I am glad you asked.
1) Contact us by e-mail: popper@casey-pop.com. We can work something out using Paypal and then add some shipping. Shipping is $9 for most addresses inside the US.
2) We are live on Amazon. We are fullfilling through Amazon so the Prime option is available to you, if desired.
We have tried many things, but the poppers have *always* been assembled in the US. In the early days the production facilities were outside of Denver. During this phase of the popper, all parts were source inside of the US. The bowl was actually hand spun in a smaller shop in Denver.
Later, the production facility moved to Holland Michigan. At this time we moved to a bowl that was source outside of the US. This brought down the price of the bowl considerably and we were pleased with the quality of the pressed bowl but inventory was difficult to come by. Our overseas supplier (with an on-shore office) was not responsive. Our "6-week" lead time on new bowls has moved into the "infinity" timeline. In the end, the bowl was the only supplier offshore, but everything is assembled in the US.
In late 2015 we moved to an onshore supplier using a spun aluminum bowl. This moves all of our suppliers back onshore. But it comes with some improvements and a cost. The quality of the new aluminum bowls is great, but the cost is higher than the offshore pressed bowls.
As of 2016, we are completely sourced and assembled in the USA. Yes, we are Made in America.
It depends, how much can you eat in one sitting? I am sure there are limits but it will pop a lot of corn at one time. From experience, I pop with more than a cup of corn seeds for 1 movie night: 2 adults and 2 kids. It is more a matter of technique. It is not unusual for the bowl to become full while popping. In fact, it was designed this way. As the corn pops to the top and pushes on the lid, simply (have a larger bowl next to the stove) lean the popper to the side and give it a little giggle. Several inches of popped corn will come out and you can continue to pop. In theory, you can pop for quite a while this way, so I don't think upper limit is well defined.
I know, in the instructions we say a 1/2 cup of corn for 1 bowl, 1 popper bowl of popcorn definitely won't cut it for my family. With a little practice, you can easily pop a lot of corn.
Maybe. To start with, we plan to sell only the traditional aluminum but we have toyed with the idea of different colors. For now, it is "traditional" aluminum color.
The aluminum finish is natural, or maybe it is better said, it is part of the production process. The look of the bowl is pretty basic. We have experimented with different types of bowls for some time and have settled on a pretty basic finish. Most importantly, the bowl is the correct thickness for a quick pop.
Maple. We went through many options on the handle and we settled on an unfinished hard-wood handle. It is not really intended to put the popper in the washer because of the wood attachments. Then why would we use wood? It is helpful to reduce the heat while popping and it looks great.