Popcorn Shed 2019 Advent Calendar Review

Reviewed by Louise Totton

I haven’t had an advent calendar for years! I spend ages trying to find the perfect one for the kids, but somehow never seem to manage to get one for me! I’m not a massive fan of chocolate – or rather, if I’m having chocolate, it has to be really nice chocolate, so the standard advent calendars in the shops have never quite appealed to me. There are lots of other, non-chocolatey options too, but I’m not into makeup, candles or gin and I’m a bit too old for LEGO, and when you add the fact that I need to follow a strict gluten free diet, I really am short on options. Until now!

The Popcorn Shed sent me their gourmet popcorn advent calendar to try out recently, and what a treat it has been! Just like most other advent calendars, there a little treat hidden behind 24 numbered doors in the form of a tiny bag of popcorn. But these are no standard bags of popcorn; there’s far more to this calendar than just salted or sweet popcorn. The calendar contains six different flavours and includes both sweet and savoury options. There is obviously a degree of repetition given as there are six flavours and each one repeats four times. This is no bad thing, as when you find a flavour that you particularly love, you then have the anticipation of waiting for that flavour to reappear. The flavours included are:

• Salted Caramel (winner of the Great Taste Award 2016)
• Butterly Nuts
• Say Cheese (winner of the Great Taste Award 2017)
• Pop ‘N’ Choc
• Berry-licious (winner of the Great Taste Award 2017)
• Pecan Pie

All of these flavours were absolutely delicious, and I thought it was really nice having a savoury option in there too. My favourites were the Butterly Nuts (a gorgeous peanut / caramel combo with real peanut pieces) and Berry-licious, which is a fabulous chocolate coated popcorn with a tasty raspberry bite. The bags aren’t massive by any stretch of the imagination, but they’re enough for a lovely treat on a cold December morning.

I loved this advent calendar; it is so much more grown up than any of the chocolatey options that I had seen, and the taste is just divine. They are definitely a more sophisticated option than a chocolate calendar and is very much geared towards an adult’s taste buds. Having said that, my kids did enjoy helping me try it out! The fact that this is a gluten-free calendar is also fantastic, and it’s great to see mainstream ‘free-from’ products that don’t compromise on taste in any way.

I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this calendar to anyone who is looking for something a little bit different his Christmas. It looks fabulous, the product inside is delicious and it really is something to look forward to every morning. It’s competitively priced too, at £17.50 is less expensive than lots of the adult gourmet calendars that are available this year.

Rating: 5/5  

RRP: £17.50

For more information or to buy visit popcornshed.com.