I tried Abel & Cole for the first time about six months ago. In case you don’t know who Abel & Cole are, you can check them out here: www.abelandcole.co.uk. They are a UK based food home delivery company, but they do primarily organic products, and specialize in fruits, vegetables, and meats (red and white.) They have an ever expanding range of products though, so you can get some dairy products, some pantry items, baked goods, and even organic booze. I can’t name everything here, but you get the idea.
Delivery
The way the delivery works is that there will be a designated day that deliveries are made in your neighborhood. (Check the website to ensure your postcode is included.) So, you can make one order every week, every other week, or on whatever interval you choose. You can also ask for weekly deliveries, but then skip a particular week if you happen to be on holiday, or just don’t need anything.
The delivery charge is 99p (a total bargain!) and everything comes in a cardboard box (or cold store box for temperature sensitive items) which is left at your door on your delivery day. If you are a regular orderer, you can leave your boxes from the previous week outside for Abel & Cole to take away.
For the most part the packaging is very environmentally friendly.
Now, about the food: The fruits and vegetables from Abel & Cold are outstanding! The flavor that you get from their items is so much different from the produce you get at the grocery store (even the store bought organic items.) You have to be prepared to put a little bit of effort in when your order first arrives in terms of washing the dirt off of your carrots/parsnips/courgettes etc, but I actually really enjoy that.
Also, if you order heads of lettuce, again you need to be prepared to wash the leaves thoroughly before consuming.
Abel & Cole put together different boxes each week, so if you want a variety of vegetables, fruits and vegetables, or just fruit, you can order the boxes. They also offer basic or luxury boxes (with either standard fruit/veg or more exotic fruit/veg.) And then you can order different sized boxes depending on how many people you have in your household. Needless to say, they have a great variety to choose from!
My preferred method of ordering however, is just to choose my own fruit and vegetables and other goods. I tried the basic veg box for my first few orders, but I found that I was too choosy about what I wanted each week.
However you decide to do it, the website is awesome and so easy to use. It just takes a few minutes to go on and do your weekly order. Or if you have set it up and like the same foods in the same intervals, you don’t have to do a thing. You just leave your settings as they were and your order shows up each week. They use the credit card or other method of payment you’ve set up with them each time you order, so you don’t have to enter your details more than once.
Pricing
I’ve done some price comparisons against similar quantities of organic vegetables from Sainsbury’s. I think most items from Abel & Cole are more expensive than the grocery store. BUT, the extra cost is pretty minimal and I still think it is good value for money. The products from Abel & Cole do taste better than some of the produce you get from the grocery store.
And my real reason for not minding the small additional expenditure is the fact that it saves me from having to visit the grocery store very often. In fact, I don’t really need to ever go (but, I still like to once in awhile!) By not making so many visits to the store, I avoid all the silly impulse purchases that you end up adding to your cart at the store. Looking at my monthly grocery spend now, compared with my pre-Abel & Cole days, I spend on average about £50 less now. Yes, £50! I think that is great savings. And I feel great about what I’m eating (and the packaging I’m not having to throw away.)
Conclusion?
All in all, I think Abel & Cole is definitely worth a try. You can do one order and never use it again if you don’t want to. Or you can be like me, and love it and continue to use it.
If you already use it, or do try it, let me know what you think about it.
To your health,
Kimberly
