Monday, August 1, 2011

Kicking Off My One-Year Blogiversary: 479 Popcorn Review and Giveaway!!

It's August, which means that it's time to kick off a month-long celebration of The Weekend Gourmet's one-year blogiversary!! I started this blog on a bit of a lark, but it's grown into something more than I ever imagined! My official blogiversary date is August 14th, but I decided to make the fun last the entire month...I've got all sorts of exciting things planned to celebrate and thank you for reading my ramblings and trying my recipes!! I'll have giveaways, cookbook reviews, and a really fun cooking/recipe contest. More details on that to come very soon, but let's get this party started with a fun giveaway!!

479 Popcorn is based in San Francisco and offers delicious organic gourmet popcorn. The name of the company stems from the fact that founder Jean Arnold discovered that 479 degrees is the optimal temperature to pop popcorn. Make no mistake: this is artisan popcorn...made by hand in small batches with organic ingredients! This popcorn comes in eight great flavors that are guaranteed to make your mouth water:
  • Alderwood Smoked Sea Salt
  • Black Truffle + White Cheddar
  • Chipotle Caramel + Almonds
  • Fleur de Sel Caramel
  • Ginger Sesame Caramel
  • Madras Curry Coconut + Cashews
  • Pimenton de La Vera
  • Vietnamese Cinnamon Sugar

They offer popcorn samplers that allow you to try several of the flavors above. The nice people at 479 recently sent me their Purist Sampler to try at home and review in here. The Purist Sampler contains the Alderwood Smoked Sea Salt, Fleur de Sel Caramel, Pimenton de La Vera, and Vietnamese Cinnamon Sugar flavors. We had a great time sampling all of these wonderful flavors. We enjoyed them all, but two of them stood out as our favorites.

The Alderwood Smoked Sea Salt is flavored with a smoked sea salt. At first, it tastes like standard salted popcorn, but you quickly taste the background flavor of smokiness. It's nice with a soda while watching a movie. 

The Fleur De Sel Caramel has a lovely caramel coating -- not too sweet or sticky. I could taste the sea salt in the background, but I was hoping for a more pronounced flavor of fleur de sel with each bite. Not enough to keep me from eating the entire box in one sitting, though!

The Pimenton de La Vera is a really complex flavor. It's slightly sweet, but it also contains smoky Spanish paprika, tomato, and onion. The first bite was a bit strange to me, because I wasn't expecting it to be sweet also. However, by the second bite? I was hooked...this is a really fun flavor!

The Vietnamese Cinnamon Sugar was my favorite flavor in this sampler. It's just sweet enough to compliment the cinnamon flavor. Vietnamese cinnamon is prized for its intense flavor, and the cinnamon flavor really pops in this flavor. Pardon the pun!! If you like cinnamon sugar on your toast, this is the flavor for you!!

479 Popcorn offers three other popcorn samplers that offer other combinations of the flavors listed above: The Foodie, The Globetrotter, and The Sweet Tooth. They've graciously offered to give one of you the chance to try one of their popcorn samplers for yourself! To enter, all you have to do is go visit 479 Popcorn's website and check out the samplers they offer. Then come back here and leave me a comment letting me know which sampler you want to try. 

Please make sure to include your e-mail address so I can easily find you if you're the winner. For a second entry, like 479 Popcorn on Facebook and leave me a second comment. For a third entry, follow 479 Popcorn on Twitter and leave me a third comment. Entries will be accepted until 1159 p.m. on August 4th, and the winner will be announced on August 5th. Good luck!!

6 comments:

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  4. The Sweet Tooth would be my pick...can't deny I love sweets.
    What a great giveaway and congratulations on your 1 year anniversary.

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  5. I "like" 479 popcorn on Facebook (as Rachel Keefe Jacobs)

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  6. I am following 479 Popcorn on Twitter @rachelkyle0402

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