How often do you cook a fresh meal at home? If you’re like me, not nearly often enough. Sure, it’s cheaper than eating out, but it takes a lot of time–planning the meal, shopping for the right ingredients, cooking, and after you eat, the dreaded clean up. So I was excited to try Freshly, a highly-recommend service to solve the home-meal dilemma.
First, Freshly has a welcome, straight-forward approach. One meal equals one serving, and it delivers straight to your home up to 12 times per week. Each meal is supposed to be ready to eat after heating for just three minutes, and I found this was consistently true in my microwave, a very nice feature for impatient people like me and just about anyone with a rushed lifestyle.
Good Options, Fair Price
Second, like other food delivery services, consumers can setup weekly orders, alternate orders or cancel any time–an essential feature if you are traveling or won’t be eating at home for a stretch. You also have four meal options ranging in price from $8.99-$12.50 per meal. Run the math on any nice home cooked meal and you’ll see what a good deal is it. Of course, it’s a genuine bargain compared to eating out.
Time to Eat
Once you start to pick your meals, you realize something surprising–signing up for Freshly is equivalent to having a personal nutritionist with home delivery. Then you’re hooked. For one thing, the meals change constantly with the seasons. Recently, I had the coconut green-curry chicken with basmati rice, a nice fall choice. It was easy to make and surprisingly filling, unlike other meal kits I’ve tried. Blue Apron’s meals, for example, are too small for me, and too expensive given you have to cook them yourself. Freshly’s biggest advantage is that it’s meals are not frozen and contain fewer process foods. The result is a fresher taste.
While the meals are microwave-ready, as mentioned, I prefer to use the stovetop if I have time. I’ve also found each meal can last about 4-5 days in the fridge in case you don’t get to one immediately.
Freshly also helpfully categorizes its meals, breaking them out into faves, rotating specials, and seasonal selection.
Solving for Fresh
Freshly, in fact, was founded by a former investment banker who didn’t want to cook but was tired of eating delivery and feeling the effects. So, he used his parents’ restaurant as a lab to create tasty meals with minimal additives, refined sugars and gluten. The result is a genuine winner. Freshly, say hello to 50 Alpha!
Does Freshly Make 50 Alpha?
Problem: Eating healthy food at home is a pain point for almost everyone, and no one’s cracked the puzzle of fresh ingredients, time to prepare and convenience yet. Freshly solves for the need for a healthier, fresh, and convenient food delivery service with over 30 different meal options from three categories.
Solution: Freshly is all about the ingredients, offering a variety of healthy meals at fair prices. with new meals delivered regularly makes eating healthy food at home an affordable option. Consumers can alternate between different meals at their own convenience.
Usability: Freshly meals are easy to prepare, ready to go after three minutes in the microwave, and they can be stored for up to five days in the fridge. It is customize, adjust or suspend your meal plan. changes to your Freshly surprises with new meals on a regular basis with a seasonal touch.
Competition: Freshly is well-priced vs. competitors, such as Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, Home Chef and others. It also provides equal or superior nutritional value with high quality ingredients. Preparation is also easy and fast.
Third Party Review: On Sitejabber, Freshly scores an average of four stars out of 1,462 reviews (776 five star reviews, 428 four stars). Although it only rates an average of three stars out of 512 reviews on Yelp.
Overall, Freshly scores a 4.5 out of 5.0, losing half point due to slight weakness in third party reviews. In our take, and in many reviews, Freshly remains best-in-category, a strong member of the 50 Alpha!