Week 3: Hello Fresh
On a 5 star rating (low to high):
Flavor:***
Price: $
Variety: ***
Prep (Difficult to Easy): ****
Website: *****
Sustainable? HF is transparent about their suppliers and sources. They try to source locally and proteins are labeled for its status as "Hormone free" "non-gmo" or "sustainably sourced". They're conscientious, but not necessarily organic.
Promo used: I had a single use code for a free box from my friend at Niku's Food Cart.
Other codes?
"SAMAELL" to offer my friends $40 off their first box.
"Hello50Fresh" should get you $50 off your 1st 2 boxes. It's still active but was set to expire in january, so no promises
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| When you go to make a recipe, you grab a box and a protein |
Shipping: This came in a cardboard box. Where TK packed everything in plastic containers and Blue Apron used a lot of paper bags, each meal for Hello Fresh had a small cardboard box of goods, so when you pull out the ingredients for a recipe, you grab the box and the protein. No vegetables here, dry goods there, seasonings over here nonsense- a box and a protein.
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| unpacked |
The Recipes: We did Honey Chicken over Jasmine Rice, Mustard Pork Chops and Potato Rosti, and Shrimp and Cheddar Grits. These came on the same cardstock as the others, but mine were all printed horizontally (nbd, just different from the others). I also noticed that all of them had 6 steps. Our shrimp and grits required a pot and a pan, and they made a point of re-using the pan. They also included milk in what they shipped to us, which was a pleasant surprise. (i used milk from the fridge anyway, but it's cool that they sent milk).
Prep/Time: All of our recipe cards are slated ~35-45 minutes. Shrimp and grits was supposed to take 40 minutes total, but i think i actually made and plated it all in ~20-25 minutes. The Honey Chicken took a little longer, but all in all was pretty easy to follow. The pork was our most complicated recipe and took almost an hour with most things being started in a pan and finished in the oven.
Price: This is one of the more affordable boxes, and the trial prices vary from free to $10 or $20. Lots of codes out there for this one. Usually priced ~$60, i did notice some meals have an upcharge for better items
Variety: This one offers 6 meals that change weekly like BA does, but you can choose any 3 you want. I did see a "premium" option for one meal a week which comes with $5 upcharge per person (the one i looked at was for a NY Strip steak). All of these meals come with at least one side (usually 2 from what i can tell). For the most part, they all seem pretty basic, nothing too fancy.
Cancelling: By now I can say that all of these services seem to have a pretty standard online system that allows you to change your menu, skip a week, and cancel or reactivate your service with the click of a button. When i cancelled this one (with an easy "cancel" button), it presented the options to change my subscription to bi-weekly, monthly, or "just take a break", in addition to a full cancellation. It's the first time i've seen a set monthly option presented, and i really liked that.
Overall: These feel a little less fancy, but are yummy basic dinners with easy to follow directions. So far, it's had the simplest storage solution of box + protein which i really liked. It also has the best promotions for trying it out, even ignoring the free box we received from a friend.
Cons? These are pretty no frills, so the fun of learning to cook foods you wouldn't normally isn't there.
Extras: This came with an intro booklet detailing suppliers, ingredients you should keep stocked at home (like vegetable oil and butter, salt and pepper), and a guide to symbols they use. The symbol i thought was interesting, was that if something has a shorter shelf life, they'll mark it with a #1 to tell you to make that recipe first.
Cons? These are pretty no frills, so the fun of learning to cook foods you wouldn't normally isn't there.
Extras: This came with an intro booklet detailing suppliers, ingredients you should keep stocked at home (like vegetable oil and butter, salt and pepper), and a guide to symbols they use. The symbol i thought was interesting, was that if something has a shorter shelf life, they'll mark it with a #1 to tell you to make that recipe first.
Next Week, we'll be trying out Green Chef
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