After picking out one too many unpopped kernels from those microwave popcorn bags lately, I certainly felt like looking up the electric hot air popcorn machines like this Presto Orville Redenbacher Popper. We used to have a similar one at home long ago but I don’t know what happened to it. There are obvious health benefits of air popping versus oil popped or microwaved corn, and many people who bought this machine seem to really like it (some had the same machine for 15 years!) The machine just uses heat to pop the kernels of corn which are poured into the top. The top has a little measuring cup where you can melt butter - obviously you don’t pour the butter into the machine, but this is good because cleanup is much easier. You just wash the cup, the machine itself does not have to be cleaned. It’s nice to be able to control how much butter and flavoring you put on the popcorn.

The machine is quite fast - popping a batch (or about 16-18 cups) of corn in less than 3 minutes using nothing but hot air. I heard that sometimes in the beginnning you may get a few unpopped kernels coming out, but as the machine heats up they stop. This is probably a good gift for a college student…