Blue Apron was among the first meal kit services in the United States and the emergence of Blue Apron began the trend of meal kit services across the country!
The following Blue Apron review will help you understand why it is the largest and among the most popular meal kit services in the US.
How Does Blue Apron Work?
Blue Apron is an excellent service for all those who get hassled about cooking and with the professionally designed dinners and pre-portioned ingredients, you can now whip up restaurant quality meals in your own home.
The meal kits not only make your cooking experience enjoyable but makes your life much easier.
And, the best part is that it saves you all the hassle of planning your meals and going grocery shopping too. The ingredients provided by Blue Apron are high quality, natural and fresh, their recipes are extremely simple and they offer flexible subscriptions at extremely affordable prices.
Blue Apron offers you the complete flexibility of choosing the recipes you like and the number of meals you want to cook in a week. And, once you decide on this, all you’ll have to do is sit ba
ck and wait for your delivery of ingredients at your doorstep.
Preparing Your Meals
Once your Blue Apron delivery arrives, you can follow the step-by-step instructions that comes along with the ingredients that have been perfectly portioned, so that you don’t have the hassle of doing it by yourself and the portions also ensure that nothing is wasted.
The interactive instructions give you directions of the proper manner in which to prepare your meals by making use of the ingredients and also the right pots, pans and kitchen utensils. And, if you don’t have the right kind of cooking utensils, the Blue Apron website offers an excellent range of cookware that you can buy.
You can also watch the videos available on the Blue Apron website that can guide you through what to do with the recipe if you are stuck at any point in time.
Food Quality
The high-quality, responsibly-sourced ingredients, such as the sustainably sourced seafood, meat without any hormones or antibiotics, fresh produce, artisanal sauces and premium spices ar
e delivered in an insulated box to preserve their freshness.
And, all the ingredients are sourced directly from family-owned and run farms and artisanal sources that follow sustainable practices. The ice packs and packaging used for delivery are recyclable and environmental friendly.
Coverage Area
Blue Apron delivers to all cities in the United States and deliveries are made all seven days of the week. The Blue Apron website is very well organized and also easy to use and you can manage your orders via the website and also via the app.
You can register, select and also change your dishes 4 weeks in advance, specify your preferences and modify the payment method, etc. through the website and app. You can also see all the previous recipes and the future menus, recipes, the ingredients list and the nutritional information and breakdown of all the dishes.
Sign up for an account with Blue Apron>>
Blue Apron Pricing
The process of getting your meals is very simple and quick with Blue Apron. According to your requirements, you can select a meal plan. Blue Apron offers 2 plans – the 2-Person Plan and a Family Plan.
The menu offers 13 new recipes each week. There are 8 available in the 2-Person Plan and 5 recipes in the Family Plan.
Two-Person Plan
Two Recipes Per Week:
- Per Serving Cost: $9.99
- Shipping Cost: $7.99
- Per Week Cost (Including Shipping): $47.95
Three Recipes Per Week:
- Per Serving Cost: $9.99
- Shipping Cost: Free
- Per Week Cost: $59.94
Family Plan
The Family Plan is ideal for a family of four. Though with smaller children it can easily feed more.
Two Recipes Per Week:
- Per Serving Cost: $8.99
- Shipping Cost: Free
- Per Week Cost: $71.92
Three Recipes Per Week:
- Per Serving Cost: $7.99
- Shipping Cost: Free
- Per Week Cost: $95.88
Four Recipes Per Week:
- Per Serving Cost: $7.49
- Shipping Cost: Free
- Per Week Cost: $119.84
How is this a Deal?
I know that on face value this does not look like a good deal on a per person per meal basis. I have small children so I can take them out to eat for less than $8.74 (especially when we head out for restaurants where kids eat free).
Where the deal comes in is the cost of the ingredients in the box. When you throw a few kids in the mix for your dinner considerations, the likelihood of them liking something the first time out is pretty low. What makes the Blue Apron meals affordable is that you don’t have to go and buy all the individual ingredients to make the meal.
Think about it this way, you want to try some new foods on your family. When most people do this they don’t want to spend an extra $10 on a spice that they have never used and may never use in their cooking ever again (if the recipe doesn’t go over well). With Blue Apron, all the spices come in just enough for what you need in the recipe. The same goes for any special foods that you wouldn’t normally buy. Nothing gets wasted because it is all pre-measured to make it faster and easier for you to cook. This is what makes it cheaper.
The last four serving Blue Apron meal we prepped cost my family $34.96. The ingredients would have cost us more $50 to try the recipe and I would have had to go hunting through the grocery store to find them (these spices aren’t usually available at Aldi).
Instead of spending that extra money on ingredients we buy one box a month, my wife gets to choose new recipes for us to try, and we don’t waste all the extra ingredients if the meal isn’t as much of a hit as she had hoped. So this isn’t something we do every week, but is a great way to try new foods and have a few meals each month that are quick to make and very healthy for your family. So that is a win win win win.
Types of Meals Available
Blue Apron offers a huge variety of dishes ranging from burgers, tacos, stir fries, noodles, pastas, quiches, flatbreads, etc. The recipes are designed specially by their in-house chefs and also include innovative one-pan dinners that can be made very quickly and dishes to cater to the Mediterranean diet, Whole 30 diet and a whole lot more.
Blue Apron accommodates many types of dietary preferences, for example, if you are a vegetarian or you prefer seafood or if you don’t eat fish, pork, lamb, red meat or shellfish, the menu can be customized specifically according to your preference.
However, Blue Apron does not accommodate for allergies and since the meal boxes are all assembled in the same facility if you have any serious food allergy, then it is a good idea not to order Blue Apron meals.
Company History
Blue Apron was launched by Ilia Papas, Matt Salzberg and Matt Wadiak in 2012 in New York. They first tested out their recipes in their small New York City apartment.
Their objective was to enable people to experience the joys of cooking with specialty ingredients and high-quality produce irrespective of where they lived and how busy lives they led. The 3 founders packed and hand-delivered the Blue Apron boxes to their family members and friends.
In 2016, Blue Apron expanded in a big way and today, around 800,000 meals are dispatched to home chefs across the United States every month. Blue Apron has 4 offices and employs thousands of workers to oversee that every customer receives the best-quality product each week. The “Blue Apron” is reminiscent of the aprons worn by apprentice chefs in France and has become a symbol of learning to be a cook lifelong.
Current Blue Apron Promotion
Blue Apron always offers some sort of promotions for new subscribers. We try to keep up with these discounts and provide you a direct link to the current promo. The current discount is:
Get $30 off your first order with Blue Apron>>
Blue Apron Review – What You Get
So we have covered how this whole thing works by I wanted to actually walk through what the experience looks like. The whole process starts with a box.
The Blue Apron Box
The Blue Apron meal box fills you with a little excitement when it shows up at your door. They ship via UPS and I haven’t had one that was melted yet. I have read that it does happen from time to time and every review I have read where someone got their box late resulted in Blue Apron giving the person a credit. I have actually tried four different ready to cook meal kit companies and all of them have this policy.
The box itself is lined with insulation. Inside that insulation is first laid a layer of long lasting frozen gel packs, followed by your food, then another layer of long lasting frozen gel packs. It is a really great shipping system and is great at keeping the food fresh during shipping.
Blue Apron Food
When you finally get to the food inside your box you are going to notice how organized everything is. Every food item is labeled and easy to read. and the coupon cards are nicely colored and the instructions are easy to follow
We quickly separate the food out into the two or three meals that we ordered and put away whichever meal we are not going to eat that night.
Once you have a little bit of experience with the Blue Apron meals, the prep times are pretty close to what it takes a person with a little cooking skill. It usually takes us a little longer with kid distractions.
Pros
- The meal plan comprises of 2 excellent weekly menus and 12 new recipes every week.
- The meals are very easy to make and come along with instructions that are extremely easy to follow.
- The Blue Apron wine club offers a selection of fine wines at great prices.
- Fresh organic produce and high-quality ingredients used and the meat is hormone and antibiotic-free.
- The 2-Person Plan includes a special vegetarian menu.
- Delivery is to all locations across the United States.
Cons
- The Family Plan does not have a vegetarian option.
- Shipping is not free on all the plans.
Bottom Line
Blue Apron has set themselves at the top of the ready to cook meal kit war that is going on right now. They have a great market share and their customer service is top notch.
If you are looking to jump in with one of the companies, getting your first box from Blue Apron would be a good place to start.
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