the kernel, the higher the expansion. It’s a really good kernel.
((NATS))
((Pop-Up Banner: Americans eat more popcorn than any other people in the world.))
((NATS))
((Sam Krug, General Manager, Preferred Popcorn))
Oh, I eat popcorn, probably five times every single day, from early in the morning till the end of the day. My family, we’re eating it here. We’re eating it at home. We love popcorn.
((NATS))