Brian Taylor can thank his tired taste buds for his expanding popcorn-seasonings empire.
As a student at the University of Michigan, the Chicago-area native was bored of snacking on butter-and-salt-flavored popcorn every night, so he copied down the ingredients in his favorite potato chip flavors and took a trip to the store to buy spices and cheese powders.
According to Entrepreneur.com, through trial and error, he came up with a hits-list of popcorn flavors. Word spread, and soon dozens of dorm-dwellers were knocking on his door asking for shakers of his barbecue or Parmesan blends.
“My friends laugh when we remember the first time we packed up seasonings in my room,” he says. “We used to fill 100 bottles by hand. We’ve grown a lot since then.”
Today, Taylor’s Kernel Seasons low-calorie, no-fat popcorn seasonings are available in 70 percent of U.S. movie theaters and are sold in more than 30,000 supermarkets, including every Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target and Blockbuster Video.
Photo by Entrepreneur.com.