"Yes, this was a real snack in the '90s. So, if you have a birth year that starts with a 19, you just might remember it. Like so many other treats from the decade (some beloved, some questionable), Pop Qwiz quietly disappeared from shelves not long after its release - left behind in the era of tie dye, Tamagotchis, and VHS tapes."
"Its failure is mentioned in an episode of "The Food That Built America" called "Pop Stars." Pop Qwiz was presented as a strategic play by Pop Secret to get ahead of its competitor, Orville Redenbacher. According to the show, Pop Secret may have undone much of its early microwave popcorn success with this colorful gamble. While a specific reason for its downfall was not given,"
"Before its exit, Pop Qwiz was a burst of early '90s creativity. The General Mills brand Pop Secret popped the colorful product onto shelves in 1991. The idea was to create a popcorn in fluorescent shades of green, orange, purple, red, blue, and yellow. But the kicker was that the color remained a mystery until the moment the popped kernels came tumbling out of the bag in all their painted glory."
Pop Qwiz launched in 1991 from Pop Secret (General Mills) as fluorescent-colored microwave popcorn whose popped kernels revealed bright, unpredictable colors while retaining normal popcorn taste. The product offered green, orange, purple, red, blue and yellow kernels and relied on novelty to attract buyers. Consumers reported problems such as kernels burning easily, excessive mess from colored coating, and concerns about food coloring. The product appears to have been a strategic attempt to compete with Orville Redenbacher, but sales did not sustain and Pop Qwiz was pulled from shelves by 1993.
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