Hosting Movie Night? Make It Memorable With This DIY Gourmet Popcorn Bar
While hosting movie night, the one snack you would lay out for those lounging on your couch is a bowl full of popcorn. As well, when you host mixology hour at home, what you would require is a munchie that works as a taste breaker between making and sampling different boozy concoctions. Popcorn has endured for long as a sought after snack on various occasions such as movie night or even a mixology class for its ability to act as good munching that counteracts the buzz of a spirit-forward drink. Yet, its subtle flavour notes enable you to enjoy the different flavours of your cocktails or even the frothy beer you sip on while watching a good movie.
So, when you next want to host your friends for a night of binge watching some of your favourite horror movies or K-dramas, or just spend an hour at the bar making stunning cocktail numbers, you can also set up a DIY popcorn bar for added fun. And what’s more, you can turn it into a gourmet station by arranging some fancy and flavourful ingredients using which your guests can prepare their preferred popcorn bowl.
Read on below for some quick notes about setting up a DIY gourmet popcorn station:
Plain Popcorn And Assorted Flavours
When you are hosting a movie night, the best way to arrange this DIY station is to prepare a large batch of plain popcorn. This way, your guests can add them to a bowl and sprinkle their favoured toppings on the crispy munchies. Make sure you have lots of gourmet options available like peanut brittle, garlic parmesan, melted butter, truffle oil, Hawaiian cheese powder and more which will serve as brilliant taste toppings for a bowl of the crispy corn snack.
Separate DIY Station
During a mixology class, your home bar will be put to most effective use when you arrange all your drinks and mixers on the bar counter so they are easily accessible for the participants. On such days, create a different station, apart from the bar for your gourmet popcorn so guests can take a break in between mixing drinks and snack a little bit before resuming class. This way, their senses will also get a good break from all boozy tastes and smells.
Pairing With Cocktails
For movie night and a mixology class both, what you need are popcorn offerings that would work as good palate cleansers. When you serve cocktails, you are already giving guests drinks that are loaded with different sweet, sour and even umami notes. At such times popcorn with different flavour profiles, like a gourmet salted caramel or a rosemary and garlic parmesan variation is going to act as the perfect taste break between two intense cocktail helpings. You can also decide your gourmet flavours depending on the kind of cocktails you would serve. For instance, when you have lots of sour mixes, you can set up a station with sweeter offerings like caramel or maple bacon that will cut through the tart qualities of your drinks.
Arrange For Popcorn Tubs
At the DIY station, set out popcorn tubs according to their sizes like you would find at a movie theatre. Guests can use a scooper to drop popcorn into the tub of their choice and flavour it with the gourmet powders so they can savour their favourite variations as much as they want while experimenting with newer ones using smaller tubs or popcorn jars.
Popcorn Machine Or Poppers
If you want to splurge just a tad bit on this gourmet DIY activity, along with sourcing your fancy seasonings, you can also go the extra mile and get a popcorn machine on rent that will help you to make warm popcorn faster than your cooker or microwave. Fresh popcorn works wonders when you want to top it up with butter or oil because these ingredients mix better with the warm munchies. Alternatively, use multiple air poppers to churn out popcorn to keep up with the rate at which your friends prepare and munch their snack.
