Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeri Austin.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Jeri. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Growing up, one of my all-time favorite things to do was to hang out in our small kitchen with my siblings watching our mom pop popcorn in one of her big old heavy pots. Waiting for the pop … pop … pop-pop-pop of the popcorn kernels bursting open always made me smile with anticipation. Finally, after what seemed like forever, Mom handed us our own small, butter-stained, brown paper bag filled to the brim with hot, salty, butter-drenched popcorn. Homemade hot-buttered popcorn turned out to be my all-time favorite snack EVER! Sixteen years ago, I decided to bring my childhood love of popcorn to my own sweet family, but Instead of popping the popcorn on the stove in a big old heavy pot, I popped our popcorn in the microwave, sprinkled a bit of sugar or honey on it and handed it over to my kids. They thought it was the best thing ever, until the day I decided to try something new. They sat around our kitchen table watching me pour homemade, ooey, gooey, sweet, and buttery caramel over “air-popped” popcorn, and pop it into the oven to bake into sweet, crunchy, buttery perfection. The amazing taste of the crunchy, sweet and buttery caramel popcorn won them over.
And so it began, our new family tradition. We made TTJ caramel popcorn for friends and family, for birthdays, anniversaries, holidays and for football team fundraisers. (the name derived from our kids Tevin, Tamara and Joshua’s initials) I was known as “The Popcorn Lady” and our popcorn was known as “The popcorn you’d go crazy over!” hence the name change to Caramel Craze Popcorn!
My Husband, Paul, and I began to entertain the thought of starting a “real” popcorn business. But we were still homeschooling our three children and knew it was not God’s timing to do so. My purpose and assignment at the time was to spend my days pouring into our children, teaching them everything they needed to know to grow into intelligent young adults with hearts for the Lord and a desire to serve others. But, once our youngest left for college, we were free to start planning for Caramel Craze Popcorn to launch!
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It’s been a pretty smooth road for the most part. The most difficult part of our journey was waiting. Waiting to actually start the business. Because so many people knew how irresistibly addictive our popcorn was, they kept asking when we were going to go forward with the business so that they could get their “fix” on a regular basis. But we knew God had a plan, so we chose to wait on Him, all the while perfecting our recipes and processes. Over the years, He continued to give us everything we needed, as we needed it to get the business started in the right way, at the right time.
Please tell us about Caramel Craze Popcorn.
Caramel Craze Popcorn is a gourmet popcorn company that specializes in making the best “made- from-scratch, oven-baked” caramel popcorn around. We prepare and bake our popcorn in small batches, always using fresh popped popcorn, and simple, fresh ingredients to ensure that every time you eat our popcorn, you are enjoying fresh, delicious, gourmet popcorn with just the right amount of crunchy goodness! Caramel Craze Popcorn is delicious, addictive and just plain FUN! It makes a great gift for birthdays, anniversaries, corporate clients or “just because!” But, best of all, it’s the perfect ‘anytime’ snack! It really is “The Popcorn You’ll Go Crazy Over!”
Our Original Caramel seems to be the fan favorite, with our Cheezy Cheez and Cheezy Cheez & Caramel Mix coming in a close second. Not to be outdone though is our amazing Spicy Cheez, P-Nutty Craze, Cookie Crumble, and Cinnamon Craze! Our fantastic product and great customer service seem to be what keeps our customers coming back week after week. We’ve been told more than once, “It’s A Party In Your Mouth!” and who wants to miss that?
We are a family business, so everything is handled and decided by us. My brilliant husband, Paul, handles all of our finances, and I oversee our sales and marketing, business development, customer service, recipe creation, baking, packaging, networking, and all other tasks not assigned. My beautiful mom, Barbara, and our 24-year-old twins, Tevin and Tamara, are all part of our Sales & Marketing Team. Tamara is also my right-hand, go-to person and our Social Media Specialist, and our 19-year-old son, Joshua, is making record sales as Caramel Craze Popcorn’s Brand Ambassador, while attending Nova Southeastern University, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Our mission is to always serve our customers and community with integrity, love, joy, and hope. So along those lines, our proudest moment as a company was deciding together as a family that we were going to be a socially conscious company, a social enterprise working to accomplish social good throughout our community. Our family has always been a family that loves to serve others in any way we can, so twelve years ago, when our youngest son, Joshua, at the age of seven, told me he someday wanted to have a place where anyone hungry could come and eat and not feel badly about needing food, it was a dream in the making. His dream is now a reality through Hugs & Hope Food Pantry, “Where we give Hugs & spread Hope to all that come through our door!” Two years ago the doors of Hugs & Hope Food Pantry, our church’s weekly, free food program, opened to the community, and since then we are blessed to feed 65 plus families on a weekly basis, along with serving another 60 families twice a month at 3 different Extended Stay Hotels in the community.
At Hugs & Hope, we believe everyone needs a bit of help at some point in their lives and we are committed to being there when they do. Hunger impacts us all, our children, our seniors, and so many hardworking families. According to statistics, in Metro Atlanta alone, there are over a million people who are food insecure, going to bed without a meal, and that’s not OK! That’s why Hugs & Hope Food Pantry opens the doors to the community EVERY Wednesday for FREE groceries, a hot meal & HUGS! Everyone has a story, and we don’t need to know yours to serve you. So we ask no personal, private or financial questions. We’re just here to serve! Caramel Craze Popcorn will always be committed to giving a portion of our profits to Hugs & Hope Food Pantry to ensure as many families as needed are fed in our community.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
If we had to start all over, I really can’t think of what we would do differently. Entrepreneurship is a journey. We expect to encounter a few bumps along the way. As long as we learn from the experiences, the bumps will only help to make us better at what we do.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.caramelcrazepopcorn.com
- Phone: 404-720-6115
- Email: caramelcrazepopcorn@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caramelcrazepopcorn/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/caramelcrazepopcorn/
Image Credit:
Corey Harden Photography
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