While slow cookers really have become a time-saving staple in most homes, especially where both people work, you still have to think of a recipe and make sure you have all the ingredients. How often do you go to make something only to realize you are out of something? It happens to me all the time. Or maybe you don’t have the time to gather and prep, so you end up making that microwave meal, again. Shaylin Davis has the answer: a bath bomb for your food. B.A.F. Bombs are an internet sensation you are going to love.
Thurston County Business Comes Out of COVID
Not much good came out of COVID, but Shaylin found a way to make lemonade, or butter chicken, if you will. A stay-at-home mom during the pandemic, she was keeping busy helping her community. “I’ve always had a passion for cooking, so I began preparing meals for neighbors because all restaurants were closed down and not everyone loves to cook,” she shares. “Before I knew it, I was feeding much of the neighborhood.”
If you think feeding your own household is a lot of work, imagine feeding the neighborhood! In 2020, Shaylin began to wonder if there was a better way to go about everyday cooking. “The idea for B.A.F. Bombs came to me one weekend while I was prepping food for the neighborhood,” she explains. “I’d spent hours every Friday night chopping chilies and vegetables and thought, ‘I wonder if I could make a powdered version of this that tastes just as good!’ I considered simply selling a seasoning packet, but wanted to create something truly unique and fun. That’s when the idea of pressing it into a bath bomb shape hit me. My goal was to take the complexity out of cooking and give busy people a way to enjoy delicious, home-cooked meals without the hassle.”
From Playroom to Olympia Warehouse: Shaylin Davis Makes Cooking Simple
She started out making them in her daughter’s playroom and while Shaylin immediately found her food bombs useful, she hesitated to market them publicly. “I really let it simmer until March of 2023,” she says. “I was nervous about whether it would succeed, but on my 30th birthday, I decided to take the leap and finally launch the business. It felt like the perfect moment to turn my idea into reality and share it with the world.”
She started selling just to her Facebook friends and family. “The overwhelming feedback shocked me,” she says. “The excitement and support were all the validation I needed to realize that I had something special on my hands!”
Shaylin said feeding her community showed her just how powerful food is in connecting people. “I wanted to make it even easier for families to have delicious meals without the stress of meal prep,” she adds. “That’s how I came up with the idea for B.A.F. Bombs. A bath bomb of spices that transforms cooking into a fun, simple experience.”
As for the name, she knew she wanted it to have the word bomb in it since they were modeled after bath bombs. “When I landed on B.A.F. Bombs—short for ‘Bomb A** Food’—I felt almost as proud of the name as I did of the product itself!” Shaylin says. “It perfectly captured the bold, fun energy I wanted to bring to the brand.”
Her first bomb was her birria flavoring, because that was the dish she had been serving to her neighborhood. “I had perfected the recipe, knowing it inside and out, and always strived to make it as authentic as possible,” Shaylin explains. “My love for classic Mexican dishes naturally led me to explore pozole next, and from there, I set myself a challenge: to see how many of my favorite meals I could transform into a B.A.F. Bomb.”
She’s moved out of the playroom now and into a warehouse in Olympia. As the first to market, Shaylin says there are not quite a few copycat food bombs. She currently has a patent pending on her B.A.F. Bombs. “Seeing so many others try to replicate my concept has only strengthened my commitment to B.A.F. Bombs and my vision for the brand,” she says. “I’m proud to say that I was the first—the original. This journey has shown me the power of innovation, and it’s motivated me to keep pushing boundaries in the food industry.”
B.A.F. Bombs Make Cooking As Easy as Taking a Bath
Like a bath bomb, you simply put the B.A.F. Bomb into your slow cooker with whatever you would like to season – chicken, beef, tofu, vegetables – you name it!
Currently, there are five flavors of B.A.F. Bombs: birria, chile Colorado, pozole, tinga, and butter chicken. Each bomb is available in three different sizes, depending on the amount you are wanting to cook. “Each one delivers the authentic flavors of these classic dishes without any of the prep work or expertise needed,” Shaylin adds. “And this is just the beginning. I have an arsenal of exciting flavors and fun cooking products up my sleeve that I can’t wait to release! My goal to is to make many cuisines from around the world easy and accessible.”
Shaylin’s main tip is simple and effective, “Don’t over think it!”
“These bombs are designed to make your life easier, so let them do the work,” she adds. “The key is to decide what you’d like to garnish your dish with and then just remember to drop the B.A.F. Bomb into the crockpot in the morning. When you come home, you’ll be greeted by amazing aromas and a dinner that’s even more flavorful than you imagined!”
Her favorite recipe – currently – is her butter chicken. “Butter chicken is a notoriously tricky dish to make from scratch and can be quite pricey if you order it from a restaurant,” she says. “But with a B.A.F. Bomb, you can easily prepare a delicious, restaurant-quality meal for the whole family at a fraction of the cost. I love pairing it with coconut rice – just cook two cups of rice with one can of coconut milk, then refill the empty can with water and add that to the pot. It creates the perfect side that even my 5-year-old will happily gobble down!”
Want more tips for garnish and recipe? Check out the B.A.F. Bombs website and of course, you can place an order too! Follow them on Facebook for announcements.
When not in the kitchen, Shaylin loves spending time with her 5-year-old and 5-month-old and taking their five dogs for a walk with her husband.
