When Daniel Doll looks at the evolution of Bushwick Kitchen, one of the most interesting parts of the story is not that the company entered the sweet-and-spicy category. It is that the company did so before the category had a name.
Bushwick Kitchen launched in 2014 with Bees Knees Spicy Honey, combining honey with habanero at a time when spicy honey was still relatively unfamiliar to mainstream consumers. The company’s flagship product is still described by Bushwick Kitchen as having been “born in Brooklyn in 2014,” and the brand has since expanded well beyond its original product.
Today, Bushwick Kitchen’s portfolio spans honey, maple and sriracha, with gift sets and other products like honeycomb and honey sticks rounding out the business. Its website currently includes 17 products, including Bees Knees Spicy Honey, Trees Knees Spicy Maple and Weak Knees Gochujang Sriracha.
For Doll, the opportunity is bigger than hot honey.
From a 30-Day Experiment to a Growing Food Brand
Bushwick Kitchen’s origins were unusually entrepreneurial. Before the company became a specialty food brand, its founders set out to see whether they could build a business from scratch in 30 days.
The experiment became a real company faster than expected. The original project began with two friends exploring whether they could launch a business in 30 days. They eventually simplified the concept to one product: spicy honey.
That emphasis on moving quickly and learning from the market remains relevant to how Doll views entrepreneurship.
“You can spend forever planning something that you could have learned by simply putting it in front of a customer,” Doll explains. “Entrepreneurship requires a certain tolerance for uncertainty. You make the best decision you can with the information you have, get the product into the world and then pay attention to what happens.”
The company’s early story also reflects the importance of product experimentation, which Bushwick Kitchen accomplished in its expansion from spicy honey into maple and sriracha products.
The Sweet and Spicy Opportunity
The rise of sweet and spicy or “swicy” flavors has given Bushwick Kitchen a larger cultural moment in which to operate. Sweet-and-spicy combinations now appear across restaurant menus, grocery products and home cooking, but Doll believes the opportunity isn’t simply to capitalize on a trend.
Consumers have become more adventurous with flavor while still looking for convenience. A condiment can provide both: a familiar product that changes the experience of a meal without requiring a complicated recipe.
“I think consumers have become much more adventurous, but they haven’t necessarily become more complicated in the way they want to cook,” Doll says. “People want big, interesting flavors, but they also want convenience.”
That philosophy is visible across Bushwick Kitchen’s current lineup. The company positions its products as versatile ingredients, with its flagship spicy honey suggested for uses ranging from pizza and cheese plates to cocktails.
The challenge for a brand that helped establish a trend is what comes next. Once a once-unusual flavor becomes mainstream, competitors inevitably follow.
For Doll, being early is valuable, but it is not enough.
“You have to keep giving consumers a reason to pay attention,” he continues. “Being early is an advantage, but it doesn’t guarantee that you’ll stay relevant.”
Building Beyond a Single Trend
That is why Bushwick Kitchen is thinking beyond spicy honey.
The company’s current portfolio includes multiple honey products, maple products and srirachas, allowing it to participate in several areas of the condiment market rather than depending on one flavor trend. It also boasts dedicated gift sets, including combinations of spicy honey, spicy maple and gochujang sriracha, which have been exceptionally popular during various gifting seasons.
The strategy reflects a broader lesson in consumer packaged goods: getting someone to notice a product is only the beginning. The harder task is creating enough value and relevance to earn repeat purchases.
“Consumers see a bottle and think about the recipe, the flavor and the branding,” Doll adds. “Behind that bottle are manufacturing, sourcing, packaging, logistics, inventory, retail relationships, margins, marketing and a long list of decisions that consumers never see.”
That complexity becomes even more important as a specialty brand grows. Bushwick Kitchen’s own history shows a company that initially emphasized hands-on production and local sourcing, while its current business is positioned for a broader retail and consumer footprint.
The Next Phase of Growth
Doll sees the next chapter as a combination of retail expansion, product development and international opportunity.
The company already describes its reach as extending beyond the U.S., while its current portfolio and retail presence give it a foundation for continued expansion.
There is also the opportunity in gifting, particularly as consumers increasingly look for food products that feel distinctive without being difficult to understand. The various gift sets give the brand another way to introduce its products to new consumers during the holiday season.
But Doll says the ultimate goal is not simply to ride the next food trend – although he did tease some potential new products for Q4.
“We want Bushwick Kitchen to have staying power,” he says. “There are always new ingredients, new flavor combinations and new ways people are cooking. Even thinking beyond food and into beverage. The opportunity is to keep creating products that give consumers a reason to experiment while building a brand they want to keep in their kitchens.”
That may be the more difficult entrepreneurial challenge facing Bushwick Kitchen now. The company was able to identify an unexpected flavor combination before much of the market caught on. The next test is whether it can turn that early insight into something bigger than a trend.
For Doll, that means continuing to experiment while building the infrastructure, distribution and brand recognition required to scale.
“We’re not trying to build a brand around one trend,” he concludes. “We’re trying to build a company that can continue creating interesting food products that people ask for by name.”
Spencer Hulse is the Editorial Director at Grit Daily. He is responsible for overseeing other editors and writers, day-to-day operations, and covering breaking news.
