Several months ago, during my hunt for good grocery delivery services, I stumbled across the Berlin startup, Gegessen wird immer. It specializes in delivering both organic and artisanal grocery products, delivering local fruit and vegetables, fresh meat, an amazing selection of wine and beer (not to mention spirits), as well as bread from Kreuzberg's Soluna bakery and Quark and other dairy products from the Hemme dairy. Within each category, their offerings are tightly edited and very appealing. It's clear that people with a real interest in food and cooking are running the show, with a really good nose for quality.
Beyond their selection of organic produce, which is fine and covers most of the bases, there's a nice variety of Wurst and cheese from Germany, Austria and Italy. They sell Sawade chocolate, which endears them to me forever, because Sawade has always been my family's chocolatier, so to speak, and we feel strongly about supporting the hometown team. In fact, Gegessen wird immer sells lots of local brands, like Five Elephant coffee, tea from the Manuteefaktur, handmade bean-to-bar chocolate from Delicacao, and jams, chutneys and others spreads from Kebe Living, among many others. It's lovely to see so many Berlin brands represented here, and especially so because we don't live in Kreuzberg, Neukölln or Mitte, where it might be easier to access some of these goods. But Gegessen wird immer, although based in Berlin, has also sourced products from other artisans throughout Germany. There's honey and seed müsli from Hamburg, marmelades and jams from Schleswig-Holstein, and sauces from Brandenburg.
But beyond all of that, one of my favorite things about the service is their efficiency. They deliver in the evening, when you're almost guaranteed to be home, and if you place your order before noon, they deliver that same day. SAME DAY DELIVERY. Ding ding ding! That alone pretty much puts them at number 1 in my book. If you have a small order, the packaging is really discreet and conscientious - it's all brown kraft paper, which is easily recycled or reused, and it's sensibly used. (Unlike those other delivery services that literally bag four products into a plastic bag, leaving you with a mountain of trash each time you place an order - insert chagrined emoji face.) A larger order, or one that requires refrigeration, is delivered in a DHL box that the courier takes with him right away, so you have nothing cumbersome left to deal with.
I so appreciate the attention to detail, and the clear delight that the company takes in providing such well-curated (sorry, but it is) products sourced from real people and not nameless, faceless companies. Their gift boxes are both amusing and clever, and they also do office deliveries. In short, I'm a fan. A big fan.