I know COVID has changed a lot about every day life, but one thing that hasn’t changed for me, is scrambling for a breakfast. I literally used take a yogurt cup each morning for I think two years straight. During work from home, I’ve been sleeping in later, which means I’m still scrambling for something to eat. When Evive Nutrition reached out to me offering to send their smoothie cubes and lunches, I was ecstatic! Finally! A (potential) answer to my lazy and uninspired mornings! I was ready!
Evive Nutrition was nice enough to set up a coupon code that I could share with my readers! At checkout, if you enter imnotabeautyguru30 for your first order, you can get 30% off. This is an affiliate code, so I do get a bit if you do end up using it!
About Evive
Before they reached out, I had already heard of Evive Nutrition. I’m a huge fan of Dragons Den. It the equivalent of Shark Tank in the US where business owners pitch to the ‘dragons’ to attempt to get an investment from them. I remembered them because the pitch really stood out to me. You can watch their pitch here!
So what makes Evive different? Their main differentiator is that they produce no blend smoothies. You heard that right. They make their smoothies in these frozen cubes that just need liquid and a good shake and you have your smoothie. It’s a crazy idea really.
Along with the smoothies, they’ve branched out to super easy meals that you can make by adding hot water for a soup, or complimented by rice, pasta and more!
Packaging and Delivery
Delivery was super easy. The company uses something called BoxKnight which provides text updates to give you a really good idea of when the box would come. The texts were pretty spot on! We were coming back from a walk in the evening and our box was waiting at our door step!
In the box are a bunch of these fluffy sheets protecting the products on the inside which are also surrounded by dry ice! That’s how the smoothies stay cold! Mine were definitely still frozen. Some of the dry ice was melted, but most of it was in tact. I was super paranoid of getting ‘burned’ so I used oven mitts to put the plastic in the recycling bin. Apparently the dry ice just evaporates which is crazy! I also of course didn’t read it properly and put a chunk in the sink. They do not recommend that! Whoops!
One thing I appreciate with Evive is that every part of the packaging is either recyclable or compostable. It look me forever to research what the fluffy packing was on the inside (saw dust? Some fabric particle? What is it?). I actually had to reach out to their help desk who informed me it was 100% pure hemp which could be composted which is amazing! We just got a new backyard composter, so I promptly stuck it in!
I want to be very clear that lower consumption is better. So even though the plastic is recyclable, It is single use plastic. You can definitely tell Evive is cognizant of their footprint and do care that all of their products are recyclable.
The Process
These honestly couldn’t be easier. I use mine with a blender bottle. They recommend you use 4 as a snack and the full wheel (8 cubes) as a meal. I honestly don’t think that three is really enough. I mostly used the full 8. Before tearing off the seal, I would run the wheel over some water to loosen it up a bit. I found this to be key just because it make it SO much easier to pop out. After that, you add your liquid of choice. I’m honestly more interested in the taste than health, so I usually went for water or juice. It’s 120mL for 4 cubes or 240mL for 8 cubes. I started out measuring out my liquid with a measuring cup, but since I used the same bottle each time, I ended up guesstimating.
It says leave it for 20 minutes and shake up. I found I got the best results when I left it for a bit longer and shook it up consistently (e.g. Shook it after 5 minutes, shook it after 10 minutes, shook it after 20 minutes). Regardless of how long I left it, I would always want to dig in before it completely melted, which was fine with me.
The meals were super easy too. I’ve used one so far as a soup and three with rice as a meal. They were all super easy! The meals are a bit different in that a single cube is larger, but in a wheel there are less (total of 6). I used the full 6 cubes for the soup, but I think 3 would have been just fine!
My Favs (and Not Favs)
Evive was generous enough to send me a very good supply so I could try most of the flavours!
Here is my rundown so far (the majority I have eaten). Favs are bolded!
Smoothies
- Samurai – with orange juice. Didn’t love the grainy texture, but liked the taste
- Viva – with orange juice. I think my favourite of the bunch. Had a very good strawberry banana taste to it. Not grainy at all!
- Saphir – with orange juice. Very sweet and I would buy it again. It had a bit of a grainy texture, but not too bad
- Yogi – with orange juice. Very good, did not taste like a green smoothie at all. I would definitely get again
- Asana – with water. Enjoyed the taste, but with the blueberries it was very grainy
- Blueberry Haskap (protein) – with water. One of my least favourite. I thought it tasted like cardboard honestly
- Astek – with fruit juice. Not good with the juice but that was sort of my own fault. I still don’t think I’d get this one again
- Pure – with peach mango juice. Really loved it, I would get it again
- Touk Touk – with water. I was surprised how much I liked this. I would get it again
- Mango Passionfruit (protein) – with water. Am not a fan of the protein ones I’m learning. Just not good
- Yin – with water. enjoyed, but wasn’t amazing. I don’t think i’d repurchase
Meals
- Golden Curry – with rice. Enjoyed it as a lunch. I would have loved if it had a bit more of a kick
- Mac Squash – as soup. Really liked it as a soup. It had that kind of ‘cheesy’ taste which I could totally see being sooo good on pasta
- Tom Thai – with rice. Very good, I think my favourite. I felt like it was missing something small, just that extra ‘kick’. I would get this one again
- Bam Chili – with rice. Still good, but I think my least favourite out of the four. I just like my regular chili recipe too much I think!
Thoughts?
In general, I’m a huge fan of the concept. The convenience is so key. This convenience does come at a price though. They sell as a subscription model style (cancel anytime). You can do 12, 24 or 36 wheels at a frequency of 1-4 weeks. The more wheels you buy, the cheaper it is:
12 – $4.25/ smoothie, $6.25/ lunch
24 – $3.75/smoothie, $5.75/lunch
36 – $3.63/smoothie, $5.63/lunch
(these prices were based on my postal code, so yours may vary)
I do think this is worth it for the convenience, health, and flavour selection, but I don’t think I would do this as often as suggested. I do think the 36 wheel is a good deal compared to buying breakfast out. I also think the lunches are quite decent because I was able to use only half the wheel for one meal (plus rice). That’s way better than if you were to buy lunch out. Also, you can keep the wheels frozen for up to a year.
All in all, I think for what they are and the convenience it provides (no blender), it’s worth it! So easy to take on the go.
Evive Nutrition was nice enough to set up a coupon code that I could share with my readers! At checkout, if you enter imnotabeautyguru30 for your first order, you can get 30% off. This is an affiliate code, so I do get a bit if you do end up using it!
If you do end up ordering, I’d love to hear what you think!
Thanks for reading! Hope you have a great day!
*Sent for Review and Affiliate Code