Posted by Michael Stern on July 09, 2006
The management of Garrett Popcorn Shop insists that the product it makes is NOT caramel corn. It is CaramelCrisp, a trademarked name for a foodstuff that, to us, looks a lot like caramel corn. Whatever. We have no desire to argue with the place that makes our all-time favorite caramel-coated, popcorn-based snack. Whatever you call it, CaramelCrisp is simply sensational.
Generally speaking, candy-coated popcorn is a trivial junk food. CaramelCrisp is serious and soulful, its taste and texture dramatically more important than any other kind of candied corn. In fact, it doesn’t really taste candied at all. The popcorn itself is a tender, earthy note within its caramel sheath, which is deeply buttery and has a dark flavor that teeters at the edge of tasting burnt. Like the singed crust atop a well-made crème brulee, the corn’s coat smacks of fire more than sugar.
Also on the menu in this little Michigan Avenue Snack Shop (one of five Garrett's about town) is rich cheese corn and unbelievably, extremely buttered corn. Some connoisseurs call for “a mix,” which is equal thirds of each kind of popcorn, and there are others who combine CaramelCrisp with cheese corn for a sweet/savory one-two punch. But we are CaramelCrisp purists. We buy a pound bag and eat it greedily until hunger is only a memory. Even then, sated appetite’s cease-and-desist message has no effect on tastebuds, which crave more, more, and more of this amazing stuff until the world’s supply is gone.
Garrett mail-orders all its products (call 888-4-POPCORN), but it’s special fun to stop in the store, where as you wait in line to place your order, you watch the corn being popped, the butter being poured, and the CaramelCrisp stirred so it sticks together just a little bit but does not clump.
Overall: Worth driving from anyplace
16 out of 16 people found the review helpful. Was it helpful to you?
Reviewers "Must Eats" List
CaramelCrisp
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"Garrett's CaramelCrisp is one of America's great snack foods."
Bruce Bilmes and Sue Boyle
"This is VERY cheesy corn. Many people get this mixed with CaramelCrisp. Hard for us to imagine that combination works, but people seem to love it."
Bruce Bilmes and Sue Boyle
"A view of a Garrett's corn popper."
Bruce Bilmes and Sue Boyle
"Mix, also known as a Chicago Mix means a shook-up combination of caramel corn and cheese corn. The sweetness of the caramel corn and the savory luxury of the cheese corn are a devastating combination. No snack we know is more impossible to stop eating."
Michael Stern
"Note the bin of freshly-made caramel corn in the window. It is scooped into bags still hot. This is one of Chicago's -- and America's -- great snack foods. A recent remodeling has helped keep the usually long lines inside the shop, rather than snaking way out onto Michigan Avenue."
Michael Stern
