Thistle.co Review 2024
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You might be here because you're doing research after someone told you that Thistle is the best vegan meal subscription service. Does Thistle Food deliver healthy, delicious food by the bushel? It's the question on everyone's mind when they're looking to switch to a new meal delivery service, try a meal delivery service for the first time, or simply get out of a meal rut. While many people know Thistle as a sustainable food service that's famed for its amazing fresh-pressed juices and plant-based options, thistle really is the whole enchilada when it comes to meal delivery. Just don't expect that enchilada to have any gluten or dairy!
Many people who are lucky enough to be within Thistle's delivery zone are turning to the service for everything from weight loss to food sensitivities. Yes, Thistle meals are free of gluten, eggs, and dairy! That makes ordering your meals so easy if you hate the hassle of reading the fine print on every prepackaged meal to look for foods on your no-can-do list. The healthy ingredients and reasonable portions of Thistle meals can be exactly what you need if you're looking for a meal plan you can follow to reach a fitness goal. However, the fact that Thistle offers wholesome, delicious food tailored for people with special dietary needs doesn't mean that this service is a bowl of cherries for everyone.
What Is Thistle Food Delivery?
Let's start by talking about what Thistle Food isn't. This is not a meal-kit delivery service like Hello Fresh. You're getting full, ready-to-eat meals that don't require any preparation or extra ingredients. You don't even need a kitchen to enjoy Thistle Food. Your fully prepared meal can be delivered to your home or office. All of the meals and juices offered by Thistle Food are whipped up by an in-house team of chefs specializing in gluten-free, dairy-free, and organic recipes.
The company tempts you with promises of decadent dressings that are good for you, irresistible coconut creams, and exotic nut cheeses. Thistle meals are also packed with more than 40 “superfoods” that include favorites like matcha, chia, and spirulina. You can click on each menu item when you order your meals to get a full breakdown of ingredients and nutritional content!
Thistle isn't just a “convenient” service. While the delivery aspect is convenient, Thistle differs from other food delivery services because of what it doesn't put in its dishes. Here are the key sticking points of Thistle:
- All food offered by Thistle is free of gluten, dairy, and eggs.
- Thistle meals are also always free of refined sugars, artificial sweeteners, and preservatives.
- Options abound for both vegans and non-vegans.
- All meals contain locally sourced ingredients.
Sounds good? It gets better. Thistle has you covered for three square meals a day! Subscribers can select any combination of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There's even a snack option to ensure that you're never caught without a backup plan for when you get a case of the nibbles. Again, Thistle really shines when it comes to helping you enjoy balanced meals with portion control. You can also have confidence about what you're eating because most items on your plate are locally and sustainably sourced. However, it should be noted that Thistle doesn't guarantee that your meal will exclusively contain organic produce.
Overview of Thistle’s Meals
Let's talk a bit about the experience of being a Thistle eater! Thistle focuses on creating “nutrient diversity” in its recipes. On average, a Thistle meal delivered to you will contain a total of 5.8 unique, fruits, vegetables, plants, or meats.
If you're in the Thistle local delivery zone, you have several options to choose from. If you're just in the shipping zone, you have four boxes to choose from. We'll go deep into local delivery versus shipping zones in just a minute! First, let's unwrap the options a bit to really get to the core of what's on the table with Thistle. This is what the “full menu” looks like if you're a local customer.
Vegan Options:
- Vegan Lunch.
- Vegan Dinner.
- Vegan Lunch + Dinner.
- Full-Day Vegan.
Omnivore Options:
- Omnivore Lunch.
- Omnivore Dinner.
- Omnivore Lunch + Dinner.
- Full-Day Omnivore.
The options are less robust if you're only located in Thistle's shipment zone. Again, we'll cover exactly what that means just a little bit further down in this review. Here's a look at what non-local customers within the shipping range can choose:
- Once-weekly Thistle Essentials Box.
- Once-weekly Enhanced Box.
- Once-weekly Cold-Pressed Juice Box.
- Once-weekly Lite Bites Box.
If you're still making your mind up about Thistle, now is a good time to check out the pros and cons. While there's a lot to love about these tasty, ultra-fresh meals, some people are going to find Thistle limiting. However, the pros column is notably much larger than the cons column.
Pros:
- The food is SO fresh compared to many other meal delivery services.
- Zero prep time on your part!
- Deliveries are predictable.
- You can scale up or down based on your weekly schedule.
- New meal items are added every week.
- Tons of vegan options!
- The brand is really focused on catering to people who can't eat mainstream “grab-and-go” options due to having special dietary needs.
- You can have it delivered right to your office because it's all fully prepared. You do not need a kitchen to order food through Thistle.
- Meals are full of locally sourced ingredients.
- People who are avoiding gluten, dairy, and eggs don't have to think twice before each bite.
- Forget about refined sugars or artificial sweeteners. Thistle focuses on letting the natural flavors of food do the work!
Cons:
- While Thistle Food is a sweet arrangement if you're within the local delivery range, you don't get access to the full scope of what's available if you're only in the shipping range.
- People in most of the country can't use Thistle.
- When compared to similar services, Thistle Food delivery can be one of the pricier options.
- While this may change in the future, Thistle Food currently wraps its products using single-use plastics that aren't necessarily the best fit for the environment. However, this is common among food delivery services simply because it provides a safe, hygienic way to ensure that your food is getting to you in top condition without excessive handling.
How Does Thistle Food Delivery Work?
Let's talk a little about how Thistle gets to your door. The cool thing about Thistle is that you never really have to worry about meal boredom. The company works really hard to create fresh, rotating menus with tons of new options being added all the time.
When you sign up for Thistle, the company designs, preps, and delivers meals right to your door. You also have tons of freedom to update your meal options week by week if you find that a particular option doesn't work for you. Of course, you can always cancel your Thistle subscription without any questions.
Thistle has scheduled delivery days. If you're considered a local delivery, orders go out on Monday and Thursday mornings! The alternate delivery window is Sunday and Wednesday evenings. The perk of being a local customer with Thistle is that you can actually customize your window a bit. When delivering to customers who are within the shipping range even though they are not in the local range, Thistle promises that refrigerated boxes will arrive by 8 p.m. on Monday or Thursday. However, you can't necessarily choose a delivery time.
Of course, all of this raises the question of what Thistle Food delivery considers to be local. This is where the delivery service gets a little complicated for people located away from the West Coast. Let's cover Thistle delivery and shipping ranges next!
Where Does Thistle Food Deliver?
What makes Thistle Food delivery feel so elite is that the company has a very specific service range for customers. If you're considered a local customer, you'll get your meals delivered to your door using ice packs for freshness. Here's the list of places that make the local cut for Thistle:
- San Francisco Bay Area.
- Greater Los Angeles Area.
- San Diego.
- Las Vegas.
- Sacramento.
- North Bay.
- Sacramento/Davis.
- Seattle.
- Portland.
- New York City.
- Philadelphia.
Don't get too disappointed just yet if you didn't see your city on the list. There's still hope that you've located on the short list of delivery zones that Thistle Food delivery services. Thistle ships boxes to parts of:
- California.
- Oregon.
- Arizona.
- Nevada.
- Idaho.
- Washington.
If you're curious to see if your town or city makes the cut, the easiest thing to do is just to contact Thistle's customer service department to ask about your zip code. You can track all the goodies that are coming your way by post using the tracking number for OnTrac that Thistle gives you once your order has been placed.