Every year, right around Spring/Summer, I find myself trying to make “better” food choices. Whether it’s just eating a little less (because Mama loves her bread and pasta) or eating more of the things that don’t include ice cream or all of the carbs in the land. But we all know that the hardest part about that isn’t eating better in itself, it’s finding the time to make the food that is better for you. And that’s exactly how Rachel Drori, founder of Daily Harvest felt. Being a busy Mom and busy New Yorker, finding the time to make those oh-so-healthy and Instagram-worthy smoothies was just not at the top of the list. Instead, she built a business that helped everyone get their “daily dose of good.” Who has the time to shop, prep, measure, freeze, store, and then blend before work? And that is how Daily Harvest was born.
Living in California, I am spoiled to the year-round variety of produce. There’s almost nothing I can’t find within a five-mile radius of my home. But I know, and so did Rachel, that that is not the case for everyone. Getting fresh ingredients to people all over the US is not an easy feat. It takes just the right window for the produce and just the right window for delivery. In other words, almost impossible. But the team at Daily Harvest didn’t give up, and they found a way that could quickly freeze the produce at the peak of its quality without damaging the fruit and veggies or compromise the nutritional integrity. That means fresh ingredients that’ll last.
From there Rachel works with a team of chefs and nutritionists to develop recipes that taste good and are good for you. They have also made sure that there is a variety of options for all different uses. Whether you need a quick breakfast on the go, or a dessert, sweet, savory, veggie packed, or just plain good, there’s an option for everyone. Their motto is “Superfoods, Super Fast!”, because “it should be easy to eat healthy, every day, and that’s what we deliver to our users,” shares Mayssa Chehata.
So how do they take their coffee? Do they even HAVE Coffee?! Don’t worry coffee peeps, they do. “It’s a smoothie of course!” shares Mayssa, “Our Cold Brew + Almond Smoothie is one of our most popular.”
#FREEZERENVY
The Review:
Daily Harvest offers Smoothies, Soups, Chia Parfaits, and their all-new Overnight Oats (which I had the pleasure of trying). You decide how many and how often you want your delivery with three different plan options:
– 6 Cups Weekly for $7.99 per Cup
– 12 Cups Weekly for $7.49 per Cup
– 24 Cups Monthly for $6.99 per Cup
– 12 Cups Weekly for $7.49 per Cup
– 24 Cups Monthly for $6.99 per Cup
This may seem like a lot, but if you think about how much you would be spending, not just in dollars but minutes and hours; finding the freshest ingredients, that are in season, cutting everything up, measuring it all, and also storing and cleaning the containers, it is a steal.
So what do I think? I believe it is 100% worth it. They sent me a variety of their New Overnight Oats, Chia Parfaits, and Smoothies to test out, and for my personal taste, some were a hit, and some were a miss. Let me be clear that this is partly because I think Chia can have a strange texture. And something I learned along the way if you have the option to use a full-size blender over a bullet blender use the full-size. It makes a huge difference in the overall creaminess and smooth blend of the smoothies.
For the smoothies, my favorite option was actually the Banana + Greens Elixir Smoothie. You would think the Cold Brew, I know, but the B+G smoothie had a really nice smooth texture and is jam packed with Organic Banana, Wheat Grass, Kale, Spinach, and Cucumber.
A close second was the Cold Brew + Almond Energizer Smoothie. This one has Organic Cold Brew Coffee, Banana, Cacao, Coconut Oil, Green Coffee Beans, Vanilla Bean, and just a touch of Pink Himalayan Sea Salt.
My smoothie options varied a bunch, and each one had its benefits to it. Check out these Selections:
The Overnight Oats were as a whole my favorite over the Chia Parfaits.
The Cinnamon Protein + Banana stole my heart. It was the first one I tried on the first day I got them, and I thought it sounded like dessert. So I put in some 2% Milk and threw that bad boy in the fridge for later. Before bed, I took it out, and it wasn’t “pretty” per say, but it was delicious. You could see big chunks of Maple, it smelled so much of cinnamon, and the little Cacao Nibs were sprinkled everywhere. The first bite was all perfectly balanced with oats, fresh banana, and cinnamon. I wasn’t sure how to feel about the Chickpeas, but they brought a nice crunch with them.
My second favorite was the Blackberry + Majik. It was a little tart, but I think with the texture of the berries, a little bit banana, and coconut, the flavors blended beautifully.
The only one that was just not my jam was the Mango + Golden Milk. I love me some turmeric and ginger, but I just felt like overall this was the only one that tasted kind of bland to me.
Check out these other flavors too!
These premade smoothies and snacks/breakfasts were a life saver on busy days. You are more than full if you finish them, I ended up eating half and saving half for later almost every time. Packed with nutrients and fresh flavors this is something that can make the difference between grabbing one of these while running out the door or grabbing a pop tart.
Use Code: SWEATPANTSANDCOFFEE at checkout and receive 3 FREE SMOOTHIES with your 1st Order!
Donnie
I made the mistake of trying Daily Harvest and now I’m posting this in an effort to help others save their money. Have you noticed that the Daily Harvest’s Facebook page is missing the Reviews section? There’s good reason for that…
My wife and I decided to give their service a shot. We selected 5 smoothies and a soup. Out of the 5 smoothies, 4 of them were bland at best with the Blueberry Hemp being outright awful. The serving sizes are on the smaller side especially considering the price. They come in “convenient” cups that seem more wasteful than anything and end up soggy and weak almost immediately after adding your milk/juice/water.
The soup was the real let down however. I was floored by the incredibly high sodium content. Unfortunately that discovery was made after my wife came down with a headache shortly after eating it. All of this food is supposed to be healthy and fresh but don’t be fooled! Try finding the actual nutritional value on their website. You have to jump through several hoops and clicks for that information. Once you find it, the info is misleading. The Mushroom + Miso soup states 670mg but look closer… that’s for half of their already small serving size! That is absolutely absurd!
“No commitment. Flexible frequency. Skip or cancel anytime.”
That quote is directly from their homepage and I’m here to tell you that it’s a blatant lie! Due to their once a week shipping schedule the flexible frequency is questionable at best. We had to make our selections for the following week before we had even tasted our first order!? You can technically pause a week but you have to do it before their bizarre cut off times. Silly naive us, we were optimistic about what had just received but yet to try so we gleefully selected 6 new flavors to beat their cut-off time. Sadly that hope was smashed when we both tried our first smoothies. We immediately regretted that second order.
Which brings me to the final part of this REVIEW. The bold-faced like that states “cancel anytime”. Their website says you have to e-mail to cancel but if you dig around you can find a cancel subscription option. HOWEVER, their bizarre shipping and billing schedule caused us to get stuck with at 3rd shipment that we didn’t want! We tried contacting customer support and they politely told us to bugger off. To make matters worse, they defaulted back to our selections from our first order rather than the most recent one. The whole system is flawed. They don’t even send a reminder to make your next selection and if you forget or simply can’t get to it in their little window of opportunity, then you’re stuck with receiving your first order all over again. Why don’t they send a reminder to make a selection? I’m guessing that they’re afraid people will see the reminder and think “oh right, I need to cancel this”
Despite the high price, we had high hopes for this service. Sadly I now find myself out more money than expected and trying to help prevent you from making the same mistake that we did by trying Daily Harvest.
Jessica
Hey Donnie, I’m sorry to hear your experience was so awful. My experience was fine, and I hope that since your experience things have changed a bit with how they handle their shipping and payment options.
– Jessica
Lauren
I just had the same experience with the smoothies as Jessica… They are undrinkable. I actually THREW UP due to one of them being so awful. I WOULD NOT GET THESE.. Even the all fruit smoothies weren’t very good. The Peach and Strawberry one had no taste and a few others just tasted water down. Honestly, I would love to have a service that would deliver yummy healthy options… BUT THIS IS NOT IT.
Jill
I really liked this actually. I don’t know what Lauren is talking about-the flavors were definitely not undrinkable. They were actually really good for what’s in them. If your idea of smoothies is something from Jamba Juice (which just has tons of sugar) then maybe you won’t like these but I’m used to making smoothies with alot of greens and these were way better than I usually make. And the price is a bit steep but way cheaper than going to Juice Press and paying $10 for a smoothie. Overall I’m a big fan
KRYstal
I love Daily Harvest. These are all natural products. If the drinks are too bland for you add a dash of Stevia. I am happy to have a healthy, simple alternative in a busy lifestyle.
Dan
We’re huge fans of Daily Harvest. I am usually trying to rush out of our apartment early in the morning. Half the time I forget to eat and have to scarf something down at the office. Daily Harvest makes my life easier, I can save time, and it’s healthy. It’s a no-brainer :-).
Kathryn
TRULY HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE!
c.a. carpenter
I’m really surprised by the comments above. I really like my smoothies, A LOT! I agree on the miso soup. But I notified them and they have modified the soup recipe so it is now much lower in sodium (I’d like to think they did that just for me but I think a few people complained). Soups aside, I’m really just in it for the smoothies. For me they are fast, convenient and delicious meals with ingredients that would be hard for me to keep on hand. I get my delivery on Thursday and have until Sunday to modify the order for next Thursday. It’s not that hard and I think reasonable. I don’t a reminder in my email, I just got a delivery. Oh and early on I did cancel my subscription because I thought it was too much money. I had no problem canceling. Then I started to tally up how much I was spending on smoothies and not getting anywhere near the variety so I started up again with the 6 pack. And then I subbed in for some overnight oats and chia parfaits. I go back and forth between the 6 pack and the 12 pack depending on how full my freezer is. I’m particularly surprised about the blueberry hemp comment — it’s one of my favs. (Cacao Avocado being my #1). I don’t do sweeteners so I’m really happy to have a clean-food smoothie delivered. All the ingredients for each smoothie and soup are on the website so you can review each on before ordering. I wish it was a little less expensive but in the end I guess I value the convenience. I would recommend Daily Harvest.
Emma
I had a terrible experience with Daily Harvest. The smoothies themselves are fine, but nothing special. The customer service is such that this company will not be in business long. I have dealt with numerous delivery companies, Caviar, Good Eggs, Instacart, Munchery. When ever there was a hiccup they corrected. Daily Harvest does no such thing. If there is an error you are told that’s just too bad. It’s clear they do not value their customers. I
Jessi
Like many other people have noted, this company is a total scam. I just wanted to try the product, so after placing my first I tried to call to let them know. Guess what? They have NO PHONE NUMBER. No way to call and ask questions! Uh oh, I though to myself. This is going to be trouble. Ok, so I try the “Chat” feature on their website. Guess what? IT IS DISABLED. during normal business hours. So I email them to say “Please do not put me on auto ship/auto pay.” Here is my written request to stop payment. But no — Daily Harvest says you have to log in to your account, you have to tell us why you want to cancel first, etc. Basically you must jump through hoops to cancel. Bad business for a “no commitment, cancel anytime” company. Ofcourse, I was sent and billed for a second shipment. Customer service is horrible (as others have noted, they must be trained this way), so I had to file a complaint with the BBB. Credit card company also refunded the cost of my second shipment in full since it was unauthorized. They said that Daily Harvest should have complied with my written request to stop auto ship/auto pay.