Iowa popcorn maker shares kernels of buttery wisdom

SIOUX CITY — It's been one year since Steve Huisenga took the helm at the American Pop Corn Co., best known for its Jolly Time product line.

In that time, an entire year's worth of popcorn kernels — billions and billions of them, he says — have passed from cob in the field to hopper to the Jolly Time plant with its cutesy street address (1 Fun Place), and thence packaged and sent to grocery store shelves and movie theaters.

Huisenga, 58, was the first person not named Smith to lead the Iowa firm when he took over day-to-day operations in January 2024 after the retirement of Garry Smith and cousin Carlton, great-grandsons of Cloid H. Smith, who founded the company in 1914.

The Journal spoke with Huisenga by phone and email. Answers have been edited.

Q: How many tons of popcorn does Jolly Time handle in a year?

A: "It depends on the year, with a crop that can range from 10,000 and 20,000 acres which results over a 150 billion popcorn kernels annually. I have to admit I’ve never counted them all."

(In terms of actual tonnage, he said the company handles about 30,000 to 50,000 tons of popcorn per year.)

Q: Is there a quality control process for the popcorn itself? A process that identifies faulty kernels and separates them from the good ones?

A: "We have an extensive quality control system that begins by working with our family of farmers on hybrid selection and other quality measures and continues when the raw kernels are delivered to our facility. First, you need to understand what makes popcorn pop. Popcorn kernels have a hard outer shell called a pericarp. The pericarp is a moisture barrier which protects the popcorn kernel from losing its internal moisture content. When a popcorn kernel is heated, the internal moisture turns to steam, can’t escape, and eventually explodes turning the kernel inside out.

“Popcorn pops best with an internal moisture level of 13.5 — 14.5 percent. Popcorn is ideally harvested at 15 percent. Our first job is to allow the popcorn to naturally reach the desired 13.5 to 14.5 percent moisture level. This is done with a sophisticated grain drying system that closely monitors the moisture levels of all kernels. Once the popcorn naturally reaches 13.5 — 14.5 percent, it is sorted in three ways.

“First the kernels are sorted by size with a goal of saving the middle kernels on the ear. The tip and butt end kernels are sold for chicken feed. Next the kernels are sorted by density. A kernel can be the right size but have a cracked pericarp, which would allow moisture to escape and result in an unpopped kernel. We want to sort those kernels out. Lastly, the popcorn kernels are all color sorted to eliminate any discolored kernels."

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Q: What's the difference between white and yellow popcorn? Is it just an aesthetic difference? Do end users, like movie theaters, prefer one over the other?

A: "There is quite a bit of a difference between yellow and white popcorn. While nutritionally they are basically the same, white and yellow differ in size, flavor and appearance. White popcorn features smaller kernels that pop into delicate, tender flakes with a subtle ‘corny’ taste. Yellow popcorn pops up larger and produces fluffier flakes and a slightly ‘nuttier’ taste.

“The white kernel really does pop a very snowy, flaky white. And the yellow popcorn pops distinctly yellow. I mean, they look a lot different when they're popped.

“Historically, theaters have preferred yellow popcorn. They pop a little bit bigger. The white kernels — the economics have caught up a little bit, but that's still not as big a popping flake, which is what the movie theaters want. Every once in a while you'll find a theater using white popcorn, but it's not — it wouldn't be normal.

“White popcorn consumers are very loyal. We call them the connoisseurs. They're very loyal to white popcorn, because it is a little bit different experience."

Q: Where does your popcorn come from? Do local farmers grow your popcorn?

A: "Jolly Time’s popcorn is grown near Sioux City in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. The soil in this area is ideal for popcorn. The largest percentage or our crop is grown in Nebraska. Nebraska sits on a body of water known as the Ogallala aquifer allowing our farmers to readily access water for irrigation when needed.

“We also have a cleaning and storage facility in Schaller, Iowa, and grow quite a bit in that area. And a shoutout to our family of growers who are such an important part of our brand and quality. We’ve worked many of them for generations and even highlight some of them on our packaging.

“You can draw kind of a 100-mile oval around Sioux City, out in Nebraska, and out past Schaller on Highway 20, you're going to get a lot of it. We grow a little bit down by Missouri Valley. We do grow some up in South Dakota.

“There's a place up in South Dakota called Lower Brule, where we grow a fair amount. And even though it's further north, there's so much Missouri River water around this area that, geographically, it behaves like it's further south, so you don't have to worry about the early frost."

Q: What's the history of the Jolly Time brand name?

A: "We're a 110-year-old, family-held, fourth- and fifth-generation business. The first crop of Jolly Time popcorn was grown over by Odebolt. And Cloid Smith, the first-generation founder, trailered or wagoned his popcorn into Sioux City to sell it to a local vendor. At the time, popcorn was sold like on street corners, by vendors.

“There was a disagreement over the price, and the vendor challenged Cloid to find a different market for his popcorn. So the family brought all the popcorn to the basement of their house in Sioux City that year. The second year they moved to their garage. The third year they moved to the plant where we're at right now, or the site we're on right now.

“In the beginning there was more than one brand name. We actually owned Jiffy — even though Conagra owns that now — and Lightning, and there were a few others. And in 1925 the family decided to focus on Jolly Time.

“We were among the first nationally marketed popcorn brands. The story was that there was an advertising person, I don't remember his name, that was talking to the founders, and they were talking about what a happy product it is — movies, and bringing families together and all those kinds of things — and that's how they picked Jolly Time."

Q: How does Jolly Time develop new products and new flavors? How much time is there between a new idea being hatched in popcorn research-and-development and a new product actually hitting store shelves?

A: "It can be packaging, it can be flavors, it can be unique ways to grow — it's not just flavors, but a lot of what we do is microwave popcorn. So we've got an R&D team here, we've actually got two food scientists on staff, sales and marketing both get involved in that, our field department gets involved in that from the corn side. We sit down and we get ideas from all over. Sometimes it's from a customer or a consumer. Sometimes it's from food trends that we see, things that might be kind of hot right now as a flavor, or trendy. And then we decide, can we make a popcorn item out of that? What would it taste like in popcorn?

“We've really got to do a lot of work to make sure that if we call something 'Extra Butter' or 'Jalapeno Butter,' that it really tastes good, and tastes like that, right? So there's lots of iterations and lots of back-and-forth. It's a solid year to 18 months between when we start talking about something and when it might be in a package on the shelf."