From buttery to tart to sweet to nut-filled, Karen's Gourmet Popcorn is a treat for the mouth and makes a great gift.
Owner Karen Berndt said she loves popcorn and made flavored popcorn for her daughter's birthday party a couple of years ago.
"People started saying I should sell it," she said, and after a year of pressure from friends and her husband getting laid off from his job, she decided to go into business.
"I'm obsessed with popcorn and with spreading popcorn happiness," Berndt said.
"My daughter had the idea to make Pineapple Popcorn. I didn't think I would like it, but it is AMAZING!
"If you've ever had a pineapple whip, it reminded me of that. I'm excited to make more of it," Berndt wrote on her Facebook page, Karen's Gourmet Popcorn Creations.
Flavors include buttery theater popcorn, savory flavors like parmesan garlic, cheese, Ranch, and sweet flavors like caramel apple, chocolate walnut pumpkin spice, Andes mint, pumpkin spice, cinnamon caramel apple and deluxe caramel and one called Stop Sealing Your Children's Halloween Candy that is loaded with Kit Kat and Whopper pieces with chocolate drizzle. There is Razorback raspberry, pink lemonade and blue raspberry.
"I love the Andes popcorn!" Lisa Jescheling wrote. "Super delicious!"
"I want a refund," Tim Costello, manager of Pea Ridge Walmart Neighborhood Market, wrote to Berndt. "I got to the bottom of the bag and there was none left."
One of her most popular flavors, baked caramel took about five experiments until she arrived at the flavor she desired. With that, she made her own caramel.
The peppermint bark is especially popular during the holiday season.
Berndt said she hopes to make pecan pie flavored popcorn for the holidays and possibly eggnog, gingerbread and peppermint for Christmas.
One of the more expensive varieties -- Samoa popcorn -- includes a chocolate base, samoa cookies, toasted coconut, caramel drizzle and a chocolate drizzle. Because of the ingredients and extensive labor, the cost was a bit higher than the regular flavors.
Popcorn sells from $2 or $3 for a small bag, $4, $6, or $8 for a medium bag and $6, 9 or $12 for large bags. Cakes start at $20.
She made strawberry cream and cheesecake with gold sixlets for a little girl's birthday party.
"I do custom orders, like if people want it for a present what their favorite flavor is -- usually from a favorite candy bar," Berndt said. Other special events include baby showers (when she incorporates gender-appropriate colors), baptism (which was white with white drizzle) and even a cancer party celebration which was red with little black sixlets. She's made Barbie popcorn, princess popcorn (pink with white pearls), ballet popcorn and shopkins popcorn. One fun batch was mad scientist incorporating pop rocks.
"It's going well. It took off really fast then kind of slowed down during the summer. It's picking up speed again," she said this fall.
Berndt makes one batch at a time on the stove top with oil. "The microwave popcorn is no good," she said. She buys her popcorn in bulk, in 50-pound bags. The popcorn creations are gluten free. For sugar fee, there is the theater popcorn.
Other creations have included a king cake for Mardi Gras and a monster popcorn cake for Halloween.
For favors for her daughter's wedding, Berndt made different flavors for the bride and groom and put it in small bags. She has done several weddings. That is a venture that requires her to enlist her entire family to help.
"I do recruit my whole family on that; then it can go really fast," she said, smiling. "I got to boss my dad around."
Karen and her husband David, live in Bentonville. They have four children, two of whom are grown.
Berndt can be contacted at 479-553-7421 or through her Facebook page, Karen's Gourmet Popcorn Creations.
Business on 11/30/2016