Kate Weiser “Carl” the Hot Chocolate Drinking Snowman

I had high expectations of this because of the hefty $32 price tag ($40 if you count shipping!). I was not disappointed! Here’s how I would rate the Kate Weiser chocolate snowman:

• Cost – $32 … but it makes 5-8 servings, so $4-$6.40 per serving
• Appearance – 5/10 … honestly, I would have given it a 10/10 had it arrived exactly as it appears online. However, it arrived with a bunch of loose chocolate powder and a broken base (see photo) so instead of appearing white, the snowman appeared brown. Of course, when you’re shipping something so delicate I’m sure these things happen – my recommendation would be to buy it in person in a Neiman Marcus store if you’re near one.
• Melting Quality – 8/10 … the snowman melted pretty quickly and evenly into a chocolate-y puddle. However, the marshmallows were kind of meh.
• Taste – 10/10 … Amaaaaaazing hot chocolate! The box recommends you do 8 servings if you like it a little thinner and 5 servings if you want to be drinking chocolate. I did 6 servings because I wanted it on the rich side. It was sooooo good – you could tell it was high quality chocolate, and not cut with a bunch of sugar. Imagine the chocolate you get when you order churros in Barcelona … that’s how it tastes!

Trader Joe’s Hot Chocolate Snowman

I had high expectations of this snowman, too, because I usually love everything TJ’s! However, I was a little disappointed with this one. Here’s why:

• Cost – $1.99 … but it makes 1-2 servings, so $1-$2 per serving
• Appearance – 7/10 … pretty cute little guy, what can I say.
• Melting Quality – 8/10 … I was soooo disappointed with the melting. It took fooooorever and the shell is white chocolate so you didn’t get that nice melting effect of the brown and milk mixing. Also, the chocolate chips inside the snowman didn’t melt well at all and stuck to the bottom of the pan. It took a lot of stirring to make this edible!
• Taste – 3/10 … When I purchased these snowmen, the Trader Joe’s checkout guy warned me that they would be a sugar bomb and to use two cups of milk instead of the one cup suggested on the packaging. Thankfully I took his advice – I actually probably could have used three cups of milk and still found it too sugary! There was not a very strong chocolate flavor at all – it was like drinking straight sugar.

So who’s the hot chocolate snowman winner?

Kate Weiser by a landslide! Of course, a $32 chocolate snowman is gonna taste better, but does it taste $30 better? I’m here to say, definitively, YES. If you’re looking to indulge in hot chocolate, the Trader Joe’s snowman isn’t even worth the calories. Just upgrade to the Kate Weiser version and thank me when you’re done.

The ONLY situation in which I would recommend the Trader Joe’s chocolate snowman over Kate Weiser is if you have no kids or friends or family to share with. Then, it might be hard to justify a chocolate snowman meant for 5-8 servings, ha!

*This review is in no way sponsored or affiliated with Trader Joe’s or Kate Weiser, I just like to give my unsolicited opinion on everything I buy

**The Christmas tree mug below I got on Amazon, and the gingerbread cookies are from Trader Joe’s!

*This is NOT a paid advertisement, this is just something I tried myself and paid for with my own money.

Pros

Very fresh ingredients and tasty meals. As a foodie and omnivore, I had high expectations on flavor and I was not disappointed.

Meals were generally filling, with the exception of most of the breakfast meals. I never went to bed hungry, which I was worried about on a plant-based diet.

Delivery was always prompt and well-packaged. I was never afraid if I missed the delivery by a few hours, the food would go bad, because it was always cooled and insulated.

“Freebies” included every week like detox tea, chocolate, chips, and their detox waters. Of course, I would never pay separately for those things (like “beauty water” which can be purchased for $39 each on the Sakara website), but it was nice to get them free with my meals.

Cons

Expensive, obviously. At an average cost of $27/meal, it’s hard to justify some of the meals especially since they don’t contain meat.

I didn’t like that they don’t believe in including nutrition facts and caloric content on the labels. Sakara isn’t marketed as a weight loss diet, but I personally think it’s important to know how many calories you’re taking in regardless. Some of their meals were really heavy on creamy dressings and starchy veggies and I personally would like to know if I’m eating like 800 calories worth of carbs in a meal.

Not a lot of variety in flavor profiles. Eventually, it just started seeming like it was the same three sauces over different veggies each week.

Is Sakara Life A Good Meal Delivery Plan For Post-Partum Recovery?

As I mentioned, I did Sakara Life right after I gave birth for several weeks. TL;DR I would recommend Sakara life for post-partum recovery if you want the convenience of eating healthy without having to cook and are able to stomach the high cost. It’s hard to say if it had any impact on my energy levels or weight loss as the post-partum period is such a mess anyway, but at least psychologically it gave me a boost to know I was eating clean and healthy. Also, I had no problems producing enough milk supply to breastfeed on this diet, but there’s no real way to pinpoint if the effect of the diet was positive, negative, or neutral.

What Kind Of Meals Do You Get With Sakara Life?

Sakara offers breakfast, lunch, and dinner options. My recommendation would be to skip breakfast and maybe even lunch. I started Sakara by ordering breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 3 days a week. I quickly learned that breakfast was TINY and definitely not worth $27. The following week, I did 4 days a week of just lunch and dinner for about the same price as doing all three meals for 3 days a week. I felt like I was getting more value with the larger portions of lunch and dinner. After doing that for a couple weeks, I eventually stopped getting lunch, too. Instead, I changed to dinner 5 days a week instead. This is because lunch was almost always a salad and I like to eat different textures and flavors. And the salads were heavy on the filler – think LOTS of arugula.

Here are some pictures of the food I received:

• A tiny ass yogurt with fruit for breakfast
• This soup smelled good but the container didn’t say “do not microwave” and I’m an idiot
• Delicious dressing
• These “pizzas” were really good
• Yum these “quesadillas” were good
• Another salad for lunch
• Tiny french toast breakfast (that plate is a tea saucer size for reference)

Is Sakara Life Worth The Money?

For me, even though Sakara was within my household budget, it was not worth $27/meal. While almost everything was filling and tasty, there are so many great food choices in NYC that cost less that it was hard to justify. So, here are my ultimate recommendations:

I would say if you want to try Sakara, do a two-week detox with them instead of considering it a long-term meal plan.

Alternatively, if you have lots of money and don’t care about the cost as much (but still want to get the most value), use Sakara for lunch and dinner and skip breakfast.

Ok, hope you enjoyed reading my review. If you found it helpful or have questions, please leave a comment!

Read the tips:

1. Avoid “free” offers that make you pay for shipping
2. Be cautious about new retailers who advertise to you on Facebook/Instagram – they might be dropshippers
3. Decide if your privacy is worth a box of diapers
4. Skip straight to my list of LEGIT free stuff from reputable companies

Tip #1: Avoid “Free” Offers That Make You Pay For Shipping

TL;DR These sites give you “free” things in the hopes that they can convince you to buy something on their site at 10x marked up prices. They also upcharge you for shipping so they make money whether you buy something or not. Lastly, they sell your information to third parties so even if you never buy anything from them, they can profit off of you.

Here’s how it works: On the pages of nearly all the top web results for “free baby stuff,” you’ll find a similar offer for free baby shoes where all you have to do is pay for shipping and you get two adorable pairs of shoes for free:

Seems like a pretty good deal, right? This particular offer takes you to LittleWanderers.com and the site looks pretty legit. You’ll notice that their baby shoes retail for $30 a pair, but you can get two pairs for FREE, a $60 value! False. What this site is actually doing is taking something that costs $2.99 on Amazon (or even cheaper at $1.99 on Chinese sites like Alibaba) and marking it up 10X to trick you into paying a premium for a cheap Made in China item:

So, let’s just say we’re going to claim the two free shoes and never buy anything on their site because we know their prices are bullshit. Here’s what that looks like – shipping cost of $15-17! If you had just bought it on Amazon in the first place, you would have spent $3 per pair of shoes with $6 shipping OR free shipping with Amazon Prime, so anywhere from $6-12. And you’d probably get your item from Amazon a helluva lot faster than in 14 days like on this site:

Ok, so we’ve pretty much determined that it would NOT be cost effective to redeem “free” shoes on LittleWanderers.com … but here’s where it’s just plain STUPID to use this site at all. If you go to their Terms of Service page, you’ll find a buried link to their Privacy Policy where they actually tell you that they “may” sell your data to third parties, including your name, address, etc. That’s their alternate revenue stream and how they make money off your information – and that’s how you start getting all that junk mail from third parties that you wonder how they found you.

All this is to say that the old adage, “nothing in life is free” holds true even in redeeming free baby stuff. And it’s not just these admittedly adorable shoes that try to trick you – other offers I’ve also found that fall into this category are “free” nursing pillows, carseat covers, belly bands, baby bibs, baby slings, baby books, and more. See the list of links below for sites where I think the buyer should beware – they’re all owned by the same parent company Mothers Lounge:

• LittleWanderers.com
• NursingPillow.com
• CarseatCanopy.com
• SevenBaby.com
• TheBellyButton.com
• BabyLeggings.com
• BreastPads.com
• RuffleBuns.com
• BabsyBooks.com
• EskimoKids.com
• PregnancyPillow.com
• UdderCovers.com

Tip #2: Be Cautious About New Retailers Who Advertise To You On Facebook/Instagram – They Might Be Dropshippers

TL;DR As soon as you become pregnant, you’ll start getting targeted by these ads that will show you adorable baby stuff marked as heavy discounts … when in fact, even the discounted price is marked up from what you can get the item for on Amazon! These retailers are doing something called “dropshipping” where they’re basically acting as an expensive (and completely unnecessary) middleman in your purchase.

Here’s how it works: You’ll be browsing instagram and suddenly see an ad for an adorable hippo footstool slash storage unit that you really, really need for … reasons. Anyway, it looks like a great deal at first glance because it’s on sale for over 50% off the $500 retail price! But actually, do a quick search on Amazon and you’ll see that it costs WAY less. A good rule of thumb when purchasing anything in life should probably be to check Amazon first, TBH.

The retailers who do this are really fascinating, and what they’re doing is completely legal. You can read about it in detail in this Atlantic article, “The Strange Brands in Your Instagram Feed” but basically these retailers are dropshipping – that is, they hold no inventory of their own in stock. Instead, they feature cheap Chinese goods they find on Alibaba or Amazon on their websites at a steep 5-10x markup, wait for you to order something from their website, and then act as the middleman to place that order with the cheaper site. This entire process is often automated through Shopify storefronts, so before you purchase from a retailer you’ve never heard of, enter their URL in BuiltWith and check if they’re using Shopify. Not every Shopify store is a dropshipper, but most dropshippers use Shopify.

Tip #3: Decide If Your Privacy Is Worth A Box Of Diapers

TL;DR If you’re signing up to get something for “free,” expect that you’ll be paying with your data. If spam emails, unsolicited telemarketing calls, and junk mail don’t bother you, then go for it! Or, if you want to minimize your exposure, only redeem “free” baby offers with reputable sites that you already use, like Amazon, Target, Babylist, etc. or through direct through the manufacturer like Huggies, Pampers, etc.

Here’s how it works: Almost any time you redeem an offer for “free” baby things, particularly those boxes that contain samples from numerous different brands, you’re signing yourself up for third-party spam. And not just an email-a-day sort of spam that you can easily block – you might get contacted by telemarketers over and over again who just dial you from a new number when you block them. Before you sign up to get anything for “free,” make sure you read the fine print – here’s an example of a popular “free” diaper offer from MyChoiceBabyGifts.com:

The fine print reads: “There is no purchase necessary to access our list of links for samples but you do need to provide personal information, respond to survey questions and agree to be contacted by our marketing partners to qualify for a sample collection. By visiting the website and participating, you agree to […] our Privacy Policy under which you allow us to share your personal information with our marketing partners who may also contact you via email, or if you separately consent, by telephone or text message. We may be compensated for connecting our marketing partners with consumers who may be interested in their products or services. We may substitute other products.”

Tricksy hobbitses. Instead of signing up for offers like these, I would recommend creating baby registries at reputable sites that you probably already use, like Amazon, Babylist, Target, and buybuyBaby. If you already use them, they already have your personal information, so they’re probably already sharing it with third parties – no loss there. And in most cases, all you have to do is create or buy something on your registry and they will send you a box of free baby goodies! You can also go direct to the manufacturer which is safer than signing up for random “free” baby box deals – for example, go to Similac for free formula or Huggies for free diapers.

The Good News

Ok, enough with all the bad news – despite what I talked about in this post, there are some pretty great offers for free baby stuff out there. Here’s my recommended list of LEGIT baby freebies (you don’t even have to pay for shipping!):

• Amazon Baby Welcome Box – valued at $35
• Target Baby Box
• buybuyBaby Free Goodie Bag – this one is kind of annoying because you have to register/add items in-store to qualify
• Babylist Free Box
• Amazon free parenting Kindle eBook – choose from popular titles like What to Expect When You’re Expecting, Mayo Clinic Guide to Healthy Pregnancy, etc.
• Similac Strong Moms free formula and bag
• Enfamil free formula

Did You Find This Article Helpful? Any Other Tips Or Offers You Want To Share? Leave A Comment!