My thoughts on HelloFresh...
Packaging
I was always impressed with the packaging. As you can see from the photo, there were boxes within boxes to separate the food. The refrigerated foods were stored in an insulated blanket complete with large ice-packs to maintain freshness.
Ingredients
I think the idea behind HelloFresh is to have the exact amount of ingredients so it takes away the hassle of weighing food/spices out. I found that with some food items, I could make them stretch a little further than what the recipe suggested and save for something else! (i.e. we had 2 bags of spinach for 2 recipes - I found this a little too much so I always kept half a bag and used for a shake the following day!). I never had any problems with freshness of any fruit/veg, and they all appeared really good quality.
Recipes
I can't praise these enough. They come attached to each other similar to a little booklet, but each had a perforated line to rip and store away individually. Each recipe was so detailed, it had a photo of each ingredient that was required, the amount, a step-by-step instruction guide, photos, nutritional value.. basically everything you need for a successful recipe from start to finish!
Taste
Now I understand that this will be down to individual preference but each recipe differed on the taste scale for me, some where to-die-for and left me wanting more, others not so much. But, I never had a bad meal. Some ingredients were new to my palette but definitely brought out the adventurous side in me, in terms of cooking anyway! Below were some of my favorite meals...
Convenience
Even though these recipes took a little more time and effort than most recipes I tend to do after a full day at work, because I was reading off a recipe and knew I had each ingredient to hand, it motivated me. There's something I love about reading off a recipe, knowing I'm ticking off the steps in my head. However I will say one thing - I found the preparation time (that was stated by hellofresh) to be a little out. I don't believe I'm awfully slow in the kitchen, but for example it may have stated prep time to be 30mins, when in fact it was taking me 45 minutes. That was my only bugbear.
Service
When writing this blog post, there wasn't a lot I could fault HelloFresh on, however unfortunately I've had to edit this section as things took a nosedive shortly afterwards. I had used up my vouchers, and didn't intend on paying full price for the box afterwards, so I unsubscribed. I went through the process via their website and everything seemed hunky dory, all settled. It wasn't until I was at work a week or so later that I received an email on my phone that stated a delivery was on its way. I was confused but I knew I wasn't expecting anything. I arrived home to another Hello Fresh box. I checked my bank and low and behold, they had taken £50 from our account. I was not happy. For one reason or another, I knew I had definitely done the process properly. I emailed HelloFresh and unfortunately they weren't overly understanding, and refunded me just £10 to show that they 'had made no profit from the box'. This whole thing really got my back up because only a day prior we had been food shopping ourselves, so we had almost 2 weeks worth of food, half of that stuff being fresh vegetables which I later had to dispose of. I do believe I had completed the unsubscribe process properly, but it was my word against theirs, and they weren't budging.
Price
For people on a budget, this box probably isn't for you, coming in at £5 per meal per person. Each meal did consist of either meat or some form of fish, so they were really nutritious tasty meals, however you then have to consider all the other essentials that you would normally get in a weekly shop (i.e. milk, bread), not to mention food for breakfast and lunches, because this box only covers 1 meal per day. I don't think I would ever pay full price for this box, but it made a nice little treat coupled with the vouchers.
Have you ever tried HelloFresh before? What were your thoughts?
