Biggest Perk: Ready to go. Minimal prep.
On a 5 star rating (low to high):
Flavor:*****
Price: $$$$$
Portion:**
Variety:*****
Prep (Difficult to Easy): ****
Website: ***
Sustainability? For the dirty dozen produce, they go all organic, but for others they choose conscientiously. ALL of their recipes are *supposed to be* dairy, gluten, and soy free (except 1 recipe with miso), but i did still end up choosing a recipe that had a soy allergen warning for the sauce used in it. Unlike other boxes, these cups are already assembled, so it's not like i could just take out the sauce.
Promo used: $25 off with "FB25"
Other Codes? The main website offers 3 free cups with code "DH3" or with a friend link like this one.
Shipping: Being a totally different format from the other subscription boxes, i wasn't really sure what to expect. *These ARE frozen, and come packaged with dry ice. These are cups of frozen produce, but do not include any liquid mixers you might need. Technically, you *can* make any of them with just water to cut on cost, but we know they each have a liquid that's going to lend itself best.
The Recipes: I tried to pick one of everything so, i received: Butternut Squash Harvest Bowl, Cinnamon Protein & Banana Overnight Oats, Turmeric & Lemongrass Detox Broth, Chaga & Chocolate Latte, Chai & Coconut Smoothie, and Chocolate Brownie Batter Sundae. I have a love/hate kinda thing with chia, so that was the one i opted to miss out on.
Prep/Time: These all come in a cup designed to be quick and easy. They don't come with liquids, you purchase those on your own. They were all quick and easy, but i did find the stovetop guidelines to be a bit optimistic (refrigerated milk does not heat to latte hot in 2-3 minutes. Soup with frozen veggies does not even thaw out all of the veggies in 5 minutes), but i'm an adult and i can figure out how to cook things a little longer than the cups says to. We don't really use a microwave in our house so i can't comment on the microwave cook times.
Price: This is usually 6 cups for ~$47 which i am just not down with. That's $8/cup and justifiable for some options, but not for all. At the trial rate of $22, i paid less than $4/cup to try 1 of everything.
Variety: You can customize your cups weekly and there are about 3-12 options in each category (an average of 6 per category) for 7 categories
Portion: Most of these are *meant* to be 2 portions. That said, a single "portion" is like reading a box of cookies or the ice cream container. No normal person is going to eat 3 cookies or a quarter cup of ice cream. For *most* things, you had a little portion play through the liquid you were adding. I added enough milk to my lattes to fill my coffee cup (probably an extra 2-4oz per pod), but they're designed to be ~12oz. I added maybe 4 times as much broth as would actually fit in the cup for the soup (mainly because i don't like keeping leftover broth in my fridge) and it didn't compromise flavor, and was still pretty hearty in content, but a portion of soup is like the tiny cup size in a restaurant. It may seem adequate, but it's not going to replace lunch. The recipe where i really didn't have any portion play was the harvest bowls, because you aren't adding a liquid. If you want 2 portions out of that, it's a side dish. If you purchase this plan with the intent of being an $8 meal replacement for one person, it's pricey, but the portions are fine for one person. They are not a great size for sharing.
Flavor: Everything was very tasty, some things arguably too tasty. The lattes are new, and honestly my chocolate one was far closer to hot chocolate than to mocha, but overall, everything is intensely packed with flavor. i diluted almost every recipe for bigger portions and the flavor punch was still intense...
EXCEPT for one: The icecream was just a no-go for me. DH and i both agreed that it wasn't "bad"...but it wasn't good either. The portion size on this one is great, but ice cream made out of vegetables just leaves something to be desired. I chose chocolate, because if you mess up chocolate flavored health food, the others are not going to be better. i made it a thick frosty consistency so as not to fight with my blender (the instructions are 1/4-1/2c liquid. i used camel milk. 1/4 c meant lots of opening the blender and stirring things back to the blades. 1/2 c was still thick, but not formable for a cone). Mine was chocolate brownie batter and the batter comes in a separate package for topping with...except it came in a huge ball that i needed to break/cut up for that purpose...and it didn't really taste like brownie batter...
Variety: You can customize your cups weekly and there are about 3-12 options in each category (an average of 6 per category) for 7 categories
Portion: Most of these are *meant* to be 2 portions. That said, a single "portion" is like reading a box of cookies or the ice cream container. No normal person is going to eat 3 cookies or a quarter cup of ice cream. For *most* things, you had a little portion play through the liquid you were adding. I added enough milk to my lattes to fill my coffee cup (probably an extra 2-4oz per pod), but they're designed to be ~12oz. I added maybe 4 times as much broth as would actually fit in the cup for the soup (mainly because i don't like keeping leftover broth in my fridge) and it didn't compromise flavor, and was still pretty hearty in content, but a portion of soup is like the tiny cup size in a restaurant. It may seem adequate, but it's not going to replace lunch. The recipe where i really didn't have any portion play was the harvest bowls, because you aren't adding a liquid. If you want 2 portions out of that, it's a side dish. If you purchase this plan with the intent of being an $8 meal replacement for one person, it's pricey, but the portions are fine for one person. They are not a great size for sharing.
Flavor: Everything was very tasty, some things arguably too tasty. The lattes are new, and honestly my chocolate one was far closer to hot chocolate than to mocha, but overall, everything is intensely packed with flavor. i diluted almost every recipe for bigger portions and the flavor punch was still intense...
EXCEPT for one: The icecream was just a no-go for me. DH and i both agreed that it wasn't "bad"...but it wasn't good either. The portion size on this one is great, but ice cream made out of vegetables just leaves something to be desired. I chose chocolate, because if you mess up chocolate flavored health food, the others are not going to be better. i made it a thick frosty consistency so as not to fight with my blender (the instructions are 1/4-1/2c liquid. i used camel milk. 1/4 c meant lots of opening the blender and stirring things back to the blades. 1/2 c was still thick, but not formable for a cone). Mine was chocolate brownie batter and the batter comes in a separate package for topping with...except it came in a huge ball that i needed to break/cut up for that purpose...and it didn't really taste like brownie batter...
Cancelling: The website allows for easy customization, cancellation, and skipping through the website. I use microsoft edge most of the time, and this site wasn't super compatible with that platform, glitching frequently. It worked fine on chrome though. The skipping function is super super easy, so if you wanted to order this as an occasional treat monthly or something, you could totally do that, and since you keep them in your freezer, you can absolutely make that last reasonably with $8/week for a fun smoothie or something.
Overall: I, personally, could never justify spending $8 on the regular. I can see this aimed at single urban 30-somethings who aren't cooking for a family, but for those of us who have other people in our house to feed, it's just not remotely practical. I would not order this with the expectation that you're going to get multiple portions for the cost without tweaking on your part. That said, i'm a big believer in occasional treats, and you could probably justify this monthly as a guilty pleasure.
Extras: This came with a sheet of smoothie themed magnets. It's not really my thing, but it's a freebie and some people enjoy magnets.
The Competition: I don't have a competition section on the others, because they all offer the same thing and i reviewed 13 of them, but soups and smoothies are kind of in their own category. Daily harvest offers a generally bigger variety of items than the others at a similar pricepoint
Extras: This came with a sheet of smoothie themed magnets. It's not really my thing, but it's a freebie and some people enjoy magnets.
The Competition: I don't have a competition section on the others, because they all offer the same thing and i reviewed 13 of them, but soups and smoothies are kind of in their own category. Daily harvest offers a generally bigger variety of items than the others at a similar pricepoint
- Green Blender- smoothies
- Frozen Garden-smoothies
- Grandma's Chicken Soup -soups and comfort foods (like mac n cheese) for sending out
- The Soup Shop-soups
- Spoonful of Comfort- soups for sending
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