I typically review products directly related to cannabis. These snack boxes may not be designed just for smokers, but they make for some incredible munchies. I was sent some free sample of two monthly subscription boxes – BoCandy and BoJerky. After munching out on some great snack I got a chance to interview the founder.
I was given a free sample of this product; however, I was not compensated for this article.
I liked both boxes, but if I had to pick a favorite it would be the BoJerky box. I’ve always been a huge fan of jerky so I was super excited to get to try out some different jerkies. All of the jerky was great, but the stuff from Dave’s was absolutely out of the world. Like, for real. If you ever get a chance to get your hands on Dave’s Root Beer Habanero Moist Beef Jerky prepare to rethink everything you thought you knew about beef jerky. It’s by far the best jerky I’ve ever had in my life. I got four different packs of jerky and each one was unique and delicious.
The BoCandy box was cool too. It had candy from around the world. Most of the candy was pretty good, however, there were a few things that I wouldn’t want to eat again. That’s part of the fun though. I like to see what types of pallets people in other countries are accustomed to.
Overall, I would highly recommend these boxes to up your munchy game. Keep reading to hear from Blake Knoblock, the Founder of both these boxes.
Interview
Mary Jane’s Diary (MJD): How do you find and choose products for the boxes?
Blake Knoblock (BK): I love both international and jerky so picking out the products for these boxes is really fun- for the jerky, I created a list of 50 or so jerky manufacturers in the US and keep in touch with them to see who can fulfill our orders. Based on the price of beef and how much we need to order, it can get kind of tricky finding enough producers to keep variation, but so far it has worked out. There isn’t really a seasonal schedule or anything- I just more or less buy what I think looks good. I am attracted to the more unique flavors- something straight out of the bayou, for example, will catch my attention because I know our customers in Portland, Maine or Northern New Mexico have never had anything like it.
Bocandy is the older of the two companies so ordering is much easier now that we’ve created connections with importers from all around the world. What’s really cool about that is that its let us special order certain products they wouldn’t normally carry. An example of that is the cheesecake kit kat bars from Japan in September- no other importers (at least ones I’m aware of) carried cheese cake kit kats this year so one of the things I’m proud of with the company is that we can literally be the only avenue for someone to get a certain candy they would be interested in trying. Sometimes we ship out stuff that’s a little weird (some of the savory Scandinavian candies, for example) but that’s part of the fun, I think. There are a few staple candy brands (Cadbury from the UK, Kinder bars from Germany) that we make sure to include every month or so but, beyond that, what gets picked to be in any given bocandy box is most likely what I was craving one month earlier.
(MJD):What’s your favorite thing about running the subscription boxes?
(BK):My favorite thing about running a subscription box is the ways that it allows me to both try new things myself, and introduce my customers to new things, as well. I know not everybody likes being surprised once a month with snacks they’ve never heard of but, for the people who do, I want bocandy and bojerky to be the ultimate snacking experience. I figure anybody can go down to the gas station and fix their cravings with slim jims and snickers bars, but if you really want to try something cool, that is where bocandy and bojerky can help you out.
(MJD):What’s been your biggest obstacle running the subscription boxes?
(BK):Finding reliable help has been tough. Because of the nature of a subscription box, 90% of the work happens in a week long period between when you receive the items from your importers or manufacturers and when you package them to be delivered to the post office. Not many people are looking for a job that demands you work a week of 14 hours days in a row, haha, so, in the beginning, it was me working my “regular” job from 9-5, then me working bocandy from 5-3, which was pretty terrible, but I guess that’s how businesses grow. I’ve since been able to focus on my subscription box businesses full-time but, in the beginning, it was definitely something I would not have done if I didn’t love it.
(MJD):What does the future hold for Bojerky and Bocandy?
(BK):For a while, I thought about making my own jerky, but that got too confusing not only with the process of making jerky, but also the laws involved with selling food that you make, so none of that. The jerky subscription box business is kind of flooded as of recent so I’m having a harder time getting new customers than with bojerky and I’ve had to adjust our pricing accordingly, but I don’t for see that arm of the business going away anytime soon, especially since the customers are very loyal. I figure, for that, I’m just going to keep trying to find more and more small batch jerky providers from parts of the country that is otherwise forgotten about. I just got in contact with a new producer from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, which I am pretty excited about, but he’s not sure that he has the ability to keep up with our demand. I wouldn’t think for a minute that I know everything there is about the jerky business, so all I can guarantee about the future of Bojerky is that it will continue to grow and support independent jerky producers.
Bocandy, as I said before, is a much more established business so the possibilities for that are a lot wilder. I’ve currently in contact with a candy maker from a certain Island nation (I don’t want to say which in case any of my competitors are reading this), that doesn’t import any of their candy into the US. I need to smooth things out with the various government bodies that oversea the importation of food products, but if all goes well, this winter Bocandy will be the sole importer of this countries leading domestic candy brand. I get really excited thinking about it, which reaffirms that I know I’m in the right industry, haha.
(MJD): How much jerky and candy do you consume these days?
(BK): Honestly, not that much. I used to eat way, way to much of it and ended up gaining like 30 pounds really fast, so I’ve since cut myself off from any snacking that occurs during the packing process. All the product is kept at a warehouse away from where I live, so midnight snack sessions where I raid the reserves aren’t really an issue either. I sample everything that gets shipped out but, besides that, I’ve curtailed my snack ingestion to a more reasonable amount.
(MJD): Which do you prefer – indica or sativa?
(BK): Indica. I don’t really partake too regularly, but when I can’t sleep, that is my go to. I used to take a pretty intense batch of sleeping pills/supplements but, as anyone else who has taken those will agree, you wake up groggy and basically lose the first half of your next morning. Not the case at all when this.
If you’ve tried either of these snack subscription boxes let me know in the comments.