Sakara Life’s version of a Snapple fact is one-part superfood spotlight, one-part mirror mantra.

I found these words written on the packaging of my breakfast last week: “There’s more vitamin C in acerola cherries than almost any other fruit. That means extra collagen-supporting, immunity-encouraging power to give you sun-level luminosity. Beam on, Sakaralite — you’re lighting the path for others.”

I nodded at this, all of a sudden feeling good. Then I ate the food (Cherry Tea Cake with Stone Fruit Jam) and felt really good.

The cake was my first meal in a three-day kit from the New York-based company, which was started in 2012 by childhood friends Danielle DuBoise and Whitney Tingle. Sakara Life is now a behemoth (Forbes specifically dubbed it a “$150-million-a-year plant-based powerhouse”) and also proffers an array of wellness products: metabolism powders, probiotics, granola, “super bars.”

Everything is plant-based and organic, and the meals are all delivered fresh. (The company maintains kitchens in Long Island City and Gardena, California, closest to their highest concentrations of consumers.) These kits are the bread and butter of Sakara Life’s business strategy, riding a wave of recent popularity — the meal kit market is on pace to reach $12 billion by 2027. The kits seem to dare fans of the brand to ask themselves: What if I always ate like this?

Well, you’d spend a lot of money. But you’d also have that energetic, I-just-consumed-something-real-thing feeling all the time. For our part, we got to have that feeling for three days earlier this month; below, some words on what the Sakara Life tastes like.

What We Ate

Some things we ate in addition to the cherry cake situation:

• Spiced Apple Parfait
• Kimchi Bahn Mi Dumplings
• Seasoned Basmati Rice (mixed with Butter Chickpea Curry)
• Fulfilling Focaccia + Greens (with a side of Inner Harmony Onion Soup)
• Winter Sun Salad with Honey Dijon Dressing

For starters: this food is fantastic. It’s fantastic if you’re not accustomed to eating meals where veggies play the role of protagonist, and it’s fantastic even if you’re a hardcore, hard-to-please vegan. The food is clearly prepared with a ton of thought and a lot of love (Sakara has hundreds of kitchen workers on the payroll) and for being so plant-forward, it isn’t lacking in flavor. I especially loved (a) the spicy carrot purée that accompanied the dumplings, and (b) the touches of mesquite seasoning in the parfait’s almond butter caramel.

Who Is It For?

In theory, this sort of food should be for everyone. But there’s a high probability, if you identify as a man, that you haven’t eaten anything from Sakara before. For one, online analytics suggest that 77% of its consumer audience is female. And a number of its products are expressly designed for female touch-points like prenatal care, or bridal prep. This target audience makes sense; it has obvious crossovers in the female wellness space, and besides, men eat a preposterous amount of red meat. It’s harder to convince them to buy winter salads.

Still, this sort of plant-based diet is packed with fiber, minerals, vitamins, healthy fats, you name it. It’s the sort of food that makes you want to accomplish things throughout the day instead of lay down on the couch. Over time, yes, it probably will help you clear up your skin, balance your gut, get better sleep and cool your anxiety…like Sakara puts on its branding. Eat the right food for a long period is medicinal. A mountain of evidence says so.

Can you afford what Sakara’s offering, though? That’s a bit trickier — the meals come out to about $31 a pop, or $275 for nine (when you choose a three-day meal plan). If you choose to subscribe on a weekly basis, that number drops down to $27 a pop. It’s still a lot. Do you, but I’d recommend using Sakara’s meal kits as a “reset” option. When you come back from a gluttonous holiday or wedding weekend, it’s a delicious, fresh, easy-to-prepare option that’ll put you back on track. Most of us wouldn’t dream of spending that much on breakfast, but we’ve all overspent on over-buttered dinners. Consider this an evened-out alternative.

Black Friday Deal

With the holidays upon us, Sakara Life seems keen to earn some new acolytes. The brand is actually staging a big Black Friday deal. Code BLACKFRIDAY2023 will secure you 25% off nutrition programs for each week (all the way through 12/25) when you pre-order your meals for the rest of the year.

Note well: in order to secure a meal kit for the following week, you want to get your order in by Wednesday at midnight EST. If you ordered food for the following Monday-Wednesday, say, you’ll received those meals (perched atop some surprisingly effective ice bags, by the way…I used them to ice my legs during marathon training).

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