For many years, Blue Apron has been one of my favorite meal kits out of the dozens I’ve tried. It was number one in our buying guide and my colleague Adrienne So even gave the service her own love letter. I recently retested the service to make sure our coverage was up to date, and I’m dismayed to announce that while it’s still a good meal kit subscription service, Blue Apron is no longer my first choice.
I still think it has its merits and in no way would I call it “bad.” It’s undeniably convenient to have ingredients delivered to your door, because who really tastes go shopping? And the dishes I’ve tried have been mostly good. But I had some issues with this round of testing that led me to believe that other services might be a better use of your time and money.
A fly in my soup
Photography: Louryn Strampe
After speaking to the lovely PR people at Blue Apron to begin a round of testing, they confirmed my recipes: Chicken with sour cherries and Dijon, Chimichurri Shrimp, Fall Harvest Cereal Bowls, Southwestern Egg Bitesand Double Chocolate Cake. Only three of the five could be cooked upon arrival.
It started with the eggs that were inside my shipping box, which had broken and covered everything inside. I rinsed everything and stored it in my refrigerator. There’s no use crying over broken eggs, or whatever that old saying goes. That night I cooked the chicken dish, which for the most part was delicious, except that my chicken had a defect known as “spaghetti meat“—a muscle abnormality that makes chicken breast look soft and stringy, like spaghetti. It’s usually not obvious on the outside of the meat (it wasn’t in my case), but these inner fibers become tough when cook and alter the texture of the finished dish, making it more fibrous. I only discovered the anomaly after cutting the cooked chicken breast. I would have noticed it sooner if the instructions called for cutting the protein before, for example, if the breasts were to be. butterfly-but since I was cooking it whole, I didn’t realize the problem until dinner was served.
I know it’s silly to expect a meal kit service to offer the highest quality butcher cuts of meat, and even though it’s unappetizing, I still ate it. My chicken was tougher and more stringy than it would have been without the defect, but the “spaghetti meat” is still safe to eat. It’s just less delicious. And despite that problem, the rest of the meal was pretty good. I contacted the PR people and mentioned it to them, as I would have done the same with customer service if I had been a paying customer. They said they would send two replacement meals.Pork Schnitzel and Potato and Pancetta Saladas well as Beef on curry-spiced rice. (For customers, if you encounter a problem, Blue Apron usually offers a credit toward your next box or order.)