the dish

This New BjornQorn Popcorn Will Bedazzle the Snack Snobs at Your Oscar Party

When you rely on sunlight to pop your corn, a cloudy day can wreak havoc. Or so discovered Bjorn Quenemoen and Jamie O’Shea, the founders of BjornQorn, the Kerhonkson, New York–based cult brand known as much for being cooked in jury-rigged, Mylar-lined solar dishes as for its tangy nutritional-yeast seasoning. Passing clouds meant a longer cooking time, which yielded smaller, crisper popcorn with a roastier flavor profile — reject kernels the pair saved for themselves and eventually began to crave. So much so, in fact, that when they expanded production and switched to photovoltaic roof panels to power electric kettles, they simulated cloudy conditions by using control circuits to intentionally interrupt the cooking cycle. Hence Cloudy Qorn, the company’s second, meteorologically inspired flavor, arriving at local stores on February 22, just in time for critical awards-show-snacking purposes.

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On the shelf at R&D Foods; $5; 602 Vanderbilt Ave., nr. St. Marks Ave., Prospect Heights; 347-915-1196.

*This article appears in the February 18, 2019, issue of New York Magazine. Subscribe Now!

This Popcorn Will Bedazzle Snack Snobs at Your Oscar Party