How Daily Harvest Just Made Making Smoothies Even Smoother
When Rachel Drori’s work schedule changed and she was afforded an extra hour of sleep-in time each morning, her husband found himself in a pickle. He had become accustomed to getting a healthy, organic smoothie made for him bright and early, every morning, and suddenly, he was in charge of making his own.It was a disaster. “I’d walk in and it would look like a tornado. There was food everywhere,” Rachel laughs. “I’d ask him how his smoothie was and he’d tell me he had to throw it out. It was that bad.”She knew she had to feed him somehow so she started bagging ingredients for him on Sunday nights and placing them in the freezer-- making perfect smoothie execution super easy for her cooking-adversed hubby.And it worked!
“I quickly realized if a guy who can’t boil eggs by himself can make a really healthy, nutritious and thoughtful smoothie every morning in 30 seconds there’s a real opportunity in that,” explains Rachel. “Then I started bagging ingredients for myself as well and realized it’s such a huge timesaver.”Soon she had a business on her hands. She named it Daily Harvest, got a commercial kitchen in Long Island, and was bagging all the ingredients with her first two employees (her right and her left hand). She was seven months pregnant at the time and also served as delivery girl, couriering her frozen bags of smoothies all over Manhattan.She put up a janky website in September of 2015 to see if people would be interested and by the second week started noticing people ordering who were not her friends. By week 10 there were more people she didn’t recognize than those she did. Now, almost a year and a half after their unofficial launch, the company is officially a big deal and ships all over the country (including to my house— weekly— in SoCal).
The Daily Harvest concept is convenience without compromising the way you want to eat and the way you want your body to feel.Their smoothies are designed by three people: a Michelin trained vegan chef, a nutritionist, and Rachel who work together to test and tweak ingredients making flavors that are different, exciting and unique. The ingredients they use (some very exotic— hey camu-camu!) are sourced from farms all over the US.They are then "quick frozen" using the latest in frozen technology. “When I used to think about the reputation of frozen foods, I’d think of dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets,” Rachel laughs with disgust. This specific kind of freeze technology is very different, however. The fruit and vegetables are picked when they are at their absolute nutritional peak and prime ripeness. This makes it so all of the healthy benefits of the food have had time to fully mature and develop. There is no time for nutritional profiles or values to degrade and break down. “When you quick freeze something it really captures the greatness that’s in the fruit and vegetables; you can liken it to buying directly from the farm stand.”
The way Daily Harvest works is you go to their— now— super swanky website and pick whatever flavor of smoothies or soups (yes, they’re doing soup now) that you want. You choose to have a week’s or a month’s worth delivered, and then the goods are sent straight to your door on dry ice.You put it in the blender and in under 30 seconds you have a healthy, delicious and exotic meal— one your husband, boyfriend, roommate, or kitchen-challenged self can create. Sans tornado.Lindsay DeLong is the Managing Editor of The Fullest. If she didn't have a Daily Harvest subscription she'd be forced into the arms of candy and Del Taco, so from the bottom of her stomach, thank you healthy smoothies! Find her at lindsay@thefullest.com or on social media via @lindizzaster.
