After my stove exploded, I quickly ordered a new non-digital, and hopefully, non-exploding one. My new stove arrived yesterday, just in time for my first Blue Apron Meal Kit delivery today!

Nice Box

When the Blue Apron box arrived today, I was excited to open it. The first thing I noticed is that it was a slightly fancier box than most. It has a nice “tuck-in” top that makes it quite useable in the future. One point for that!

Nice Bag

Once opened, I noticed the foil-style bag that held all the ingredients. It’s also quite nice and I can see being able to reuse it often. Another point for this!

Ingredient Mish-Mash

However, after I removed the recipe cards, and was able to see the ingredients, I was a little surprised and disappointed. Most of the ingredients for the three meals are just all jumbled together!

Both HelloFresh and Home Chef package the ingredients into separate bags, one bag per meal. (The meat and fish are always separate from the bags).

There are 3 small “Knick Knacks” bags however. I’m not kidding. The bags actually say “Knick Knacks” on them. These are per-meal bags that contain a few of the ingredients for each meal. But the rest of the ingredients, primarily the veggies, are all just thrown into the box together.

This mish-mash of ingredients means I’ll have to sort through them each night to find what I need for that evening’s meal. I’m not crazy about that. It’s not a huge deal, but it just makes a lot more sense to group each batch of ingredients together. So Blue Apron gets zero points for this.

Seems Fresh

The meat and produce seem fine. I’ll know more once I use them, but I think they will pass the freshness test. They get a point for this.

Recipe Cards

The recipe cards are a little less friendly than those provided by HelloFresh or Home Chef. There are no hints telling me what types of pots, pans, or bowls I will need to use for the dinner. That is information I depend upon with the other meal services, as it lets me get prepared very easily. Without that info listed, I have to read through all the directions and images first if I want to figure that out. No points for that.

With 3 points, that makes this box relatively average, I suppose. Of course, what will really matter is how easily I can prepare the meals, what they end up looking like, and most importantly, how they will taste! I will have to wait to judge that after I start cooking. Time will tell!