Haven’t heard of Dank Bakery? Where have you been hiding? These seriously talented chefs have been causing spontaneous drooling across the internet for a couple of years now. We’re big fans in the leafie office, so we had to find out more.
Hey Pablo, thanks for sitting down with us, for those who don’t know Dank Bakery, tell us about the brand.
Nice to meet you guys! We’re an infusion bakery, specialising in medicinal bakes and confectionary – enjoying the widespread cannabis adoption in the UK, and helping as many people as we can with natural alternatives to modern pain relief.
The level of your bakes is a fair bit higher than the average kitchen brownies. Did you work in catering before opening Dank?
Our full team have all come from culinary backgrounds, so we hold high standards in our kitchen. This also extends to our operational crew – we really want to bring forward a level of professionalism to this underground industry – especially in terms of the retail experience and customer service. Our main goal is to provide a trustworthy destination for medicinal bakes and confectionery.
Outside of the slightly more underground products you recently did a CBD rich collab with SIOP in NQ. Any more high street link-ups in the plans?
We loved the collab with Siop and we have a few more plans in the pipeline – it’s going to be an exciting few months/year ahead and we hope the regulations keep up with us!
Psychedelics are having a much-needed renaissance as we all try and process the madness of COVID. Any plans to branch out into some artisan mushroom chocolates?
Mushrooms are definitely the future! Their medicinal benefits are undeniable, especially their use in depression and mental health issues. It’s ambitious to speculate mushrooms becoming mainstream anytime soon in the UK, so mushroom treats are just for the personal collection. Having said that, we’re following the breakthroughs in the US closely, but for now, it’s best for us to focus on helping all our current medicinal customers.
Speaking of COVID, you seemed to be the saviours of lockdown, how was it keeping business running while the world ground to a halt?
It was definitely challenging. Our team was a fraction of the size and we were getting battered with supply and delivery issues near enough every day. Very stressful – but we vowed to stay open through the entire time and we managed to do that!
We actually want to give a big shout out to everyone who stayed with us through that time considering how long some of the wait times were. Our process is now incredibly streamlined, and our team is much bigger and stronger so we can deal with the odd issue from time to time. And hearing feedback about our products helping with people’s mental health issues made all the stress worthwhile.
Your menus are always changing, keeping the feed looking fresh and tasty. Where do you get your ideas?
That’s what we’re here for! We love developing and bringing new products to the market – it’s especially important for our medicinal clients, we want to make fun and nostalgic products that are also helping people. As well as new products, the consistency of our regular items is equally important.
Our business was built off the back of the items such as OG brownies and more recently DB gummies which have become incredibly popular. Regarding the classics – brownies and cookies have that inherent marketability – everyone wants an infused brownie or cookie. It’s also so ingrained in popular culture we really wanted, before anything else, to make sure these staples were the best they could possibly be. A lot of work has gone into this: taste; texture; stability in delivery; and shelf life. The same goes for our confectionary development – finding popular items with a long shelf life so you can consume them on your own time.
And in terms of our new ideas, we have amazing development chefs who create these fun and delicious creations. The new menu should be an experience for our customers – looking forward to the next drop and making sure they don’t miss out. It’s really important to keep innovating and moving forward, regardless of the underground nature of the industry.
Cannabis would be nothing without music, what’s playing in the kitchen at the minute?
Radio 6 all day every day. Big shout out to Techno Tuesdays! When the radio’s not on it’s a pretty eclectic mix. We’ve been working like crazy so we’re itching to get out to a proper night – there are some big parties booked in to look forward to!!
Finally, Chronic the Caterpillar is the party cake of our dreams. Will he be around much longer or have the M&S suits gone all Aldi on you?
Unfortunately, he was only on for two weeks – and the demand was crazy, so, he’ll defo be back at some point soon!
