Going with another brand until the price comes down
This review has been edited since its first publication:<br /><br />Sequel Vega Optimizer mixes a smoothie recipe of flax, hemp, brown rice, chlorella and pea powder together so you don't have to do it yourself. Vega isn't the only product to do this with smoothie ingredients, but it's arguably the best.<br /><br />Vega charges a whopping 37 to 45 dollars a pound. Organic or not, vegan or not, that's just incredibly expensive. Am I being unfair? I think not. Most of these ingredients by themselves, even at full retail price, cost an average of 15 dollars a pound. We're talking about grains, seeds and green algae here, which in bulk should be reasonably priced for consumption.<br /><br />Maybe it's because Whole Foods carries and markets it, maybe it's because of the fancy logo and the celebrity endorsement. Considering the actual costs of mixing these ingredients together and selling them in a plastic tub, Vega has made its R&D investment back many times over already.<br /><br />When the price is down around 40 dollars a tub, I purchase a vanilla chai or chocolate flavor tub. Otherwise, when the price of Vega shoots up seasonally to the 60 dollar region, I buy the Tru-Foods brand, which offers virtually the same mix for about 32 dollars a tub. That's half the price, and closer to the fair market price for these ingredients. I use this product every day for weeks at a time, so I'm saving significant coin by going with Tru-Foods. I'm hoping that other well known nutrition brands make a similar product to force the Vega price down to reasonable levels.
Rating: 3 stars