Pricey and Uninspiring Food: A Blue Apron Review

My excitement at opening the Blue Apron delivery box was only matched by my disappointment at the passionless bland flavor of the meal. In case you haven’t heard of it, Blue Apron, Inc. is an e-commerce food delivery business. Pretty much the business model is it delivers recipes and ingredients to make meals at home. You order the meals via their website and ingredients come a few days later. I recently had a chance to try it for the first time. Today’s post will be my Blue Apron review.

The Basics

In my case, the Blue Apron package was delivered by Fed Ex. The package had three different meals in it. One of the first things that impressed me was how organized the packaging was. All the ingredients were correctly labeled. There were meat, vegetables and different seasonings for each recipe. To make sure that the food doesn’t expire or go bad during delivery, two ice packs are included in the package.

The Meals & Instructions

The package came with three different meals. They were Moroccan chicken with prunes and brown rice, chipotle-glazed meatloaf with crispy potatoes and spicy shrimp coconut curry with green cabbage and rice. All three of those recipes were new to me. Blue Apron has inserts for each dinner. The insert has the meal name, a small breakdown going over the meal and step by step instructions. Even if you don’t consider yourself a cook, you should be able to follow these instructions verbatim. The instructions even have pictures of each step when you’re cooking.

Prep & Cooking Time

Each meal has about 10-15 minutes of prep time. If you’re not familiar with cooking these foods, you are going to need it. The cooking time for each meal is between 25-45 minutes. That’s nearly standard cooking time for me. So the total prep and cooking time is substantially longer than the advertised time.

Spicy Shrimp Coconut Curry

For my Blue Apron Review, I selected the spicy shrimp coconut curry. With the instructions, it was relatively easy to make. The meal said that it would make enough for two servings. That was all right with me. I opened the package and organized the ingredients and started cooking. With the instructions, I was able to cook the meal without any problems. Below are a few pictures of the items and the finished product.

To me, the meal was just okay. It was kind of bland. I usually like a little more flavor.

Thoughts On Pricing and Value

As part of my Blue Apron review, I did some research on pricing. For three meals each week, the price is $59.94. The prices for the family plan are even higher – $69.92 for 2 meals per week. I’m sure that if I go to the store on my own, that I’ll be able to purchase more than three meals worth of food. I’m the king of finding deals at my local grocery store. Also, Blue Apron also doesn’t have any meal choices beyond fish, meat, and vegetarian. So Blue Apron doesn’t accommodate vegans at the moment. Delivery dates are flexible, you can skip deliveries if you don’t want the food that week. Here is a screenshot of the pricing.

My Blue Apron Review Conclusion – Only Worth It If You Are Busy

If you are super busy or need help coming up with new meal ideas, then Blue Apron may be worth it. For my lifestyle, it’s not worth it at all. I can get more bang for my buck when I shop on my own. That said, some people have run the numbers and found that Blue Apron can actually be LESS expensive than buying from a supermarket (clicky), especially when you factor in the fact that supermarkets don’t always sell in single portion sizes. Blue Apron may therefore be a good solution if you travel a lot or otherwise aren’t interested in buying stuff that’s just going to sit in the back of your refrigerator.

Blue Apron is offering $30 dollars off first orders – click on the ad the left or use this link. You can always cancel after your first order if you don’t like the price or you aren’t happy with the meals.

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More of Blue Apron at Budget and Invest, Cleverdude and Thousandaire.

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