Soft percussion and a toasty scent mark the almost magical process of popcorn-making, which is derived from a tall grass called teosinte, which Indigenous people in what is now southern Mexico began selectively breeding about 9,000 years ago. An ear of teosinte originally yielded somewhere between 5 and 12 small kernels, each with a hard shell called a pericarp. When heated, the moisture inside the pericarp becomes steam, the pressure of which overcomes the pericarp’s resistance and bursts, forming a foam that quickly cools and dries in the air.
European colonizers, who arrived in the late 1400s, eventually began cultivating and popping corn. The invention of “wire over the fire” baskets around 1837 made the process easier, and popcorn picked up steam with a reputation as a low-cost, entertaining snack. At the 1893 World’s Fair, an inventor showcased the first popcorn machine, and vendors began roving US city streets with similar machines.
Movie theaters, however, were some of the only American venues where you wouldn’t find popcorn at the time. But when the Great Depression hit in 1929, movies provided the public with a welcome distraction, and popcorn proved an inexpensive luxury for moviegoers. Today, popcorn sales generate nearly 40% of all movie theater profits.
With the introduction of microwavable popcorn in the 1980s, popcorn’s popularity increased even more. Now, dozens of kinds of popcorn are grown in the US, and they’ve been bred for supreme poppability—the amount that popcorn expands has doubled, with kernels now able to reach up to 50 times their original size upon popping. We are grateful to Marriott Hotels for their support in making this video possible. With more than 590 hotels and resorts around the world, Marriott Hotels celebrates the curiosity that drives us to explore. Discover some of the exciting ways TED-Ed and Marriott have partnered together and start planning your next adventure at Marriott Hotels.