Finding My Flavor & Having Fun - Jessica Banh @officialfancyflavors

Who doesn't love a little sweet treat? From a quick pick-me-up to indulgence and decadence, desserts have a unique way of bringing delight to anyone's day. Jessica Banh of Official Fancy Flavors creates joyful moments through her wide selection of confections. Keep reading to learn about her journey through the culinary industry!

What is something about the confections/culinary business that you think more people should know about?

We actually don’t eat as many desserts and sweets as you think we do! Also, this is all fun but you definitely need to have a business mindset and know your numbers.

Can you tell us about key milestones and significant events that have shaped your business’s journey up to the present day?

• January 2012 - started Fancy Flavors at home, just because I felt like I wanted to jump into starting my own business

• Spring/Summer 2018 - Moved into a commercial kitchen and started doing farmer’s markets

• 2018-2019 - started to do night market pop ups all over the bay area

• November 2019 - signed a lease for my first brick and mortar

• All 2020 - Covid + building out my storefront. This took a whole year because of all of the closures, delays, and uncertainty

• February 2021 - finally grand opened my brick and mortar!! 

• May 2023 - Went viral for spiral croissants!

• 2025 - today, we’re no longer selling spiral croissants, but we’ve pivoted and are now offering cakes and cupcakes, while still working on building up our brick and mortar more as a bakeshop & cafe instead of just a bakeshop

  
  

What do you tell yourself whenever you encounter a challenge or setback with your business?

1. Initial thought - omg not again!

2. After the emotions have come and gone (usually takes me about an hour or less to process all my emotions depending on what it is), I’ll be able to start taking steps forward and thinking about contingency plans. I’ll start doing research on what things I can do to get myself out of the challenge or set back. I typically will do what’s necessary to overcome that challenge. If it’s something that’s new that I could set a system in place to handle it next time that happens, that’s what I’ll do

3. Every time I go through a challenge or set back, I take it as a learning lesson on what I could do to be better. These things will happen, as it’s very normal with business. It’s just all about your mindset and how you overcome it. But I don’t let things linger for too long, I like to process things quickly and move on!

What are your favorite professional resources for running your business?

Finding a coach. I have a business coach and a separate coffee specific business coach.

Reading books/listening to audiobooks. Listening to lots of podcasts from other entrepreneurs.

Being a part of a mastermind group with same like-minded individuals that can help guide me in the right direction.  

If you could go back in time and tell your past self anything, what would it be?

1. You got this! You are amazing and you will encounter some REALLY hard stuff, but this is going to help build you into the person you will want to be. Everything will be a learning lesson so definitely make sure you accept everything with grace and also have forgiveness and patience for yourself

2. DON'T buy anymore clamshell packaging, You don’t need it! 👀

3. Do NOT do the register receipt ads

4. Lastly, you have a ghost in your kitchen, please be nice to him.

5. All jokes aside - I do believe that things all happen for a reason and I wouldn’t change a thing, no matter how much I want to! Haha. But I think that if I made any specific changes, I wouldn’t be where I am at today, good or bad.

How has your cultural identity influenced your journey so far, if at all?

I loveeee tying in my culture into what we do. To be completely honest, I did that a lot in the beginning of my Fancy Flavors’ journey. But once I opened up a shop and started to offer asian inspired desserts, I noticed that the specific demographic in my area preferred more traditional American flavors, so I did what my demographic asked for. But I started to feel unfulfilled and lost (especially in this last year). But NOW I’m finding my voice again and I’m working on offering desserts that match our branding while also speaking to my heart. This is a slow transition, but it’s coming and it’s making me incredibly excited to be able to do these things again!

Your Instagram boasts a wide variety of flavors and menu items, from new lattes to custom cakes and macarons. Could you walk me through your thought process when ideating on new recipes?

• Of course! You can definitely thank my ADHD for that! I also just found out my personality type is a matured version of ENFP-T.

• First off, I get inspiration from anywhere and everywhere. I see a lot of trends, fun flavors, unique combinations on social media. If it’s something we can do/offer, then I’ll work on trying to incorporate it into our menu, or at least testing it out to see how the team feels.

• Sometimes new recipes come in the form of excess ingredients at the bakeshop. I absolutely HATE waste, so can we re-use this product for something else that it’s not originally intended for?

  • One of my favorite skills is being able to take a bunch of mis-matched ingredients and creating something fun and unique with it. A lot of times, they’re delicious but they don’t come to fruition to sell (mainly because there’s not a lot of it, or it would be too difficult to add to the menu) Creating things out of what we currently have helps me exercise that creative part of my brain. 

• Essentially, my brain is moving a mile a minute all of the time. I always have new ideas coming and going. If something sticks with me long enough, I’ll finally try it out.

In December, you posted that you would be retiring your iconic spiral croissants (gone but never forgotten!). What is your process in deciding what stays on the permanent menu vs. what is seasonal (or, in this case, when to take something off of the menu)?

• Taking the spiral croissants off of the menu was definitely something my team and I discussed in length. Typically, when something leaves the menu, I have to balance out the cost of keeping it on and the cost of taking it away. The cost of keeping it on doesn’t just include ingredients, it also includes the time it takes my team to prepare this specific menu item along with what I have to say “No” to in order to keep it around. 

• The process of adding or removing a menu item takes weeks of thought, consideration, and planning both with just myself and with my team. We have to look at what our clients are wanting and asking for and realistically looking at the numbers in sales.

• We’ve had so many amazing menu items that have come and gone, but it never means that they’ll be leaving permanently! 

• Speaking more on the spiral croissants, it’ll be something we’ll definitely bring back time and time again. But does it have the same popularity as it once did? Not for us at least. Giving up spiral croissants gave us the opportunity to start accepting cake orders and booking more clients. We don’t have the capacity: in space and in team members, to sustain the spiral croissants alone. So that’s ultimately why I made the final decision to remove it from our permanent menu. We still have people coming in daily asking for them, but for those 1-2 customers that ask, it’s not enough for us to keep it around when we could be utilizing our time and space for more creative and fun desserts and drinks!

You recently, as described in your Instagram post, graduated to becoming a mother– congratulations!! How has this new chapter of motherhood changed your perspective on owning/running a business, and what advice would you give to any mom-trepreneurs out there?

This has given me so much new perspective! Before motherhood, I would essentially be living at the bakeshop and giving everything to my business. Now, I’ve created clearer boundaries.

This means 2 dedicated days off, “clocking” in and out of work, and

spending all of my time not at the bakeshop with my daughter. Anytime I’m with her, I make sure that I give her 100% of my attention because I never want to give her the impression that my business comes first.

Next, I would definitely say that you should lean on your village if you have the support! I’m only able to do what I can because I have people in my life who have dedicated their time to being with my daughter while I am at my bakeshop. I know it’s not the same for everyone so I’m incredibly grateful for my family for supporting me as an entrepreneur and as a mom.

Also, let’s be friends!! Haha. I love connecting with other moms and entrepreneurs! I love learning from other people as well!

Share another Asian-women-owned small business or entrepreneur that inspires you!

There’s so many! Blooms by June, Atelier PQ, Modern Aqua, Cakes by Jamie, Snowtime. The list goes on!

What is the last thing you were curious about? 

Anything Matcha! Trying to make sure that our Matcha drinks are the best we can get it to be while constantly doing research on how we can be better + any other fun matcha combos we can introduce.

What can the community help you with?

Come support us! Or just post about us on social media. This helps us out so much by getting our name out there!

Jessica's journey brings us deep inside into the life of a mom-trepreneur while sharing sweet insights into the confectionery industry. You can learn more about and visit Official Fancy Flavors at the links below:

officialfancyflavors.com

https://www.instagram.com/officialfancyflavors/