6 Orville Redenbacher's Popcorn Seasonings, Ranked

Orville Redenbacher has been perfecting the popcorn kernel since 1944 when he first began researching the qualities that could produce the ideal ratio of fluffiness to maximum pop-ability. By 1965, the trademark hybrid had been achieved, and he never looked back. Today, the brand is one of the top-selling microwave popcorn options in the U.S.

Though it would seem impossible to improve upon being practically perfect, Orville Redenbacher's has decided to expand its legendary catalog of products with a new line of seasonings in six exciting flavors designed to shake up your popcorn and titillate your taste buds. The seasonings include Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll, Buffalo Wild Wings Buffalo Sauce, White Cheddar, Nacho Cheese, Movie Theater Butter, and Ranch.

We had the opportunity to taste test these new seasonings on our popcorn of choice, Orville Redenbacher's SmartPop! Butter. To be fully upfront, we love popcorn and eat it frequently. With that, we generally never get ours with butter or put anything on it, so this was a unique experience for us. Our criteria for ranking these seasonings from least to most favorite were based on how well the flavor was executed, how well it coated the popcorn, its aroma, and ultimately whether or not we enjoyed it.

We had high hopes for this flavor. We love Cinnabon Cinnamon rolls, and we've had some good experiences with other food brands that have miraculously succeeded in capturing the warmth and gooey yumminess of these sweet treats. Unfortunately, this particular execution was not one of those. It began well in terms of aroma, which did capture the idea of cinnamon, brown sugar, and icing. 

The first issue was that the seasoning was sticky and hard to shake out of the container. Once we got it onto our popcorn, the powder didn't stick — something we would critique about all the flavors. It requires copious quantities of seasoning to coat the popcorn; the second you shake the kernels, the powder falls off. It also coats your fingers like the cheese on Cheetos do. This could be a pro or a con depending on the flavor.

Where this flavor was most unsuccessful was its cloying sweetness and the synthetic cinnamon flavor, which is perplexing because the container states that it is made with real Makara cinnamon. The aftertaste was virtually identical to that of a Red Hots candy, rather than the more delicate cinnamon you taste after eating a Cinnabon cinnamon roll. And it almost had a spiciness that muted any lingering sweetness, slightly permeating your nostrils, burning them. For these reasons, this was our least successful flavor.

We may be the outliers in the world because ranch dressing is not our favorite salad coating, nor do we order it as a condiment for every vegetable or protein on the planet. We do recognize that we are in the minority and that a majority of folks love ranch dressing with everything. For this reason, our ranking of this flavor had less to do with whether or not the seasoning achieved its goal of tasting like ranch dressing and more to do with other factors.

At first sniff, this does have the notion of ranch dressing. This seasoning was a bit cakey and challenging to pour out of the container. And, like the other flavors, it didn't coat the popcorn particularly well, although it was perhaps a bit more adhesive. When you first take a bite of this seasoning, it does taste like ranch dressing but is exceedingly salty and has a strong celery seed flavor. So much so that it overwhelmed the popcorn, and you could no longer taste the kernels.

Additionally, this flavor contains monosodium glutamate (MSG) on its ingredients list, though it is gluten-free. MSG is typically added as a flavor enhancer, conferring a hint of umami and saltiness. Though it is generally recognized as safe, Healthline suggests that a fraction of individuals may be sensitive to it. With that, the amounts included in this seasoning are negligible.

As far as the execution of seasonings is concerned, the Buffalo Wild Wings Buffalo Sauce succeeded in capturing the essence of buffalo sauce. It succeeded so well that we almost couldn't eat this one. The spice is spot on, but if you are sensitive to too much heat, this may be too spicy to tolerate.

The aroma was redolent of an order of buffalo wings, with cayenne pepper permeating your nostrils. Don't sniff too aggressively, or you may sneeze from the peppery fumes. The texture of this seasoning was good. It was not overly cakey, easy to pour, and coated the popcorn more efficiently than other seasoning flavors. Though the aroma and taste of this variety had similarities to the nacho flavor, its unique heat set it apart.

This seasoning also contains MSG as part of the ingredients but in small quantities, though it too is gluten-free. If you enjoy spicy foods and buffalo sauce, this seasoning variety is for you. For our palates, it was just a bit too hot and overwhelmed the popcorn and our taste buds too much to be able to enjoy it.

The Movie Theater Butter flavored seasoning was also well executed. It was the mildest of all the flavors, accentuating the popcorn rather than overwhelming it. We would suggest, however, that if you want butter flavor, eating the classic Movie Theater Butter, Butter, or Ultimate Butter flavors of Orville Redenbacher's would work just as well, albeit with more calories.

One feature of these seasonings we appreciate is that they have 0 calories per serving. This is presumably because a little goes a long way. Like some other flavors, some of the saltiness and earthiness of butter are conferred by minimal quantities of MSG in this variety. This flavor is also labeled as gluten-free.

The aroma of this variety is mild, as is the flavor. It has the idea of butter but tastes more like cheese. Either way, it is pleasant enough and does not detract from the popcorn. It is also one of the more cakey seasonings, clinging together, making it hard to sprinkle out of the container. Once it did top the popcorn, it didn't stick very well. You could almost dip the popcorn kernels into the butter-flavored dust to get the right balance of flavor for your unique taste buds.

Among our favorite of these seasoning flavors was the Nacho Cheese. Again, it quite successfully achieved its goal of emulating nacho flavor. The aroma was distinctly cheesy with just a hint of spice. Its flavor was reminiscent of Doritos, although perhaps a bit more nuanced.

While we tasted similarities between this and the Buffalo Wild Wings Buffalo Sauce seasoning, this was far less aggressively spicy. It also was not too salty, which helped to enhance the popcorn rather than hide it. 

This variety also wasn't overly cakey and easy to shake out of the container. From the perspective of adhering to the popcorn, it similarly sank to the bottom of the bag or bowl, but we didn't mind. Licking the cheesy flavor off of our fingers was not at all unpleasant.

This flavor also contains minimal amounts of MSG. While we still prefer our popcorn au natural, we will savor this seasoning as an occasional treat. It gets an enthusiastic recommendation from us.

Our favorite of Orville Redenbacher's seasonings was the White Cheddar. This was the most natural tasting of the bunch, having notes of real cheese in aroma and flavor. It also was not overly salty and did not taste synthetic. It had a nice texture that was easy to shake onto the popcorn and was more powdery, making it adhere to the kernels better.

From what we could ascertain, there was no MSG in this seasoning. It also had fewer ingredients than the other five seasonings. Most of the flavor seems to be from whey protein, dehydrated cheddar cheese, and natural flavors.

This flavor nicely balanced the inherent taste of popcorn with just a hint of salty cheesiness without cloaking it. Again, we plan to keep this on hand for a special treat when craving something more exciting on a movie night. This gets a resounding A+ ranking, and we enthusiastically recommend it.