Popcorn Monkey

While searching for Waffles on a Sunday in Middleburg, I was lured to Popcorn Monkey by the smell of something really sweet. I soon found out it was nuts. I was happy to be there since my family loves popcorn. However after reading some reviews I may have had mixed feelings about checking it out. I am very happy I went in. The popcorn selection was wonderful. I clearly missed any sign that limited the amount of samples. I loved the white cheddar, and the salt and pepper. I noticed a Blue Cheese Popcorn that was not on the sample wall. I asked for a Sample. It was really wonderful. The owner was really helpful and friendly. I will visit this place again!

Middleburg is great, this place not so much.
As the other reviewer wrote. The proprietor is the most unfriendly individual attempting to sell ever. First problem, they have a sign on their samples that say no children please, adults only. Seriously, where do you think the majority of their sales would come from? Limit 2 samples, I tried 4 pieces of popcorn, and they have vats of popcorn everywhere. Compare to Olio or the chocalatier around the corner where they give you stuff to try, so you know which flavor you like. Not this place, $ 9.50 for a small popcorn and you have a staring frowning lady to contend with. Unless you are dying for popcorn skip this place and visit the other friendly places around the corner.

I’ll start by saying there’s quite a variety of flavored popcorn available at this funky basement shop that is off the beaten track in M-​burg. However, with such a large variety you’d think the proprietors would offer lots of samples to, you know, encourage people to buy multiple flavors. Not so. We were a group of 4 and we each represented a possible (probable) sale. However, the proprietor informed us that they have a «2 samples per group» limit. Wait… what?! You have more than 2 dozen flavors to offer and you’re going to tell customers they can only try 2 per group?! Wow, that is marketing 101 and you just blew it. And to top it off the samples are about the size of a shot glass and contain maybe 4 or 5 kernels. We discussed our 2-​sample choices for a few minutes the realized we’d never satisfy the varied taste buds of our group: one likes hot, another likes sweet, and yet another likes anything funky and different. While 1 person in our party opted to try a couple flavors, the rest of us were left to only imagine what the others tasted like so I, for one, walked out. Would it have killed them to offer a kernel or 2 of a few more flavors? It likely would have resulted in $ 15 – 25 more in sales. I had my wallet out ready to buy but I was completely turned off by their strict adherence to an arbitrary policy that essentially said, «we don’t want your business.» So they didn’t get it. If you decide to go here be sure to carefully plan your 2-​sample limit. Or just go somewhere that wants your business enough to give you a sample that essentially costs them a penny or 2. I only gave them an extra star for their variety but in reality their variety is worthless unless you can sample them all (or at least more than 2).

Awesome little cave of tasty treats!
My husband and I stopped here on a day out riding thru Middleburg. This shop is a short bit off the main drag thru town, so it does take a little looking for it.
We ended up buying a bag of confetti and dark chocolate and had to hide the bags from ourselves so we wouldn’t finish them on the way home.
Confetti is a mix of all the fruit flavors. The shop clerk described it as fruity pebbles and I was sold! The flavor is strong and a handful really does taste like the cereal!

This popcorn is awesome! My fiancé and I ordered samples of this popcorn to see if we wanted it for the popcorn bar at our wedding. Unfortunately, we ordered the samples just as a major snow storm hit Virginia. Although the owner had dropped the popcorn off at the post office, the delivery was halted because of the awful weather. When the popcorn arrived over a week late, it was no longer fresh. However, I can still give this place 5 stars because even the slightly stale popcorn tasted much better than the popcorn that I’ve had at other places!!! It was actually unbelievably good under the circumstances!
In addition, the owner of the store is amazing. He constantly communicated with us during the ordeal. He’s a class act.
I highly recommend this shop.

My husband and I found this while walking around Middleburg one day. And we are in love.
Today we called to see if they had a flavor we love, and he didn’t. But he popped us a large bag for when we got there.
There are many sweet and savory flavors and you can ask for samples, which is good. So many unique for popcorn flavors to choose from. (Cucumber is surprisingly awesome!)
A little far, a little on the expensive side for popcorn. But well worth it.
Just be careful if you are over 6’2. Duck.

Great small business, friendly owner and best of all… yummy popcorn with far out flavors!

This is the type of small business that you NEED to try! Great service and the popcorn and nuts are unreal! Highly recommend!

We discovered this store by accident. It’s not on the Main Street. What a huge variety of flavored popcorn! After tasting a few varieties, we bought the white cheddar popcorn, which I finished tonight. Subtle taste. It doesn’t hide the corn flavor. I’d recommend the store for a snack. The owner was very nice, helpful and enthusiastic about his products.

First time here, didn’t even know about it but we were out exploring Middleburg and walked past it so decided to drop in. Glad we did! Picked up some kernels to pop at home and also bought a bag to try of the dark chocolate sea salt popcorn which we proceeded to devour. Just the right amount of chocolate, salt and buttery toffee — yum! We went to a wine tasting after and sneaked it in to snack on with the wine. Agree with other posts that the owner was really into his store and was very helpful. Great place and will definitely go back again whenever we go to Middleburg!

Loved the Cornfetti and Dark Chocolate and Caramel. Wonderful owners, interesting shop. Great idea

This place was great– cute location, great popcorn and even better service. I’ve never met someone who loves his job and popcorn more than the owner — it was contagious. Delicious popcorn!!! Good luck with the shop!

Excellent choices of flavors and always excellent customer service.

Love popcorn and drove quite a distance just to try out this store that my friend told me about. Love the location, in the basement of an old hotel, which the owner claims Ben Franklin used to stay in. Log beams hang on the very low ceiling. One feels as if they have gone back in time 200 years as they descend the quaint stairs into this charming shop.
The store itself is very visually appealing; the owners did a great job. Super clean, well stocked, very inviting. They have a chalkboard on the wall of sweet popcorn flavors available, as well as savory. Sweet included kettle corn, caramel, and «Cornfetti», which is a colorful assortment of fruit-​flavored (read: sugar-​coated artificial coloring) popcorn. Have to say this was my favorite — loved the bright colors and it tasted quite good.
I sampled several varieties (they offered samples of «one or two» varieties, though I think they’d be fine if you asked for more than that. The woman owner seemed a little irritated at giving samples, though, and didn’t seem to want to be there, though her husband was having a great time interacting with customers and clearly loves his shop — terrific! :)
As for the popcorn, I sampled several and was disappointed by all of them, except the cornfetti. They were tasteless and/​or tasted bad. Even my kids didn’t like the caramel, and that’s their favorite popcorn of all.
A medium bag of popcorn is $ 14.95. Expensive! I bought a bag of kettle corn — thinking I’ve never met a bag of kettle corn I didn’t like — and a bag of cornfetti. The kettle corn had so little sugar and taste that I would’ve sworn it was plain popcorn had I not known better. Just the SLIGHTEST inkling of flavor. They also scraped the bottom of the barrel, literally, to fill up my bag, and it was borderline stale. Definately didn’t taste fresh. Just up the road, in Gilbert’s Corner, they were selling fresh kettle corn, made that morning, much cheaper. I should’ve waited.
The colorful (and artificial and bad for me) cornfetti was tasty, and it’s the only flavor I would consider buying again.
I give it 3 stars because the quaintness, the uniqueness, the cleanliness, and the passion of the male owner. Has great potential, but I admit I was disappointed with the popcorn today.