My Azure Standard Review (Pros, Cons, Worth It?)
Azure Standard has been an incredible blessing in many ways to our family. However, I want to be totally transparent about my experience with them so that you know what to expect if you decide to purchase from this company. So today, I will be giving you an honest Azure Standard Review, which will include the following:
- How I Found Azure Standard?
- Why I Opted for Azure
- My Honest Azure Review (Pros and Cons)
- Azure Prices vs. Supermarket Prices
- Is Azure Standard Worth it?
Note: This article is an honest review of my experience with Azure Standard. But if you are looking to learn what Azure Standard is and how it works step-by-step, click here.
**This post contains affiliate links. Please click here for more info.
How I Found Azure Standard
As a former nurse, my quest for better overall health has always been an ongoing one. But when I became a mother, that quest intensified.
It is no secret that chemicals, fillers, additives, preservatives, pesticides, and toxic and harmful chemicals and ingredients linger in our day-to-day foods and products.
The more I question, and the more I search the foods and products we use and their ingredients, I realize that the industry as a whole is not out to make us (or keep us) healthy- in my opinion.
So it is up to us to be knowledgeable and conscientious of what we put “in” and “on” our bodies.
With all that said, organic foods and products are generally more expensive, making it harder for those of us looking to embark on a cleaner and healthier lifestyle.
Harder? Yes. Impossible? No.
When 2020 happened, our family of 4 reevaluated many things we knew we needed to change drastically. For our overall health, well-being, peace, happiness, and sanity.
One of those changes was leaving our lifelong careers, relocating from a big city to a mountainside small town, and re-inventing and redesigning our life around the things we felt were priorities… God, family, health, and nature.
I must say that that change has been one of the most humbling and heartwarming experiences of my life (my husband’s and our children’s as well).
Living here, surrounded by nature, and the slowness of nature and its seasons, has allowed us to appreciate everything more, including each other.
Since then, we have learned and accomplished many beneficial things which help to fuel our new life quest, such as:
- Growing a vegetable, herb, and flower garden.
- Raising and caring for ten beautiful egg-laying hens.
- Learning how to use an electric home mill and milling our own grains.
- Cooking and baking with whole ingredients (including home-milled flour).
- Eating and cooking clean, organic, whole foods (most of which come from our garden).
- Building a long-term food storage pantry (which helps counteract inflation and ensures food security).
- Buying organic foods in bulk (through places like Azure and Butcher Box) makes it more affordable to maintain a healthier diet.
Our goal is to continue to find ways to be more self-sustainable and be able to continue finding ways to be healthier physically, mentally, and spiritually.
It was precisely in that quest that I came across Azure Standard.
Looking through Homesteading and Homemaking videos on YouTube, I came across people that were on a similar quest. In their content, many shared where they bought their organic food in bulk, and I became very interested.
And so, I researched…
Why I Opted to Buy from Azure?
The more I researched and the more I inquired about Azure, its mission, and its products as a whole, the more I became convinced that Azure was exactly what I needed in my new quest.
In essence, the reasons I opted to purchase products for Azure on a regular basis are simple:
What They Stand For
Azure Standard is a company that prides itself on its mission to provide its community (us) with the best food possible. As they explain, “we have the dedication to share what we have learned and provide other families with the highest standard of whole foods at affordable prices. We believe that everyone should have access to high-quality, organic, non-GMO foods to live long, strong, meaningful lives. “
They have also been incredibly influential in bringing awareness to the GMO, Glyphosate, and Round-up crisis affecting the food we consume on a daily basis.
The Quality of Their Products
Azures requires the full transparency of all the companies we work with; they choose suppliers that produce real foods made with only natural ingredients.
That means you get nutrient-rich foods that are minimally processed with no artificial additives, no preservatives, no GMOs or MSG, and no artificial colors or flavors.
Here is a full list of Azure Product Standards. I urge you to take a look at it if you are interested in purchasing from Azure.
Convenience
One of the biggest challenges for me has been finding all of the organic products I am looking for in one place. Typically, I find myself going to multiple stores in my area to find what I need. And in the small town where I live, the choices are a bit limited. That, as you can imagine, is not time or cost-effective.
So, opting to order from Azure, where I find everything I need in one place, is very convenient. It is because of that same convenience that I also purchase my organic, grass-fed meat, organic chicken, and wild-caught sea food from Butcher Box.
Price
No doubt, buying organic foods is oftentimes more expensive than buying non-organic ones. So, opting for places where organic foods are sold at affordable prices is the obvious choice.
Places like Walmart, Kroger, Aldis, Target, and Cosco all carry some organic foods at decent prices. However, when compared to prices of organic bulk foods (per pound), Azure almost always takes the lead.
That is because selling organic food in bulk allows Azure to offer organic products at a lower price.
My Azure Standard Review
Azure Pros
Clean foods – Because of Azure’s rigorous standards, I know the food I purchase at Azure for our family is the best quality possible.
Price– Buying my organic food in bulk from Azure Standards means less money per pound.
Bulk grains and other products availability – Needless to say, most of our groceries stores don’t sell bulk organic grains and beans. Some companies do offer bulk organic products online, but the shipping cost is oftentimes not worth the purchase in the first place. So, I love that at Azure; I can order all things grains, beans, and many more categories of foods in bulk.
Protects against inflation – Buying products in bulk allows you to lock in today’s prices for months (even years to come).
Food Security – Buying in bulk provides food security by supplying your shelves with food for months (even years) at a time. Especially dry goods such as rice, beans, grains, and sugar,
Convenience – The biggest convenience for me is that Azure has all of the organic products I use in one place. That saves me from driving to multiple stores to find what I am looking for. All of the products I want to order I can find in my Azure Dashboard, and I add them to my cart as I need them throughout the month. When I am ready, I check out. When they are ready for me, I pick them up.
Community – In your drops, you get to meet many like-minded people in your community that you wouldn’t otherwise meet. I consider that to be a great pro of Azure.
Azure Cons
Drops – Picking up your shipment at a location near you might not be practical or doable. Pickups require you (or someone else you appoint) to be available at the set date and time set by your coordinator. In addition, depending on where you live, your nearest drop might be far away. My nearest drop is 1 hour away. You can, however, apply to open your own drop here.
Be Prepared to Help – I wrote an extensive article about how Azure Standards Drops work. But in essence, when the shipment is unloaded from the truck, everyone helps sort the items out. That makes the drop go VERY fast and effectively.
Upfront Cost – Although you will save in the long-run ordering bulk food from Azure, it does require an upfront cost because you will be purchasing in larger quantities.
Products Seasonality – Azure ensures that its products are as fresh as possible, and they do so by trying to sell items that are in season. For that reason, the availability of certain products especially produce and other crops, might be temporarily unavailable depending on the season.
Shipping Cost for Some States – While areas in the U.S. (closer to Azure’s warehouses) might have a lower shipping fee, some other states might require an additional shipping charge due to the long distance from the Azure warehouse. I live in Georgia, and I pay an additional shipping fee, and even then, it is more affordable to buy bulk organic food this way than to order it and have it shipped directly to my house by Azure or any other company. You can check your nearest Azure Drop, here.
Azure Standard Prices vs. Supermarket Prices
I don’t know about you, but I learn better and take in more information when I am presented with examples. So, to put a few things in perspective, I want to share with you some examples of Azure Standard process VS Supermarket prices (at the time of this writing).
It is important to note that the higher the amount (in quantity or weight) you buy of a particular product at Azure, the more you save! Additionally, Azure also has other means of savings, such as ongoing sales, clearances, and Azure Cash.
Organic Jasmine Rice
| Target | $6.69 – 2 lb. Bag | $3.34/lb. |
| Azure | $59.10 – 25 lb. Bag | $ 2.36/lb. |
Organic Rolled Oats
| Walmart | $6.28 – 2 lb. Bag | $3.14/lb. |
| Azure | $9.18 – 5 lb. Bag | $ 1.8/lb. |
Organic Cane Sugar
| Walmart | $9.89 – 6lbs Bag | $1.66/lb. |
| Azure | $32.14 – 25 lbs Bag | $1.29/lb. |
Organic Grass-Fed Butter
| Krogers | $8.49 – 16oz. Box | $0.54/oz. |
| Azure | $35.30 – 8oz. Box (x10) | $ 0.44/oz. |
I want to note that Romiano’s Organic Grass Feed European Style butter is the best I’ve had. It is incredibly creamy, and it has a lovely deep, rich yellow color.
Ever since I bought our electric grain mill and started baking on a regular basis, having good quality butter on hand is a must! I buy 30 8oz Rumiano Butter bars at a time and keep them in the freezer. I always keep two in the fridge and thaw them as needed. The minute you try REAL organic, grass-fed butter, you will never go back to the other stuff. Plus, organic grass-feed butter has a lot more health benefits than traditional butter. (Source).
So, Is Azure Standard Worth it?
In summary, yes! Ordering from Azure Standard is very worth it for multiple reasons. But, the main one is that I know that the quality and taste of the food I am feeding my family is optimal, and that, to me, is priceless.
Additionally, because of the instability and uncertainty of the current world we live in, I feel better knowing that I am able to buy all of these organic products in bulk and store them, helping fight inflation AND providing us with food security for months, even years to come.
Last but not least, because the price is also important, ordering from Azure makes it a win-win-win for me.
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Have you heard of Azure Standard before? Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below.