Picture this: It’s 9 p.m. and “Madame Secretary” is playing on your computer as you snuggle comfortably under the blanket ready to enjoy a relaxing evening, when a sudden stomach grumble pushes you to get some food. Not wanting to have the same old popcorn again like you do every movie night, you try to spice it up — by adding lemon juice. 

Turns out, adding a sour note to your snack is just what you need.

I first came across the idea of lemon popcorn on TikTok. Intrigued, I immediately went to try it. It turned out to be a shockingly smashing success, as the lemon elevated the popcorn to a crunchy and sour bite. 

To make this delicious treat, warm up a bag of popcorn for the allocated time on the bag (or 2 minutes and 9 seconds according to the popcorn button on my microwave) and put it in a bowl. Then, wash a lemon thoroughly and take a grater with small notches to grate part of the peel into a separate bowl. It’s vital this lemon zest is dry, so make sure you don’t accidentally grate the fruit flesh inside of the lemon and make the popcorn soggy.

Finally, add the dry lemon flakes to your popcorn and mix it up for the perfect snack! Another way to take the lemon flavor to a higher level is to take a bowl of popcorn and dip the pieces of popcorn into lemon juice and eat them. This takes less time and ensures there is no concern for the popcorn going soggy.  

To all the skeptics of this flavorful popcorn flavor, give it a go. We have caramel, cheese and even Oreo popcorn. Why not add lemon to the mix?