By Alan Cornett
Special to NKyTribune
Subscription boxes of every sort have been a hot trend over the past couple of years. Subscription boxes gather different products and samples every month and for a standard fee (often in the $30-$50 range) you get a box in the mail with all sorts of cool goodies and discoveries.
Pick your niche and it’s almost certain that you’ll find a monthly box that will send you items related to it.
All things Kentucky have also been hot, so it stands to reason some bright soul would put the two together. That someone turned out to be Paul Phillips.
A few months ago Phillips launched the Bluegrass Box, a monthly food oriented subscription box. Phillips and I met to discuss the project over lunch a few months ago, and I ran into him again at the Incredible Food Show. Phillips gave me the October box to try and try it I did (Disclosure: One box was provided free to me.)
Phillips seeks to theme the boxes, so October’s goods were themed around fall. The box contained a bag of pumpkin spice Baxter’s Coffee from Somerset, a bag of Covington’s Grateful Grahams, Louisville’s Cellar Door dark chocolate, and homemade marshmallows from Lexington’s Crank & Boom. Who even knew that Crank & Boom had homemade marshmallows?!
The Bluegrass Box contained all the necessary ingredients for Kentucky s’mores. I happen to have three daughters who are great appreciators of s’mores, and I don’t really mind them myself. So we built the ultimate Kentucky s’more.
And the Kentucky s’more might be the best s’more ever.
Bluegrass Box may be the right box at the right time. It collects together high quality Kentucky products from around the state and connects them with customers who otherwise would never have heard of them. Even those who know and like a brand may be pleased to discover, oh, say, homemade marshmallows!
Bluegrass Box offers holiday themed specials for gift giving. They also do customizable boxes for corporate giving. And if you just want to try one box without the commitment of subscribing, they’ll let you do that, too.
I don’t know of anything better designed for Eat Kentucky approval than Bluegrass Box. Through the wonders of the modern subscription box you can now Eat Kentucky from Pikeville to Paducah without ever going beyond your mailbox. What more could you ask for?
All photos by Alan Cornett
Alan Cornett is chief eater and writer for EatKentucky.com. A native of Clay County, he has been eating in Kentucky for decades. Follow Alan as he eats his way through the Commonwealth, exploring its restaurants and foodways. Alan lives, eats and writes in Lexington.