Blue Apron is a meal delivery service headquartered in New York City. The company delivers meal kits throughout the United States. Blue Apron is one of the most affordable services with meals starting at just $8.99 a month. They offer three menus including their signature dishes, Weight Watchers freestyle, and vegetarian. Blue Apron will accommodate from 2 to 4 servings per meal. The shipments are weekly but you can choose to skip upcoming weeks. We’ll show you exactly how to manage your account later in our review.
Company Info
Blue Apron was formed in 2012 when its founders personally packaged the first 30 meal kits from a commercial kitchen in Long Island. Within three years the company opened fulfillment centers in California, New Jersey, and Texas. At this point they started shipping throughout the United States. The company went public in June 2017 and has since had some challenges with both stock price and customer retention.
Blue Apron Menu and Pricing
When you sign up for Blue Apron the first thing you choose is which menu you want to select meal from. While this is important for your first order, you can change your menu each week. The most popular menu is their Signature which includes a mix of meat, beyond meat, and vegetarian recipes. You will find a number of customer favorites in this menu. The Weight Watchers freestyle menu features recipes for a healthy lifestyle. Choose between 2 and 3 recipes per week with each serving 2 people.
The vegetarian menu is pretty self explanatory. It covers dishes without meat and features a selection of seasonal produce. The last menu option is Signature for 4 which is Blue Apron’s solution for those who want to feed 4 people. This menu can be customized to include 2 to 4 meals a week for 4 people.
The price and shipping cost are based on the number of meals and servings you order each week. Their most popular plan (Signature with 3 recipes per week serving 2 people) costs $9.99 a serving with free shipping. That brings the cost down to $59.94 a week. If you order less than 3 recipes a week then you will incur a $7.99 shipping fee. Blue Apron offers a price break of their Signature for 4 menu with meals ranging from $7.49 to $8.99 a serving. You can also purchase wine, spices, and sauce to be delivered with your meals.
Blue Apron Promo
As with all the meal delivery services we review, you will want to take advantage of any introductory deals Blue Apron is offering. We’re excited to share that Blue Apron is currently running a promotion that will save you $60 off their first 3 boxes. Combine this with free shipping when ordering 3 meals per week.
The Blue Apron coupon saved us $20 off our first orders which brought the price down to just $39.94 plus tax for 3 recipes for 2 people. That works out to just $6.65 per serving. You will find the price hard to beat. We did not find the quality of the food to be quite as high as some of the competition, but it’s hard to argue with the value.
Customer Service
The Blue Apron website offers a comprehensive help center with answers to common question. If you can’t find an answer or just want to speak to a representative, you can call their customer service team toll-free at 888-278-4349. The team is available Monday through Friday 9am to 9pm ET. They also have staff to take your calls on Saturday between 11am and 6pm ET. The only exceptions are Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Hands-On Review of Blue Apron
We signed up for Blue Apron on Sunday, August 25th and received our first meal kit on Thursday, September 5th. Take note of the gap as you may have a similar delay depending on which day of the week you place your first order. You need to select the menu for any given week by Wednesday at 12:00 p.m. PST. Since we ordered on Sunday it meant that our menu locked in the following Wednesday to be shipped out the following week.
The first step in the sign up process is to choose a menu and number of meals. We selected the Signature menu for 2 people, with 3 recipes a week. This brought the cost down to $9.99 a serving with free shipping.
You will also get the opportunity to let Blue Apron know the foods that you eat. The available options include pork, beef, lamb, shellfish, fish, poultry, and vegetarian. Blue Apron will then tailor your meal selections based on your dietary preferences.
Now we picked our meals for the first week.
Blue Apron had 20 meals to choose from. You can sort the meals by the main ingredient (beef, fish, lamb, pork, poultry, shellfish, vegetarian) or by cuisine. For example you can view Asian or Creole dishes. You can also view the menu for the following week and browse seasonal recipes on their website. Once you find a meal you’re interested in simply click it to see the ingredients and cooking instructions. You can also view the time it takes to cook the dish along with the calories. If you click on the calories link it will show you a full list of nutritional facts for the dish.
You can also edit your account at any time. This includes changing your plan type (Signature, Freestyle, Vegetarian), the number of recipes each week, and the delivery date. Blue Apron delivers Tuesday through Saturday, excluding holidays which can impact the day in which you receive the meal kit.
We received our first Blue Apron meal kit around dinner time on the delivery date via Fedex. Unfortunately the box was delivered upside down, while Blue Apron clearly marks which side needs to be up. This was the Fedex fault but it meant that our items were not as cold as they would have been otherwise. In fact the ice packs were melted and one had busted. Not a good start but again we don’t blame Blue Apron since it was a Fedex issue.
When we opened the box the first thing we saw was the recipes that were a little damp. From there we opened the insulated bag. All the vegetables were on top with the meat underneath it. Unfortunately the ice packs were completely thawed and open had leaked throughout the package. That left a sticky residue on the contents. Fortunately most of the good is bagged so it didn’t impact it. While the food would have been colder had the ice packs been frozen, it was still cold enough to be safe.
The other thing that we noticed was that Blue Apron only included two ice packs in the package and they were both in clear packaging. I’m not sure if that made any difference but most the other meal delivery services we tested included a different style of packaging for the ice packs. Also, the time of day the Blue Apron meals were delivered likely made a difference, as it was later than our other deliveries.
As you can see some of the produce is not bagged but it looked good. We made sure to wash everything as instructed. The pork and chicken clearly showed how many days you had to cook or freeze the items. Each meal included a recipe card with the ingredients on the front along with the time it takes to cook the dish. The recipe is on the back. It includes step by step directions along with any other items (like olive oil) that you might need. Our meals came with one garlic bulb which was used in multiple recipes. Just be aware so you don’t throw items away that might be needed for other meals.
Meal Kit #1 – Pork Lo Mein with Bok Choi and Celery
One of the things we liked about Blue Apron was that they included the sesame oil needed for the dish. Something we would not have had in our pantry. The sesame oil, soy sauce, sherry vinegar, black bean sauce, and furikake was individually packaged which was a nice touch. Portions of the noodles clumped and were hard to get apart. We just discarded them and had plenty left over for two servings. The produce was fresh and plentiful. We only used two cloves of the garlic and saved the rest for the next evening’s Blue Apron meal.
The recipe card does not mention the pots and pans necessary to prepare the dish. You will also need some olive oil in your pantry. We started by boiling water in a pot for the noodles. Then we washed all the produce and prepared it according to the recipe. Next we added the black bean sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, and water in a bowl. Cook the vegetables in the sesame oil and put them in a covered bowl to keep warm. We then boiled the noodles until they were tender and drained them. Cook the pork until lightly browned and season with salt and pepper. Add the sauce carefully and stir until pork is coated. Finally, stir in the cooked vegetables and noodles, season to taste, and enjoy. This dish took about 30 minutes to prepare and it was quite tasty.
Meal Kit #2 – Spicy Zucchini Quesadillas with Poblano Pepper and Fried Eggs
The spicy zucchini quesadillas were a great late night meal. The cheese came grated which saved a lot of time and effort. The only thing we had to grate was the zucchini. All of the ingredients were fresh. The jalapeno pepper, zucchini, scallions, golden raisins, and lime all looked delicious. The recipe card shows how long the meal will take to prepare. In this case around 40-50 minutes but it didn’t take us that long. It also shows what wine would pair well with the dish.
This was the easiest dish to prepare. All we had to do was grate the zucchini (this took the longest time), slice the scallions, quartered the lime, and cut the jalapeno pepper. Make sure to wash your hands, knife, and cutting board after preparing the pepper. Fry the pepper in olive oil until tender and set it aside in a bowl. Next make the filling by heating olive oil and adding the zucchini to the pan. Put the cooked zucchini in a bowl and then add the raisins, cheese, scallions, lime juice, and as much pepper as you would like.Season with salt and pepper for taste. Fill the tortillas and fold them in half. Next we fried the tortillas until browned. Fry the egg to your liking. Mix the cooked pepper, sour cream, lime juice, and olive oil to add to the top of the quesadilla. Add your egg to the top and garnish with scallions and lime wedges to complete the dish.
Meal Kit #3 – Lime & Fig Chicken with Goat Cheese and Vegetable Farro
Once again all the ingredients were fresh. Blue Apron provided more than enough to complete two servings. The packaging stated that you had 5 days in which to cook or freeze the chicken. We made all the meals within 3 days of delivery so this didn’t come into play. According to Clue Apron this dish was best paired with a plush and fruity wine. The chicken was already chopped which was a big time saver. We used a couple more cloves of the garlic we saved from the earlier recipe. They even supplied the sugar which was a nice touch. The Lime & Fig Chicken dish took about 35 minutes to prepare.
We began by boiling the farro for around 20 minutes. During this time we washed the produce. The figs were put in half a cup of water and left to rehydrate. Next we diced the cucumber, onion, chopped the garlic, and prepared the carrots as directed. Zest the lime and quarter. The cucumbers go in a separate bowl with sugar. vinegar, and onion to marinate. Cook the carrots and onions in olive oil until softened. Add garlic and vinegar to the carrots which are then added to the farro. Season the chicken and fry until lightly brown. Add the figs with the water and cook until liquid thickens. Stir in the lime zest and lime juice. Finally add the cheese and olive oil to the farro and carrots. Season as desired and plate the dish with the marinated cucumbers on top.
Conclusion
Blue Apron is a great value with meals starting at $9.99 a serving. The meal delivery service will support from 2 to 4 people per meal. You can order 2 or 3 recipes a week. I would recommend ordering 3 since you will receive free shipping. Those who order 2 meals a week for 2 people will incur a $7.99 shipping fee. As for the food, a few of the ingredients weren’t as high quality as some of the other services we tried. With that said, you have to consider the cost as well. Blue Apron is at least $2 per serving less that a lot of their competitors. That may not sound like much but it can add up. For the price we were pleased with Blue Apron and feel comfortable recommending the service. Especially for those who may be on a little tighter budget. Sign up during the current Blue Apron promotion to save $60 off your first 3 boxes.
