Best In Singapore: Fruit Delivery – The Fruit Hut

It’s been a while since I’ve done “food reviews” on my blog. In recent years, I’ve been focusing more on getting my startup on track and working on my illustrations – together with my team; we’re doing an illustration book, which I’m very excited about.

The opportunity came about when Best In Singapore dropped me a direct message (DM) on Instagram and asked if I’d be interested in doing some reviews. There was some delay on my part, took a month before we started the collaboration.

What I loved about working with them was the fact, in the agreement they highlighted I could honest. On top of that, this post was supposed to come out a week ago, but was a little overwhelmed during 11.11, that it ended up delaying till today.

So yes, this is not an advertorial – I got to choose what I wanted, and I’m not paid to write this.

When you enter The Fruit Hut, you’d see the headliner “premium fresh fruits delivered to your door – sweeter, juicier, fresher, 100 percent quality guarantee.”

When I see words like that, I get very taken aback. Why? As a marketer, admittedly, I use over glorifying words so frequently that sometimes when in my Jessica mode, I second doubt the truth in the lala-words my alter ego uses. Secondly, I’m a sceptic.

That said, I love the word premium, cause that means good and expensive (most times), and for someone like me that doesn’t take many veggies, fruits are part of my essential diet – cause that’s the only thing that doesn’t require a whip and a stick to get it down my throat.

The selection of what I was going to add to my cart was nerve-racking – everything looked GREAT. It was then I realise my budget might not be sufficient, hahaha. Good photography goes a long way, have to give it to Owari for a job well done. Given that, my brain fried and I summoned my husband to make the tough decisions in life for me.

We pre-ordered the fruits instead of going for the within two hours committed they gave on the top right-hand side of the site. It arrived pretty much on time, give or take.

Just like what the headliner promised, the fruits were one notch up, so was the price.

Some context before we start dissecting the taste.

“Singapore’s number one largest fruit delivery,” they claim. “We provide over 80 varieties of only the finest produce from the best farms worldwide.“

The Fruit Hut explained why they were the freshest, and it had to do with them being “the only” retailer with cold room facilities. They elaborated that given Singapore’s warm and humid weather, fruits in regular stores lose freshness fast; hence they have a large refrigeration chamber that stores their fruits between 3 to 7 degrees, keeping them at maximum freshness. To top it up, they encourage customers to visit them personally (which sort of defeats the purpose of delivery), and customers get to enjoy free islandwide delivery with orders above SGD 60!

I love businesses with subscription models (I subscribe to many) cause when things get delivered to me; it feels like I’m getting gifts regularly; so I’ll take their word for it and not go personally (my husband might though).

*Drums roll.*

I don’t know what we ordered precisely, which works for me, cause again, love receiving gifts at my doorstep; but I know there’d be grapes and my hubby made me choose between longans and mangos.

Item 1: THA Juicy Sweet Longan (500g) – SGD 5.50

You got it. I picked longans! I guess I made that decision cause I’ve had mango yoghurt for days, and I got a bit sick of it. Whereas, we don’t often order longans (or ever), so why not?

Admittedly, it was one of the best longans ever. Takes this with a pinch of salt, cause I’ve not had longans for a looong time, so there’s a slight bias to this statement.

I think it’s a bit pricier than most places, but given that it’s not a regular item on my shopping cart, I can’t say for sure. Then again, I hate going out to shop for groceries so that I wouldn’t mind the bit more for the quality. After all, stepping out of the house would cost me at least SGD 15 since I grab everywhere, and the time spent just going to get it, would cost me more than the price difference.

Plus, every piece was pretty much even and sweet! Having ordered from Redmart that much, at the very least, I can say that the quality from Redmart can go from good to horrible every other time. It was my first order from The Fruit Hut, so if the next maintained its standards, I would favour them.

Item 2: USA Thompson Green Seedless Crisp Grapes (500g) – SGD 11.90

“The green grapes were massive! When I held a single piece of the grape, It reminded me of those giant jawbreakers I had last time. They resembled green crystal droplets of sweet and sourness goodness! I would say that these green ones are the crunchiest of them all,” said Edmund, my hubby.

My hubby is very expressive, sometimes.

I second his comments. The grapes were massive. However, it wasn’t my favourite on the list, but it was DEFINITELY more satisfying than the ones I usually order. What I typically purchase is a lot cheaper as well, pennies on the dollar, can’t expect much from lesser.

Item 3: USA Crimson Crisp Seedless Red Grapes (500g) – SGD 12.90

“The red grapes were less impressive, however, still packed a punch in the flavour department. A bit smaller as compared to the green ones, but still larger than the usual grapes you see at supermarkets. Taste-wise, it’s slightly better than the green ones,” said Ed.

Once again, in full support. I do prefer the red compared to the green. It’s less in size but more in sweetness. It could become my regular.

Item 4: Korea Kyoho Grapes (500g) – SGD 28.90

“The Kyoho grapes looks gorgeous and has this unique champagne-like taste profile. It is also much sweeter and juicier than the other grapes. Now, taste-wise, these grapes had a unique taste and more fragrant compared to the others,” said Ed.

Once again, our thoughts were aligned, which doesn’t happen that often.

Grapes were something that I ordered very frequently. Again, the orders I make from Redmart is like playing lucky draws. Sometimes it’s okay, others it isn’t terrific. By horrible, I mean, I throw them away. The quality consistency isn’t there, but I don’t complain, cause it’s relatively cheap and I really wouldn’t go to the supermarket or fruits store. So these grapes were a treat.

You can read Best In Singapore’s “Best 10 Fruit Baskets in Singapore” for more options.

So here’s the interesting part of this whole review experience, because we ended ordering so many grapes and there’s just me and Ed in our “Wang-Lee” family, we kinda filmed a taste test with the team.

Okay, I won’t share the whole story just yet, it’s still brewing… but the gist of it was that we experimented to see if the “gang” could guess which was which. While Ed could adequately describe the taste of each grape now, then, he didn’t quite get it right blindfolded.

During the filming session, this question popped up behind the scenes, so to speak, “which grape would you buy regularly?” The guys concluded that while Kyoho grapes had the most flavour, it wouldn’t be something they’d have in the fridge.

The funny thing was that it wasn’t because of the price, but because of the flavour that would prevent them from making that purchase. On the other hand, if it were not for the price, I would buy have it in the fridge regularly because of the taste.

In case you’re wondering, I reordered again after the review; sadly, I couldn’t repeat the orders cause some were not available.

If you’d like to find out more about “the whole story” that I mentioned earlier and watch the upcoming clip on the taste test, subscribe to my blog and sign up at People’s Inc. XOXO.