This Dirty Martini Popcorn Has All The Flavor, None Of The Booze

Popcorn has come a long way since the days when your only choices were sweet, salty, or buttered. There are a dizzying array of popcorn flavors available today, with many boldly (and sometimes bizarrely) going where no popcorn has been before. Yet even the modern popcorn aficionado might be surprised to find popcorn which has drawn its inspiration from the dirty martini.

Imbuing popcorn with a martini taste is not unprecedented; to mark the 2021 release of the James Bond movie "No Time to Die," gourmet popcorn manufacturers Joe & Seph's launched their since-discontinued 007 Dry Martini Popcorn, the caramel coating of which was flavored with gin, vodka and lemon. Dirty martini popcorn, by contrast, is a more savory innovation.

The classic cocktail gains its appellation from a splash of olive brine, which results in the dirty martini's distinctive cloudy appearance, and gives it a note of salty, savory complexity. Dirty martini popcorn provides a similar flavor profile, but in the form of a non-alcoholic snack.

To make dirty martini popcorn, melt some butter in a pan and whisk in your preferred amount of diced green olives and blue cheese, the latter of which brings a whole load of umami to the party (hence why one version of the dirty martini is served with blue cheese-stuffed olives). Once blue cheese has melted into the butter and all ingredients are combined, toss your popped popcorn in the sauce.

If you prefer a boozier version, a splash of vermouth can be added to the sauce, intensifying the martini taste. However, if you want to preserve that flavor but lessen the alcohol content, allow the vermouth to simmer in the pan with the other ingredients until the alcohol in it has mostly cooked off. Whether you take your popcorn shaken or stirred is entirely up to you.