Review: Thrive Life

Reviewer: Jackie Snider

I have to be honest, this is the most excited I had been to conduct a review. I was absolutely ecstatic to receive my items from Thrive Life. This is a company that I had never even heard of before. As soon as I was presented with the option, I knew I wanted it. From what I could see it was freeze dried fruits and vegetables. After contacting Julie Buckner, and she gave me more info about what they carry, I was blown away! Thrive Life is so much more than that!

Thrive Life has an entire catalog of shelf reliant freeze dried food. From meats and dairy, to grains and vegetable, and everything in between. Furthermore, this company also has pantry storage organizational needs, as well as emergency kits. As my husband jokes, basically, if you are gearing up for the zombie apocalypse, this is easily your one-stop-shop! In all seriousness though, in the event of an emergency of any kind, you would be incredibly lucky to have a stock of Thrive Life in your home!


I was lucky enough to get to review the Cansolidator Pantry. The Cansolidator (which is usually $45, and currently on sale for just $21.92!) is one of the coolest organizational aids I’ve ever seen. It is their mid-level option in the Cansolidator series. It can hold up to 40 cans. The smaller option holds 20, while the larger option holds 60. To top it off, Julie also sent me Thrive Premium Freeze Dried Strawberries.

I received the Strawberries just three days after the order was placed! Before tasting, I began to read the information on the outside of the cans. I learned that they not only taste great as a straight-from-the-can snack, but you could even rehydrate them.

I think the coolest thing about these strawberries is the fact that they have a 25 year shelf life! No, that is not a typo. They keep their nutritional value best if eaten within a year of being open, but in storage, you have a whole 25 years to use. How amazing is that?!

Of course, the real test is the taste. I’m happy to say it passed with flying colors. I thought they were amazing, as did my 3-year-old daughter. Even my husband, who isn’t a fan of strawberries, really liked them. I was really excited to see that there is only one ingredient - STRAWBERRIES! No weird chemicals, or preservatives, or things you can’t pronounce.

 Once I realized my daughter had nearly cleaned the whole can (In about 4 days..) I needed to hurry and try the rehydration process. I soaked a cup of the strawberries in ¾ cup of water, as the can instructs. It says to soak for 1-3 minutes. It was nearly three minutes when I drained the water.

Honestly, I found they were very soggy. I’m thinking I just went too long, but I didn’t have enough to try another batch. I did, however, take a strawberry and hold it in water, as if dunking cookies. I was able to catch it at the perfect amount, where it really tastes and felt like a normal strawberry slice.

What I can gather from this, is that they may be slightly fragile, and you really need to be careful not to over soak. Sadly, I lost a cup of them attempting it, so please don’t make the same mistake! 90% of the nearly 2 oz can I received was eaten freeze dried, and we were all perfectly fine with that!

My daughter couldn’t even let the crumbs go to waste!

I was incredibly excited to receive the Consolidator Pantry as well. I am not the most organized person in the world. Although I enjoy the result of organization, I certainly need a push of motivation and tools to accomplish it.

When it came in the mail it was a bunch of pieces in a box. I promptly put hubby to work so I could start using it! He spoke a little too soon when he boasted about how easy it looked and how it would just take a second. HA! He was pretty much cussing it by the end, but did get it together great. He just said that the way the tracks run, when he would add a new one, the previously one would dislodge, so he felt like he needed a few more hands. The way it works, is you basically have the frame, plus wall sides that separate the cans. You can move those walls to fit can sizes of your choice.

The tracks on the top and bottom that hold the walls are expandable. So if you buy more Consolidators, you can snap them together and line your shelves for optimal space!

Unfortunately, I struck a problem. In our house we have a small kitchen with just enough cabinets for dishes, but also have a pantry. Our pantry is like a walk in closet with shelves lining one wall. It really was the perfect spot for it. Or so we thought. The dimensions of the Consolidator Pantry are 20 x 16.5 x 11 inches. We lifted it up to where I wanted it, and sadly discovered that it hung off the shelf about 3 inches. If we had loaded it with cans its surely would have toppled off.


It was also too big, height this time, for the kitchen cabinets. So I ended up having to place it on the floor of the pantry, but it still has been very useful. I’m really thinking I will end up buying a few more; I’m so in love with this thing!

While I’m sure I could leave this review with just the product details with confidence that Julie would still receive a ton of new fans and sales, I think I’ll throw in a tad more incentives. 5% of all purchases are donated to Thriving Nations. Thriving Nations is an organization that teaches places of poverty, nutritional practices to help reduce world hunger. Some of the teachings include, but are not limited to, dietary practices, and ways to improve their crops and food production.

So if you are looking for a wonderful ingredient with a great shelf life, a nutritional snack for children, products for your apocalypse stock pile, or various organizational tools, please let Julie Buckner's Thrive Life store be your one stop shop! She is friendly, polite, attentive, speedy and accurate. I am so excited to be the one to share this amazing company, that I’m willing to guess will be a household name soon enough!

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This post was originally posted at WAHM Review and is being cross posted here by the original author.  I received no monetary compensation for this review, however I was provided with the product for free for purposes of review.  All opinions are my own. Click here see our full disclosure policy.