We use an air popper to make popcorn at home, and there's some water loss in popping, but I would bet it would have quickly led to Burnt Popcorn. The flakes (the puffs are apparently called flakes, unless Wikipedia is pulling my leg) were smaller and denser than usual, and had a very high percentage of mushroom shapes, rather than butterfly. I suspect these are signs of reduced popping force. The surface on the mushrooms mostly had a fine-grained texture of light brown, rather than butterfly. I suspect these are signs of reduced popping force. The surface on the mushrooms mostly had a fine-grained texture of light brown, rather than butterfly. I suspect these are signs of reduced popping force. The surface on the mushrooms mostly had a fine-grained texture of light brown, rather than the larger speckles I'm going to bother exploring, though.