BoCa Flavor ‘redefines all-purpose’ seasonings, co-founder says

BoCa Flavor Co-Founders Jelece Morris and Suzanne Delica join Yahoo Finance Live to talk about the inception of their spice business, honoring their Haitian and Jamaican roots with their brand, and working alongside charity organizations.

Video Transcript

EMILY MCCORMICK: Well, BoCa Flavor is one small business sharing Caribbean flavors with the world. Co-founders Jelece Morris and Suzanne Delica join us now for more on the company and the outlook. Jelece, I'll start with you on this one. Tell us what is BoCa Flavor, and where did the idea for this company stem from?

JELECE MORRIS: Sure, hi. Thank you so much for having us today. BoCa Flavor is a healthy food company. We're focused right now on providing healthy seasoning blends that are reminiscent of our heritage. I'm from Jamaica, and Suzanne is from Haiti. And we've taken the best of both countries and what we know of the Caribbean and really created this blend that redefines all-purpose.

When we looked at the all-purpose options that were available on the market, they didn't reflect our upbringing. We would grab an all-purpose seasoning, and then we would add a dash of this and a dash of that. So what we were able to create is something that was more symbolic of our upbringing and sharing it with the world now.

EMILY MCCORMICK: And Suzanne, how did you and Jelece actually meet and decide to co-found a company, and this company in particular, together?

SUZANNE DELICA: Well, Jelece and I actually went to the University of Florida, going back to 2006. We met in 2007, studying engineering. And we've been best friends since then. But as far as creating BoCa Flavor, in the start of the pandemic, you know, everybody was at home, bored, looking to reflect with friends and stay in touch. And so, as always, that's something Jelece and I naturally do.

But the one conversation was different in particular because we realized that there has to be opportunity in spite of the chaos that was going on at the time. Both being at home, we wanted to see what opportunities we can create to make home living more convenient for people. And naturally, the kitchen was the go-to place. The quarantine cooking was the thing at the time.

And naturally, we started playing around in the kitchen-- virtually, mind you. Jelece is in Atlanta. I'm in the DMV area. And we created spice. We just blended a whole bunch of different seasonings together and came across this awesome blend that perfectly represents our Haitian and Jamaican roots. And we decided to call it Taíno spice after the original people of the Caribbean.

EMILY MCCORMICK: And Jelece, to that point that Suzanne was just talking about, how have sales been trending over the course of the pandemic? Because you started at the height of it in 2020 and have now experienced this period of reopening of people going back out to eat at restaurants and the multiple waves now of Delta and Omicron. So how was all of that impacted the trends that you've seen at your business?

JELECE MORRIS: Yeah, for us, we're a booming startup. We've had tons of early support from our family and friends. I think where we realized that this was something much bigger is when we started seeing people whose names we couldn't recognize on the order forms that were reaching out and making purchases and people wanting to support small businesses. You know, cooking is never going away. People go back into the restaurants, but there's always going to be this need to have healthy foods, to have foods that are flavorful.

And that's what our blend gives everyone a chance to do. It's especially really useful for beginner cooks who will go to a recipe, and they'll see a list of 10 seasonings, half of which they'll never use again. And so having an all-purpose seasoning that really can bring alive anything, from your meats to your vegetables to your popcorn, your fruit, we've seen people really take this spice-- this seasoning blend and use it on a ton of things. So that's never going away. So we're looking forward to what BoCa Flavor has in store.

EMILY MCCORMICK: And Suzanne, BoCa Flavor also has a philanthropic component to the business model with your work with the What If Foundation and Food for the Poor. Tell us about why you chose to work with these institutions and what that work has looked like.

SUZANNE DELICA: We definitely wanted to highlight organizations that are actually doing something with the donations that are being provided to them. What If Foundation is actually close to home because my uncle, my late uncle, Gerard, Father Gerard Jean-Juste created it back in the '80s with support of his colleagues to bring education, nourishment, and support to the children of Haiti. And it's still been going strong for all these years. And so we wanted to definitely continue his legacy by supporting the organization through BoCa Flavor.

And Food for the Poor as well does the same thing with providing resources to children. And our goal is to end child hunger because there really shouldn't be a thing. So we knew that these were natural fits for our mission.

EMILY MCCORMICK: Suzanne Delica and Jelece Morris are co-founders of BoCa Flavor, and we thank you both so much for your time this afternoon.