Oklahoma Man Turns A Class Project Into A Popcorn Empire

Popcorn! It’s the perfect snack for a good movie or sporting event, but DJ Boles took this popcorn thing to the extreme.

It all started when Boles was taking a retail management course at OSU, basically just to graduate

“I got into it quite by accident to be honest, and the whole project was creating a business plan to find a niche in the Stillwater market,” said DJ Boles, owner of Oklahoma Gourmet Popcorn.

He pondered and researched for a while until he realized that there were no popcorn shops in Stillwater.

“I was starting to get really confident about this thing. So I made the paper, invented all kinds of flavors. We don’t actually have any of those flavors now because I just made up names,” Boles said.

DJ’s note on paper? A “C”

“I took the paper to a bank. In February of my senior year, 2016, I actually got a small business loan, and it looked like it was going to happen,” Boles said.

He was approved for a small business loan for a popcorn business. But there was one more problem.

“I still don’t know how to make popcorn,” Boles said.

He found a popcorn shop in Texas willing to help.

“I was there for a day, around April, and he kind of showed me how to operate all the machines,” Boles said.

Boles and his father started working on the stores and when the equipment arrived, reality set in.

“Right now I’m just wondering, what should I do?” Boles said.

His first batch didn’t quite go as planned.

“The first batch I make I screwed up the oil, it goes everywhere. It’s super salty, all that stuff. I love salt and my mom was up there trying it and she thought you were going to kill someone,” Boles said.

Eventually he found the right balance and now he boasts over fifty different flavors of popcorn.

“You just mix them and taste it until it tastes really good, I mean, that’s it. You just mix it and if it tastes bad you try again, you add some and take some away,” Boles said.

Boles is notorious for trying some not-so-traditional flavors like lemon pie, dill pickle, and loaded baked potato.

“Thanksgiving was just around the corner and I was like, what can we do? And I think one of my employees at Moore suggested we make a stuffed baked potato. I thought that was crazy,” Boles said.

Popcorn is freshly made at their two locations, one at Moore, 1021 SW 19th, and the other at Edmond, 3209 S. Broadway, Suite 129.

The store also ships its products. For more information, visit www.ogpopcorn.com or the @Oklahoma Gourmet Popcorn Facebook page