By Hayley Munguia

Stoners of NYU, rejoice!

We all knew that weed delivery was an option, but now two of our very own Violets have orchestrated a business that delivers all the rest of your 4/20 needs straight to your door. This past Sunday, CAS junior Joshua Cherkes and Gallatin junior Kyle Mechini launched HotBox, a smoking-centric spin on BirchBox.

The service has three levels: The Essentials ($20/month), The Treat ($30/month), and The Splurge ($50/month).

“The entry level package is called The Essentials, but it’s not only essentials,” Cherkes said. It will include rolling papers with connoisseur packaging, a full-sized Bic lighter with a hempwick pre-rolled around the side, and one small surprise each month. “So that surprise could either be something like a grinder, or maybe a small pipe, or just some nifty toy that you would see in the store but maybe wouldn’t want to buy for yourself.”

The Treat will include everything that comes with The Essentials, but with a medium surprise worth around $20, like a small vaporizer. The Splurge is aimed at groups of friends, and will include everything that comes with The Treat as well as a large surprise that cost around 50 bucks, such as a large water pipe.

The idea came to Cherkes last summer, when he stumbled upon a website that listed available short URLs. “One of the URLs that was available was Bong.io,” Cherkes said. “I bought it just because I thought it was hilarious, and then I realized, ‘Oh wait, I can just send people bongs in boxes.’”

Due to certain pesky legal restrictions (classy pamphlet there, DOJ), the business plan, as well as the URL, had to be tweaked a bit. But its blazing spirit still holds strong.

“So now, we won’t be sending people bongs in the mail,” Cherkes said. “We’ll be sending them water pipes in the mail.”

Since its beginnings, the idea behind HotBox has evolved. Now, the real goal of the venture is to provide a new level of quality in an industry that tends to be stigmatized.

“Our product takes smoking culture away from the generically sketchy head shop, where you have to go and talk to somebody that you don’t necessarily want to interact with, but you have to because they’re holding a product that you’re interested in,” Mechini said. “We really want to emphasize class, quality, and style.”

“We want to take smoking culture and put it on the same pedestal that other consumer products get,” Cherkes added. “We want to provide a good shopping experience. Anti-shaming is really the best way to put it.”

HotBox will start shipping on March 24. So go sign up, before your munchies get the best of you.

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