Review on 🍿 Epoca Inc. EKPCM-0025 Ecolution Micro-Pop Popper, Glass Microwave Popcorn Maker with Versatile Lid, 3 Quart by Jessica Moodley

Update May 2016: The thin glass on this popcorn maker is very fragile. I broke mine after cleaning it and putting it on the counter. It wasn't a fall - I just lowered it so that the rounded part on the underside touches before it touches the flat surface. But I still like it and will buy another one. The glass jar popper works well, but results will vary for each user and batch of corn. At first I was very disappointed when only 10% of the cores showed up. But some web research and trial and error experiments have enabled me to get good results (i.e. 95% of the results) almost every time. Here are some tips based on my experiments with Orville Red Popcorn and a 2015 GE 1200W1 microwave. Use good popcorn. "Good" means fresh and "not dry". I had stale corn that didn't pop at all. I saved it somewhat by putting water drops in the corn rehydration tank overnight, but the results weren't very good. I even tried soaking the cores - it didn't work in my tests. If the corn doesn't pop, feed it to the pigs. 2 - Warm up the popper for 90 seconds. The heated popper improved my pop percentage 3 - Gather the corn in one spot on the outside edge of the popper. Scattering it around or folding it in half didn't produce the best results. The concentrated mass near the outer glass should help accumulate and store the heat energy from the microwaves. 4 - Do not oil the corn - let it dry. I was expecting a light (or heavy) layer of oil to increase the heat, like in a stovetop popper, but the oil made things worse. The outer layer of oil did warm, but prevented the water inside the core from heating fast enough to produce cotton. 5 - Position the corn popper on the OUTER edge of the turntable; Placing the popper in the center of the rotating shelf gave the worst result. I removed the turntable from my microwave and tested the corners and sides with identical small bowls of water to see where the best seating was. All bowls cooked almost simultaneously. But the shell in the middle was much slower to store thermal energy. So harvest your corn as far from the center as possible. You may not like all of these tips, but they played a big part in my testing. However, the preheating step, cooking step, and cleaning process aren't as quick and easy as popping a bag of cooked popcorn into the microwave in the machine and pressing "popcorn." This always works well for me and gives me more corn in one go. Good luck with the popcorn and don't give up if you don't get it right the first time.