I recently got into the kettle corn biz because I love the stuff so much. Here's some tips that I would suggest if you're doing at home. There's a difference between using corn oil and vegetable/canola oil Corn oil somehow gives the kettle corn a little more "corny" taste. Before I bought a giant hot kettle to make the stuff, I tried doing it on a stove. It wasn't the same as the festival stuff, just OK. The reason is you need a VERY HOT heat source to BROWN the white sugar. Just using brown sugar gives it a different taste. What I would suggest if you DO try to attempt it at home is melt and brown the white sugar somehow before you put it in a popper.