The CrunchDaddy Story...

( Brian Krista, Patuxent Publishing / September 26, 2012 )

Welcome, friends and family!

Thank you for coming to visit my latest endeavor, CrunchDaddy Popcorn!  I hope that you will "Like" what you see and share it with your friends.

CrunchDaddy Popcorn is a company rooted in my passions for cooking, snacking and (if all goes well!) my desire to break free from the 9 to 5 grind by doing something that I truly love: Spreading joy and happiness through great popcorn!

This project began back in 2007, but went through a three-year hiatus before I decided to revive it in the Spring of 2011.  In the past few months I have been busy refining my recipes, exploring new flavors, sourcing ingredients, creating a website, researching equipment needs and navigating the tangled web of regulations that govern the operation of a small business like mine.  On August 19, 2011 I registered "CrunchDaddy Popcorn, LLC" with the State of Maryland.  Hopefully I will have products available for sale to local retail stores and via the internet within the next couple of months.  

The inspiration for this project came from my love for popcorn as well as my desire to improve on the common recipe for "kettle corn".  When I first tasted kettle corn, I was impressed with the combination of sugar, salt and popcorn.  What I didn't like was the unpleasant oily aftertaste from kettle corn, as the oil helps to form the delicate sugary glaze.  I wondered if it would be possible to improve the taste of kettle corn by reducing the amount of vegetable oil and somehow incorporating real butter into the mix?  A great deal of experimentation, late-night tinkering and endless taste tests performed by friends and family lead me to the desired result, which I now call, "Sweet Butter Crunch".  It's good stuff!  Bowls of "Sweet Butter Crunch" are devoured in moments whenever presented to a feeding frenzy of popcorn lovers!

For now, while the business is under development, I invite you to join me in the fun that I'm having in bringing this project to fruition!  I will be posting more notes about what's going on at CrunchDaddy Popcorn and some pictures of the products that I will be bringing to market.  It's a fun and challenging effort for me, especially while I am still gainfully employed in my full-time job... but enthusiasm is high and I'm having a great time getting this together!

Lastly, I owe a special degree of gratitude to numerous friends and family members... and they know who they are!  They have not only been eager taste-testers, but also haven't been afraid to give me their brutally honest feedback as I developed my recipes and bounced 1001 business ideas off of them.  I'm also grateful for a core group of friends who provide me with invaluable business and marketing guidance as I feel my way out of the darkness and down the road of a successful small business.

Once again, WELCOME!!  I look forward to sharing this experience with all of you and hearing your ideas and feedback!!

Dan Bazis

CCO (Chief Crunch Officer),

CrunchDaddy Popcorn