Meet Phuong & Sharon Ma | Owner/Baker – Speckle Box

We had the good fortune of connecting with Phuong & Sharon Ma and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Phuong & Sharon, what do you attribute your success to?
The most important factor behind our path to a successful brand is truly believing in our products/goodies. Meaning that everything we sell or bring out of our kitchen is taste tested, adjusted, and taste tested again until we are truly happy with how it turned out. We believe that once a customer has tried one of our cookies and treats, they will get the best version of what we can make and that we have done our best to give them a unique, superb tasting experience. Does this mean everything is always perfect? It doesn’t, but that is why we always look for ways to improve our treats, how we can serve them better, and things we can do to improve the overall customer service flow.

Operating this way helps us communicate with our customers in a more genuine way. When they walk up to our table/tent to ask questions or just to chat about our goodies, we want to engage them with honesty and full knowledge of what we can provide. We want them to know that we are giving them the best of version of it all. We still have a long way to go, to get to our definition of success, but we will always stick with this belief to get there.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
My name is Phuong. My wife Sharon and I are the faces behind Speckle Box. She is the gifted baker behind it all. I work full-time in the healthcare field so I am a part-time operator/helper but I try to take on any tasks outside of the kitchen (social media, advertisement, menu ideas, etc.).

Our business specializes in unique flavored cookies and treats. Most of our varieties are Asian-inspired but we also like to take a classic flavor and put a little twist on it. We want to bring flavors that you can’t just get anywhere else. Flavors that you can’t just walk into a generic bakery and find. Some of our specialty items include:

– Mochi-filled cookies (our signature cookie on the outside, the inside is filled with a soft, chewy, and buttery mochi)
– Classic Chocolate Bombs & Tea Bombs (similar to a chocolate bomb but the outer shell is made from Isomalt sugar – a not-too-sweet sugar substitute. Inside it is filled with a tea bag/tea leaves, real edible flower pedals, dried fruits or spices that compliments the tea)
– Customizable Cakesicles (our play on a cake pop but in a popsicle shape and larger). Customers can customize every little bit of it and we even have an edible printer to print custom designs also!
– Our signature cookie flavor line includes some unique & delicious flavor combos such as Pandan Coconut, Ube White Chocolate Pecan, Creamy Black Sesame, Strawberry-Matcha with Dark Chocolate Drizzle, Red Cara-velvet, Lychee sugar, and many more!

We are both huge foodies. We are always searching for new, unique food items or restaurants to try. Eating and sharing meals with our families growing up was important too. A solid and delicious meal was an anchor for all family gatherings and events growing up. A lot of the items that we make stem from inspirations that we have encountered in our travels and also from the Asian-inspired comfort foods that we grew up eating. Typically, if we can’t find that certain item locally, the next thing that comes to mind is to make it ourselves. We get super excited when we get customers to try one of our more distinctive flavors like pandan, ube, or black sesame. Those flavors may be intimidating at first, but if we can introduce it to them and they end up loving it – that’s a huge win for us! We just want to share what we love with others, maybe chat a little about it, and possibly relate to one another with how those flavors crossed paths with us in the past.

Getting to where we are today was definitely not easy. I’m sure most, if not all, small business owners can relate to the journey it takes to build and maintain a growing business. I’d say time management and working with an understanding of our limitations was an essential factor in helping us overcome the many challenges along the way. Finding that balance was key. It is quality over quantity for us.

I would say we are still in the infancy of our business journey but we have learned so much along the way. We’ve learned to appreciate service industry workers – the work is rewarding but it comes with its challenges. You have to learn to adapt and grow with every special situation. We also learned that great quality work takes time. Everything little thing that we put into the business, from our advertisement flyer to our custom cakesicle designs takes time. We understand that our business is based on first impressions. So, we try to hone in on making it the best impression right out of the gate and continue to upkeep that level each and every time.

Our brand is about a unique, delicious, and sweet culinary experience. Served with a friendly smile. We don’t want to be big time if it means we lose our small time customers. We are just a small family pursuing a passion of ours and enjoying the journey as we go along. Conversate with us, ask us questions, and let us know how we did – we love to hear it all!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
There is so much to love about this city. The DFW metro has just about everything and there are just so many activities and good restaurants to check out. When we lived in Oklahoma City, we used to take weekend trips down here all the time just to check out all the hot spots and good eats.

I’d say, to start with places you need to visit, you’ll have to hit up some of the main things such as the Dallas Museum of Art, the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, Reunion Tower for a grand view, and the Dallas World Aquarium just to name a few. Of course, there are neat areas like Deep Ellum, Bishop Arts District, and Legacy West/The Star areas to visit. When the weather is nice, walking these areas to eat and shop is a must. Bonus: visit the farmer’s markets of the various cities for some fresh produce and great local foods.

Food-wise, there is just so much to try! We’ve lived in the metro for a while now and it seems like the list of things to try is always growing faster than we can check them off. Something we really appreciate, as foodies, is that the DFW area food scene is very diverse. I think we’ve found almost every type of food, from the various regions in the world here in the metro. BBQ and Tex-Mex are probably what most people visiting Texas would think are must-tries but there is so much more. We love mom and pop places, holes in the wall, etc.. So, those are the restaurants we tend to gravitate to first when we are in search of trying a new spot. If you catch us out at our events, don’t ever hesitate to come up and talk to us about food/cooking/restaurants/ or anything at all. Even if it isn’t about our own bakery, we’d love to chat anyways!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We want to give a shoutout to our 2 girls! They are truly the inspiration that got our creative gears turning again and they are the motivation to keep it turning. It was a baking session with them that made us want to start this baking venture. Seeing their little smiles and moments of joy in the kitchen is just the best feeling. They are also the fuel for our drive to grow our business more and more. Hopefully one day they can see a birds-eye-view of it all and can appreciate the success that they help started.

Website: www.speckleboxtreats.com

Instagram: @speckle_box

Linkedin: https://www.facebook.com/specklebox/

Other: Linktr.ee/SpeckleBox