Day 9 - Popcorn Maven

Have you ever thought of opening a shop filled with your favorite snack food and offering the best quality of that snack to your community? Well that’s what Teresa Gawrys has done with popcorn. Her and her husband opened up “Popcorn Maven” about three months ago in the Santa Fe Arcade building right off the Plaza. Teresa shares how they came to open a gourmet popcorn shop.

“While I was out and about the country working from east coast to west coast and north to south, I had some time (I focused on gathering information for about 2 years) to search out popcorn stores. During this time, I learned a lot about what is offered. Made some great business connections that were willing to share their trials, tribulations and successes of starting a popcorn store.” Sharing the news with her husband, he consistently suggested they open a shop in Santa Fe. So in April 2015, they registered Popcorn Maven, LLC. Within a few more months, manufacturing began on their specialty popcorn machine and, in October, they officially opened their doors.

Once it pop's it's time to eat.

I recently visited the Popcorn Maven as people flocked into the shop to get bags and buckets filled with their gourmet popcorn before heading out to a movie or strolling down the Plaza. Amongst their flavors, they offer red and green chile kettle popcorn, as well as a green chile cheddar popcorn. I was on popcorn cloud 9! So I picked up some extra popcorn for a movie I was seeing later that night. Three of us devoured the bag I bought of green cheddar popcorn in less than four minutes…with no regrets.

Teresa explains their popcorn process, “We strive for great taste made possible by healthy options. We also wanted to reintroduce several different varieties of popcorn that have great inherent flavor. We have done that by carefully selecting the six different varieties offered in the shop: blue, red, medium white hulls, big yellow, midnight blue and purple. From there, we knew we needed to appeal to what is familiar but still staying health focused. So we sought out the most wholesome ingredients we could for the “crowd pleasers.” We offer - 100% white cheddar whey, for example.” To be honest, I had never had any type of popcorn other than the traditional yellow corn. I was thrilled to discover the red, blue corn and other types of yellow DO have different flavors from one another.  

Teresa continues, “The other factor we focused on not only in our flavor development but also everything in the store is that we are in Santa Fe and offer what is unique to the area and culture. Thus, we have some green and red chile popcorn options as well as a seasonal biscochito flavor for the holidays. Regarding our recipes, we really pay attention to what our ingredients have to offer and how they will or will not work with popcorn. We care about offering different flavors as long as the popcorn’s inherent flavor and properties compliment the other ingredients in our flavored recipes.”

Who doesn't love samples!?

I have to say green chile white cheddar popcorn and the red chile kettle corn is a perfect blending of “Santa Fe” flavors. For the #ChileChicaGiveaway we will be giving away a large bag of their red and green chile kettle corn!

To be eligible to win the #ChileChicaGiveaway - one item from each of the 12 Days of New Mexico Christmas (valued at over $200!) - you will need to do to the following:

1.       Repost any of the "12 Days" as they are posted now through December 23rd on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram - feel free to repost older days you have already read as well!

2.       Include the hashtag #ChileChicaGiveaway on all your reposts!

3.       Follow New Mexico Chiles; History, Legend and Lore on Facebook.

4.       Follow The Chile Film on Facebook.

Post everyday for your best chance to win. Each post will count as an additional entry; limit one per day per social media platform. We will announce the winner on Christmas Eve, and remember to have your privacy settings public so we can see your posts!