Above all, people discuss and rave about Blue Apron’s convenience. Is it really as easy to use as other meal delivery services? Will a subscription to Blue Apron make your meals quick and hassle-free, or is it just another quick online gimmick?
Blue Apron
What Is Blue Apron?
Blue Apron is a popular meal delivery service that delivers set ingredients and recipes to people all over the United States of America. Each week, Blue Apron subscribers get to choose recipes they like. The company then delivers these recipes’ ingredients to their front doors. Subscribers will need to cook these from scratch, but Blue Apron has everything else covered, from perfectly rationed ingredients to step-by-step cooking guides that are easy to follow.
What does Blue Apron Offer?
This meal-delivery service has something for all average Americans. Unlike vegan-based competitor Purple Carrot, Blue Apron offers different recipe categories to choose from. Subscribers can get their usual Wednesday-night meals (with all food groups in them), vegetarian meals, and even different kinds of wine. As of 2020, the company plans to offer recipe customization to allow customers to tailor their recipes to how they want them. For example, if you have got a special date night coming up, you can swap out your fish fillet with fillet mignon while keeping everything else from your dinner the same. On another end, you can simply swap ingredients that cater to your dietary conditions. While Blue Apron reviews always mention the company’s lack of recipes for keto and paleo diets, this new feature will put naysayers to rest. Still, expect this much-awaited feature to arrive in bouts than in one go. Blue Apron revealed that customizable recipes will first begin with protein. Starches are expected to be customizable by December.
Making a Blue Apron Account
Signing Up
The first thing you need to do to see the Blue Apron reviews for yourself is to sign up for a Blue Apron account. Like signing up for a health app, Blue Apron will get your dietary details and preferences. Do not let this mislead you though, because recipes are set per week. This does, however, give them a better idea of what their customers are looking for.
Requirements
If you are planning to sign up for a Blue Apron account, make sure you have these pieces of information at the ready. A bonus feature you may want to fill up is Special Instructions. You will find this before your payment information and after your City and Phone number. In this, you can advise Blue Apron where to leave your boxes. This can be your neighbor, your post office, your front door, or any location that is convenient for you. Although before anything else, you may want to learn more about Blue Apron’s prices and payment schemes. Sign Up For Blue Apron on Their Official Site
Payment Terms
2-Serving Signature
For Blue Apron’s most basic menu, the 2-Serving Signature, prices start at $9.99 per serving. If you get this at the company’s minimum of two recipes a week, you will have to pay for a $7.99 shipping fee. This brings your total to $47.95 a week for four servings’ worth of food in a week. If you choose 3-4 recipes per week with the 2-Serving Signature, Blue Apron offers free shipping. The prices for these would be $59.94 and $79.92 a week, respectively.
4-Serving Signature
The prices for each Blue Apron menu category are not that different. For two recipes a week, the 4-serving Signature’s prices begin at $8.99 per serving, bringing to a total of $71.92 a week. However, serving prices go down to $7.99 and $7.49 when you order three-four recipes a week. Your total, depending on if you choose three or four recipes a week, will go down to either $95.88 or $199.84 a week. Everything from the 4-Serving Signature menu is free of any shipping charges.
Vegetarian
Prices for Blue Apron’s vegetarian menu are the same as their 2-Serving Signature. The difference between the two is those vegetarian menus only deliver up to three recipes a week. Each serving is $9.99. You have a $7.99 shipping fee if you order two recipes a week while getting three weekly recipes will leave you without any shipping costs.
Blue Apron Review
Subscription Plans
As seen in the price list above, Blue Apron offers three types of menu “box” options: the 2-Serving Signature, the 4-Serving Signature, and the Vegetarian boxes. For those who will be choosing the 2-Serving Signature, you will have about 12 recipes to choose from weekly. Blue Apron will choose recipes for you by default if you fail to make a choice, but the company will still strictly follow your dietary plan. The same goes for those who subscribe to the 4-Serving Signature boxes. Blue Apron has a dedicated team of recipe developers that make sure you get to have a balanced set of choices each week. Possibly the most customized offering from Blue Apron so far is their Vegetarian plans for 2. Note that these are not vegan and can still contain animal products like eggs and dairy. Still, those with Vegetarian plans will have three vegetarian recipes to choose from each week. Of course, those who want three vegetarian boxes delivered weekly no longer have to choose. Blue Apron will send all their vegetarian meals by default. Compared to other meal delivery services, these boxes offer less variety. Blue Apron reviews constantly discuss how the company fails to offer food tailored to keto, paleo, and vegan diets. A growing population in the United States are shifting their eating habits, and many may not prefer to eat Blue Apron meals despite the high-quality meals they offer.
Menu and Recipes
With about 12 recipes to choose from each week—three of them being vegetarian and nine a well-balanced meal—Blue Apron makes sure their customers are not restrained from enjoying meals. Still, many Blue Apron reviews’ concerns remain in how doable the company’s recipes are. For those with experience in cooking, Blue Apron’s recipes will be a piece of cake. A few may even be too easy to make but at the expense of the recipe’s flavor. People on the other side of this skill spectrum, however, might find themselves having a difficult time. To be fair to Blue Apron, they have step-by-step guides to cooking on their website. Recipes can make you carry out kitchen tasks you have never done before easier and less intimidating, so Blue Apron makes it a point to provide a good guide.
Each Box Comes With Instructions
Each box comes with a hand-written recipe. In this, you can find the recipe’s ingredients, steps, and some nutritional information. It also contains the amount of time you will need to finish a recipe. Cooking can become a challenge when you read these recipe cards, though. Some steps assume you know how to do a fairly difficult kitchen task and do not provide enough safety guidelines. Anyone without a background in chopping, skinning, and other kitchen chores will take longer in cooking the meals Blue Apron provides.
Menu Options
As for Blue Apron’s menu, the company is good at providing balanced recipes. These do not grow stale or boring, using different cuisines that are beloved worldwide. One week you can be enjoying salmon and mashed potatoes, and you can be making your own coconut curry the next. This is definitely a good choice for people who want to widen their cooking skills and food literacy. Blue Apron offers a look into different cultures, but the company still has leaps to do in variety. Hopefully, the company’s “customizable” menus give the company a wider reach. You can actually cook these recipes for yourself with a copy of The Blue Apron Cookbook.
Food Quality and Taste
Blue Apron serves fresh and high-quality ingredients most of the time, with a common slip up in one or two boxes. If you are worried you are not getting cream-of-the-crop ingredients with Blue Apron, you can look into their premium recipes. These recipes are a bit more expensive, but you get higher-quality ingredients and meals with the extra money you pay. Going back, you need not worry if your main concern with Blue Apron is their food’s quality. The company is transparent about its production process, and the ingredients are safe to consume. You can also opt to keep them fresh and uncooked in your freezer if you don’t feel like making the meal right away. If your concern is the food’s taste, however, then Blue Apron does have points for concern. Blue Apron sometimes provides recipes too split in the middle of simplistic and intermediate that the taste of their food suffers. Mind you, their food is not bad; it can just be a bit too bland. These recipes are a gift from them to you, but you will find yourself altering their steps if you are an intermediate home cook. Those with a big spice cabinet can make a difference in their Blue Apron meals. However, budding home cooks may find themselves disheartened when they taste their own cooking for the first time. All in all, Blue Apron offers good quality food for your average American. The taste is not always bland, too. Their garlic-caper chicken with creamy Calabrian zucchini and orzo is great, for example. Those who want to kick it up a notch can make the food taste great, but some quality inconsistencies may lose many inexperienced home cooks in the process.
Serving Size
Blue Apron reviews often mention that the company’s serving sizes can be disappointing to people used to eating filling meals. While their serving sizes do not leave you hungry, they can be taunting and leave you wanting more. The probable reason for the less-than-satisfying serving sizes is Blue Apron’s no-leftover policy. This is a part of their pact to the environment, but how environmentally-friendly are they really?
Packaging
A common thread across all meal-delivery services is their packaging wastes. Blue Apron reviews often mention the gregarious amount of aluminum and plastics that come with every Blue Apron order. As the company advocates for cleaner and more equal food distribution, many see that this comes with a price. To Blue Apron’s benefit, there are no other ways to deliver fresh ingredients right at people’s doorsteps. It seems like the company is aware of this too because they have How To Recycle guides on their website for subscribers to see. Moreover, Blue Apron reviews also notice the company’s conscious effort to lessen their reliance on one-use packaging. Compared to its competitors, Blue Apron uses less individual packaging for their ingredients. Each recipe will have its own bag where everything you need is inside. Best yet, Blue Apron uses drain-safe gel packs. This technology is often lauded by critics because it makes disposal not only easy but also more environmentally conscious.
Convenience
Meal delivery kits rely on convenience. At the end of the day, this is the reason many customers subscribe to such services. This is very much the case for Blue Apron. Canceling your subscriptions or a week’s worth of orders is easy for Blue Apron subscribers. This can be done through your account settings, but make sure you change them before they read Order Processed or Shipped. When it comes to food, Blue Apron reviews resoundingly agree with the company’s quality recipe library. For first-time cooks, Blue Apron is a good way to start building your relationship with your kitchen. Their food is high quality, too. However, it is not lost on a lot of Blue Apron reviews how inconvenient Blue Apron is for people with very specific diets. The company is yet to offer vegan, keto, and paleo options. Their competitors reached that mountain peak before they did, but their customizable features can change that. Blue Apron teaches you how to cook with different cuisines at your own time. The company gives you the materials you need to use at your own convenience. There is definitely a value-adding feat there because the story would be very different if you kept making the meals only you know over and over.
Pricing
When you order three or four recipes on Blue Apron or any of their 4-Serving Signatures, you get free shipping. If you do choose to only have two recipes a week, then you have a shipping fee of $7.99. This may be a steep price for some, so consider getting their three-four recipes if you can. Blue Apron reviews report that the company’s price is fair for the quality you get. This is true as there are only a few meal kit delivery services that start with $7.49 per serving. This leaves people wondering about how Blue Apron fares in comparison to its competitors.
Blue Apron vs Other Meal Delivery Services
Hello Fresh
One of Blue Apron’s biggest competitors is Hello Fresh. There’s always a sponsor war between the two, and it’s with good reason. Their features are almost the same, but people notice that their serving sizes and ingredient portions differ. Blue Apron reviews remark the service’s no-leftover servings, which the company is transparent about in their advocacies. For HelloFresh users, this is not the case. A lot of ingredients are not proportioned properly. You could be left with a few extra vegetables and spices, which can be wasteful and counterproductive. Others would prefer this, though, so it is a matter of preference at the end of the day. Both Blue Apron and Hello Fresh have recipe cards with nutritional information. They also have the same types of recipes, though many Blue Apron reviews notice the service’s efforts in branching out their cuisines. Hello Fresh tends to stick with what you know, but note that this is not always the case. Visit Hello Fresh
Freshly
When it comes to balance and convenience, Freshly may edge out Blue Apron a bit more. However, this does always boil down to subscriber preferences, which both services can customize around. Freshly food has less sugar, is less processed, and has more nutritional value than you might think. Their food, unlike Blue Apron’s, arrives ready-to-eat. All Freshly subscribers have to do is schedule their meals and choose their diet plans. This platform offers plant-based and meat-based meals, so they can cater to many types of diets. Blue Apron reviews remark the service’s lack of service to popular diets of today. Dive into a Freshly Meals review and compare the two services for yourself. Visit Freshly
PeachDish
The stark difference between PeachDish and Blue Apron is their subscription system, or rather the former’s lack of one. Blue Apron has a set number of recipes and meals for each customer, but this is not the case for PeachDish. On PeachDish, you can choose as many meals as you want for whatever servings you prefer as long as it is not for one person. Blue Apron is more strict with their system, but it can also be limiting. Both services provide good recipes and great food, though Blue Apron reviews tend to skew on the simpler style of cooking. PeachDish recipes are easy to make but are also flavorful and hearty. This platform’s food will taste more like home. This authentic meal service kit with a heart does come with a big catch, however. Its servings begin at $12.50 each. On average, meal delivery services land between $9 and $11. PeachDish has one of the highest price points possible. For cost and taste, Blue Apron might still be the better choice. Unfortunately, PeachDish has been on hiatus for a while. Their social media pages are active, so you can still keep track of their comeback. Visit PeachDish
Plated
Plated and Blue Apron have similar features, including easy cancellation/skipping of orders and plans. However, Blue Apron offers more variety than Plated. On Plated, you also have about six dinners and two desserts to choose from each week. Blue Apron, as of October 2020, offers 12 for their normal servings. Vegetarians servings, meanwhile, have three to choose from. Not much else makes Plated stand out other than their recipes and taste. However, like Hello Fresh, people notice that Plated can have trouble sorting out their own ingredients. Plated’s price point is also remarkably steeper than Blue Apron’s. Still, whether you find Blue Apron or Plated the better option depends on what you are looking for at the end of the day. Visit Plated
Purple Carrot
Purple Carrot makes up for the lack of vegan offerings on Blue Apron. However, this is the only thing it might make up for because it is a vegan-exclusive meal delivery service. Delivering to 48 states, Purple Carrot gives plant-based eaters a taste of convenience with their food. You are given vegan recipes and ingredients each week, which is a big bonus for beginner vegans. More often than not, a diet as unknown as veganism can make it difficult for people to find new recipes. Purple Carrot makes this arduous process easier for people starting out on the vegan lifestyle. For those trying to keep their diets in tip-top shape, it might be of interest to you knowing that Purple Carrot is not completely GMO-free. Another recurring issue is that their food can spoil faster than other meal delivery services’. However, there are a lot of other benefits to the platform as seen in this Purple Carrot review. Visit Purple Carrot
Blue Apron Pros and Cons
Blue Apron is a steady choice for people who want convenience and quality. As you can see on the list above, meal delivery servings have different price points. They also have their own sets of weaknesses. Blue Apron reviews note that the service is not without mistakes, but it is a better choice than others. When it comes to environmental impact, Blue Apron does not individually wrap everything in their box. Their gel packs also lessen the company’s carbon footprint, which serves the company’s bigger purpose of maintaining healthy food security. Their recipes are good, albeit sometimes too easy or too hard to make. These are just matters of preference, though. Blue Apron is aware of this, which is why the company strives to offer more recipes and customizable options for its subscribers in the future. Another yin-and-yang situation for the company is their recipe cards: they have calorie details but lack important nutritional information.
Blue Apron Verdict
Blue Apron is your average American’s choice for a meal delivery service. It seems to be the Goldilocks choice among its colleagues in the industry. Best price, great service, and good-enough food are their main selling points. They are here for convenience and necessity, and this is not lost on their subscribers. Blue Apron is worth your time because it saves it. The time it does use is not wasted either, because you learn fresh new recipes from many international cuisines.
