The Cornivore Popcorn Company – Albuquerque, New Mexico
“Popcorn for breakfast! Why not? It’s a grain. It’s like grits, but with high self-esteem.” ~James Patterson The planet’s very first known popcorn aficionados may have expressed the sentiment “to the batcave” long before Batman, the Caped Crusader uttered the words to Robin, the Boy Wonder. After long days of hunting and gathering, foraging and fishing, our primitive progenitors–nearly six-thousand years before the advent of Netflix–would adjourn to a cave to enjoy popcorn (which, ostensibly, was delicious even without butter, caramel and Cheddar). Contrary to popular opinion, the world’s oldest popcorn did not come from the same movie theater which also houses the world’s oldest hotdog, a perpetually rotating hot dog seared to a leathery sheen under a heat lamp. The oldest known popcorn to date was actually discovered in a dry cave in West Central New Mexico. Dubbed the “bat cave,” it yielded several individually popped kernels as well as a trove of unpopped corn. These kernels were carbon-dated and shown to be approximately 5,600 years old. During his ransacking of Mexico, Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes was among the first Europeans to glimpse popcorn. In addition to enjoying it as a snack, Aztecs used popcorn to decorate ceremonial headdresses,…