Ever get sort of obsessed with a food? As in, you want it for every meal? I get like that with smoothies, particularly in the morning and after the gym. What could be better than a cool, refreshing smoothie that’s packed with greens, berries, and possibly some protein? Oh yeah: Not chopping fruit for an hour could be better. Enter Daily Harvest.

I’m not the biggest fan of ordering in food in any capacity, but I gave Daily Harvest a try and I’m glad I did. Here’s why…

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Introduction to Daily Harvest

Daily Harvest is a frozen food delivery service that specialized in smoothies, but also sells lunch bowls, snacks, soups, ice cream, breakfasts, and spiced “lattes.” The two themes that run through all the site’s offerings are 1) healthy and 2) frozen. There is a minor theme of “semi-prepared” as well, which is worth understanding.

Basically, Daily Harvest ships you natural, clean food (no sugar, no chemicals, whole ingredients) that is chopped, frozen, and ready to prepare. They are not ready to eat though. The smoothie, which is covered in the video above, arrives in a cup full of frozen ingredients to which you need to add your choice of liquid and then blend yourself.

Daily Harvest very ingredient-focused. It appears that their entire reason for existing is to get nutritious, nearly-ready-to-eat products to your doorstep in an easy, regular manner.

This review will focus on my preference — Daily Harvest smoothies — but most of this will hold true for whatever you buy.

Ordering and Delivery

I found this process to be extremely easy. Daily-Harvest.com is simple and easy to navigate. You order what you want, and you can have everything at your doorstep in just a few days. The biggest hurdle will be if Daily Harvest actually will ship to you! If you are in or around a major US city you should be covered through.

Like most services, you order on a plan. These can be weekly or monthly, with a varied number of servings a month, ranging between roughly 3 smoothies a day to 1 smoothie most days. I like a few smoothies a week, but not more than 4, so I opt out of ordering many weeks. Daily Harvest makes this very easy to do.

Shipping is bundled so you will get a good-sized box that is full of your food as well as a big block of dry ice. You’ll want to get the dry ice out of any contained spaced and away from kids as soon as possible but all the food has always arrived fully frozen and in great condition. I’m not sure exactly when it’s been delivered either (I’ve been out of the house) but the smoothies (bowls, etc.) have always been completely frozen and in great condition by the time I get home and unpack them.

Ingredients

Daily Harvest uses an impressive selection of ingredients, most of which are organic. They are not all organic and they aren’t all fancy or things you couldn’t acquire yourself. On the whole I’ve been quite happy with what I’ve found, and I’ve taken my time to look through more than a few of the shakes and to inspect what I’m paying about $8 for!

Daily Harvest Coupons

While services like Daily Harvest tend to have coupon codes floating around the web, I’ve yet to find anything.

If you invite a friend you will both get $25 off, which is a great deal, so long as you have a friend who loves smoothies as much as you do.

When my membership has lapsed or if you are not yet a member, but you get their newsletter the Daily Harvest will send invites like, “Get $15 each of your first three boxes ($45 value) with code …”

Is Daily Harvest Healthy?

Now, “healthy” is always going to depend on you and your lifestyle, but my take on this is “Yes, Daily Harvest is a healthy food option.”

I feel this way because Daily Harvest, particularly the smoothies, is really close to how I’d make food if I had a huge selection of ingredients on hand and a lot more time. When you open the smoothie prior to blending it, you can see that it’s filled with greens, mango, banana, apple, cherries, and all sorts of other whole ingredients. There isn’t anything hidden or unnatural that I can find.

Some of the smoothies are rather caloric, but nothing too crazy, and some are a little sweet, but it’s sweetness from fruit, not added sugar. And then many of the smoothies aren’t very sweet at all and have under 200 calories.

Daily Harvest Flavors

Some of my favorite flavors are:

Cold Brew + Cacao
Mint + Chocolate
Black Sesame + Banana
Blueberry + Hemp

Other flavors…

Strawberry + Peach
Acai + Cherry
Chocolate + Blueberry
Cacao + Avocado
Pineapple + Matcha
Vanilla Bean + Cacao
Carrot + Chia

Verdict

I’m well over a year into my Daily Harvest subscription and I have to say that I’m a fan.

To be completely honest, there are downsides. First of all, it’s not cheap. Expect to spend about $50 a week, give or take, or about $6-8 per smoothie. You can easily skip weeks, but you have to remember to maintain the account. Second of all, the food takes up a lot of freezer space. Freezer room is at a premium in my household, and putting in 8 paper cups inside at a time is often a challenge.

That said, the smoothies taste really good (at least to me), they fit my nutrition needs, and they make the mornings in my household a little bit less crazy. I don’t think I’ll do the shakes forever, just because they aren’t cheap and I’d like to be able to utilize local, fresh fruit.

When I know I have a busy week, the smoothies are a great option for me an my family. The kids really like them and they are a great alternative to ice cream, ice pops, and other frozen treats as the weather heats up.

While the shakes are my favorite, the other products are quite good as well. The lattes are a fun change of pace, but not something I do very often (they are sold in 3 packs, to they last), and the bowls are small but tasty.