We’ve got a Daily Harvest smoothies review here, brought to you by a smoothie enthusiast.
Are their smoothies any good?
We’re taking a deep dive into this prepared meal delivery service to give you a better idea of whether or not Daily Harvest could be a good fit for you.
How Does It Work?
Daily Harvest is a prepared meal delivery service primarily focused on smoothies ready to blend in the comfort of your home.
You can choose your box size, add your items, and have them delivered to your doorstep every week.
Simply add liquid, blend, and pour back into the cup for a wholesome, delicious breakfast (or any other meal) pumped full of fruits, vegetables, and superfoods.
They also offer lattes with bonus superfoods such as Chaga mushrooms, turmeric, and matcha, and new scoops pumped full of healthy ingredients such as coconut cream, black sesame, cacao nibs, probiotics, and more.
Daily Harvest Smoothies Review
For this particular Daily Harvest review, we decided to focus mainly on their smoothies, although we did also throw in some thoughts on their new lattes and scoops (ice cream!).
We’ll dive deeper into their food options, oat bowls, soups, harvest bowls, etc. at another time for sure.
Their smoothies are what started it all, and what they still sell the most of and the item that offers the most variety.
Yes, their mint + cacao smoothie tastes exactly like a mint chocolate chip milkshake (or ice cream).
It’s absolutely ridiculous, to be honest.
We’ll go over all of the goods so you can figure out if the service would be a good fit for you, starting with the ordering process.
Are They Easy to Order?
Daily Harvest has an incredibly seamless account setup, which sets a great first impression when trying a new service.
Their account setup is actually folded into your first order, so you don’t need to go through both processes separately.
Going through the ordering process was also quite simple.
It’s your standard add-to-cart type of style with the checkout at the end, and you can see all of the nutritional information you need right on each particular item’s info page.
How Many Choices Do They Offer?
There is so much variety! It’s fantastic.
They offer 23 different smoothie options, 4 different scoops, and 4 different types of lattes, plus their harvest bowls, flatbreads, oat bowls, chia bowls, soups, and snack bites.
It’s enough variety that I feel like I have a lot to choose from without being too overwhelming.
The variety is perfect because they offer different types of mixes too.
If you want hidden veggies, they’ve got you covered. Just want the fruit? You’re good, too.
They have more approachable flavors with classics such as strawberry peach and more adventurous flavors with ingredients such as dragonfruit and black sesame.
Are There Any Dietary Accommodations?
There are no dietary accommodations you can make with these, as they are already pre-frozen, so you can’t pick & choose ingredients or make substitutions.
That being said, they are plant-based and naturally free of many common allergens as is.
This may be more of a factor with their meals, although even those are plant-based and built around using whole, real ingredients.
For common allergens such as wheat, dairy, shellfish, peanuts, etc., you’ll have plenty of variety without having to worry about being able to find options.
What Type of Serving Options Are There?
As for serving sizes, there is only one size per item.
For example, the smoothies only come in a 16-oz cup; there are no small or large options.
That being said, there are quite a few options for how many servings to include in your box.
You have a choice between 5 different plans ranging from 6-8 items weekly all the way up to 24-26 items monthly.
How Good is the Packaging?
The packaging is great!
This is something I thought a lot about when going through the order: how well do they stay frozen?
I’m not a big fan of freezer burn, and if items partially thaw before they arrive, that harms the flavor significantly.
Their dry ice packing along with the insulation works wonders, and every single item we received was still completely rock-solid when we received our box.
Delivery Time Frames
The delivery time is actually quite quick!
In terms of meal kits and prepared meal delivery services, it’s sometimes frustrating when you place your first order just to find out you won’t see your first box for another week and a half.
When we placed our order for a review of Daily Harvest, we received our box just 3 days later.
While you can’t choose your exact delivery day, you can select to receive your orders on Wednesdays or Thursdays, so you at least have some voice in the matter.
Taste & Creativity
For taste and creativity, they have very high scores across the board for sure.
I make smoothies all the time at home, but their creative combinations are so unique and absolutely delicious.
Their mint cacao smoothie is a great example. It tastes exactly like mint chip ice cream and yet it’s entirely plant-based, sugar-free, and actually provides health benefits.
Another example of their creativity is their ability to hide healthful ingredients such as cauliflower, sweet potatoes, and chickpeas in their smoothies and even spirulina, ashwagandha, probiotics, and pine pollen in their scoops.
You may cringe, but trust me, you can’t tell they’re there at all.
It’s a truly beautiful thing.
Freshness, Quality & Sustainability of Ingredients
So…a frozen smoothie service. How good are these ingredients?
In a word? Excellent.
Frozen ingredients get a bad rap sometimes, but in reality, they’re most often more nutritious than their fresh counterparts.
Most often, these ingredients are flash-frozen at their peak freshness, preserving their nutritious value until they’re consumed, whereas many fresh ingredients are artificially kept ‘fresh’ for longer periods of time while they wait for shipping, transfer, packing, etc.
Also noteworthy in terms of sustainable ingredients is the fact that Daily Harvest smoothie recipes use mostly organic fruits and vegetables, boosting the nutritional value even more.
Are They Expensive/High Value?
Coming from someone who makes smoothies at home daily, the value is definitely there with these Daily Harvest smoothies.
They might be a little expensive at $7.99 per cup, but not overpriced for the type of ingredients they hold.
You’d definitely spend a lot more money trying to purchase all of the separate ingredients to recreate something similar at home and without the convenience of having the labor already done for you.
The same can be said of all of their products as well.
All of their food options as well as their snack bites, lattes, and scoops include ingredients that you’d be hard-pressed to recreate at a lower cost without significant time going into the effort.
The entire service is very high-value.
Customer Service Quality
A Daily Harvest review wouldn’t be complete without checking out their customer service options.
So how do they stack up?
Well for starters, they have a pretty deep FAQ section, so it’s pretty easy to handle most small issues without having to reach out.
If you do need to reach out, their contact information is easy to find.
They’re reachable via live chat, phone call, email, or even text between 9a-9p EST.
Another thing to note is that it’s simple to pause, cancel, skip a week, or modify your plan at any time through their website without having to get customer service involved at all.
What We Liked
One big aspect of their service that I absolutely couldn’t stop raving about is the fact that they offer smoothies with a good balance between fruits, vegetables, and superfoods.
So many smoothie products focus so heavily on fruit that they leave out vegetables entirely, which doesn’t make for good blood sugar balance, which affects hunger levels and cravings.
So, that’s a big win for Daily Harvest smoothies!
Secondly, their variety of out of this world and makes me so happy as a consumer.
Lastly, the overview of each item is in-depth and very descriptive.
It really helps to make an educated decision about which items you might enjoy, and I really appreciated it when scrolling through their options.
Each product page includes an overview of what the item is about, what it tastes like, the ingredient list, nutrition facts, how to blend instructions, and reviews.
Give our Daily Harvest review video a watch to get a better idea of how the service works.
What We Didn’t Like
There were a few things I noticed when going through the process that I felt like lessened my experience somewhat.
While the service is overall pretty phenomenal, these are the items they could improve upon.
Firstly, the smoothies are pretty low in protein.
This may not be a big deal for every consumer, but for someone like myself who is very active, I need a higher protein level for my morning smoothie. I wish they had an option to add a scoop of protein powder with it (even if packaged separately); that would be a slam-dunk for those of us who need it.
Second, their website is pretty slow.
I’m sure this is due to having so many beautiful photos and a wealth of information available, but it does make the ordering process quite frustrating when you have to wait several seconds for each page to load.
Lastly, it would’ve been nice to have the option to add on a product or two without having to add another plan or change my existing plan to accommodate.
For example, I would love to be able to keep a regular smoothie box that I don’t change up, then just add a couple of scoops every so often as I need them, but not with every delivery.
The way they have their plans set up, you’d either have to create a whole new plan for those scoops and order more than needed or go in to change your smoothie box size to add the scoops, then change it back the following week.
It’s a roundabout process that could be avoided by allowing add-ons.