- [Drew] A portion of today's video is sponsored
by Google Domains.
More on that later.
Hey guy, welcome back to another episode of
"Drew, just because something is weird and on the internet
doesn't mean you have to buy it."
My name is Drew and today I'll be buying something weird
I found on the internet.
As someone who's never been quite as healthy
as I probably should be,
I'm always looking for convenient ways to improve my diet.
And that's where Squareat comes in.
Finally, a company that has the courage
to take a bunch of food,
and turn it into little wet squares.
Gotta say, I love these photos.
This is what it looked like
before we blended it into a cube,
and this is what it looks like now.
Pretty cool, huh?
In case you missed it,
here was their big announcement video from last year.
- What if I told you that we can transform
regular food into squares?
- I would believe you, honestly.
I don't think most people's first thoughts
when they see this are, "How did they do that?"
It's more like, "Why would they do that?"
- Stop for a moment
and remember how bad the food options are
in schools, airplanes, hospitals.
- You know, it's probably not a great sign
if you have to start off your advertisement by saying,
"Hey, it's better than hospital food."
I like the shot of two people eating the squares
and what appears to be an actual restaurant.
Like I can maybe understand the practicality
of having these things meal prepped,
ready to go in your fridge.
But if a restaurant served slimy cubes of meat,
no one would eat there.
Sorry Cube Cafe. I'm gonna go somewhere else for dinner.
The rest of this video is less an ad for consumers
who may be looking to try the product
and more an ad for potential investors
'cause they start going on about the margins.
- Our business model is predicted on scalability
and margin control.
This combination will generate margins
never seen before in the industry.
- And honestly, it almost makes me want to eat it even less.
They shouldn't be bragging to me
about how low their overhead is.
I would prefer it costs you a little bit of money
to make the food.
It's kinda like when fast food restaurants
will sell 50 chicken nuggets for like 89 cents
and somehow still profit.
Kind of makes you wonder
what the hell they're putting in those things.
They say they have 16,000 plus customer satisfaction,
but they only have 49 reviews.
Are they just assuming everyone
that didn't leave a review is also satisfied?
I mean, they never told us they hated it.
As you can probably imagine,
all the one-star reviews are about
how they didn't like the taste
or that the texture's kind of weird.
But I noticed they give the same response to all of them.
"I'm curious which warming method you used.
We really do not recommend using only the microwave,
but for example, the electric grill or pan
with a little olive oil to enhance the flavor and texture."
And it's like, yeah,
I'm sure it does taste better like that.
But you can't have it both ways.
You can't say "save 10 hours a week on cooking.
These squares are ready to eat."
Implying that you can just pop them in the microwave, right?
But then when people go,
"I don't know man, they taste kind of bad,"
you're like, "Well then you shouldn't have put them
in the microwave.
I don't know where you got that idea from."
Well, no food review would be complete
if I didn't actually eat the food.
So let's go ahead and buy some.
You can either buy the squares by themselves
or you can buy meal boxes.
My favorite is definitely the vegan burger meal.
The word burger makes me think that these two are the buns
and you're supposed to stack all six of the squares
on top of each other
and then, of course, wash it all down
with some mixed beans pack.
Why would I just open a can of beans
when I could spend $12 on that?
I noticed that the meals are way more expensive
than just buying the squares individually.
Seems like if anything, it would be the other way around.
But six classic meal boxes
would give you 18 chicken squares,
12 rice squares, and six broccoli squares for $93.
Or for $75, you can buy exactly the same thing.
But either way, this isn't cheap food.
You would hope, and probably even assume,
that it would be based on the way that it looks.
But $15 for one meal that's essentially just 400 calories
of chicken and rice?
This would have to be amazing for it to be worth that.
Look, I'll happily spend a little bit more money
on something if it tastes really good
and is convenient to prepare.
But if I'm being honest,
I'm worried that these are neither of those things.
Oh, wait a minute. They've got a sweets section.
So I can grab some of my favorite desserts
like peanuts or other nuts.
Mom, can we go get dessert?
No honey, we have dessert at home.
The dessert at home.
And again, I'm all for convenience when it comes to food.
If healthy food was as cheap
and easily accessible as fast food tacos were,
I would be in much better shape.
But I'm not exactly sure who the target audience
for this is.
If you can afford to pay this much money
for tiny portions of prepackaged astronaut food,
you might as well just sign up for one of those companies
that will mail you already cooked meals
you can just throw in the microwave.
Assuming, of course, that you prefer the appearance
and texture of actual food.
All right, well I bought some.
And I can't wait to put it in my mouth.
This is such a bizarre idea for a product
that I feel like it has to be satire, right?
Like this only exists because it's bizarre enough
to grab people's attention, right?
- Hey, go easy on them, all right?
I think we all had some pretty crazy business ideas
the past couple years.
- Not me. All my ideas are great.
- Oh yeah, I'd love to hear them.
- Let's see.
Chocolate hot tub, invisible paint, shower hummus,
bumper stickers you can put on your dog,
dental tools you can use at home, really big chair-
- Dental tools?
What are you trying to give yourself a root canal?
- No, I'm talking about those little sticks they use
to clean your teeth.
I should be able to do that myself.
- Oh my god. Drew, do you not own a toothbrush?
- Someone already made that? I'll never be an inventor.
- Hey, hey, shhh.
You're right. You're not smart enough for that.
But if you did wanna get a jumpstart on your business idea,
you'd probably wanna lock in a custom domain, right?
- Obviously. That'd be like step number one.
- And that's why I'm here to tell you about the sponsor
of this portion of the video, Google Domains.
- Awesome!
- You see, a lot of people are worried
about making a website for their business
before they've even locked in that juicy domain.
You gotta get people there in the first place, right?
- That makes sense. - Like what's your name?
- Drew Gooden. - And what's your website?
- DrewGooden.com.
- Exactly. It's foolproof.
And with Google Domains,
domain names start at just $12 a year.
And that includes features that other websites
sometimes charge extra for.
Things like privacy protection,
which keeps your information off of public databases.
- That is pretty cool.
- You can also set up email forwarding
to up to 100 different alias.
- Wait, so I never have to tell anyone over the phone
that my email address is coolguy427@gmail.com ever again?
- You could just do like coolguy@drewgooden.com
and have that redirect to the email address
you're too embarrassed to say out loud.
- That would be, honestly, life changing.
But the problem is I already have a domain.
Surely there's no way to transfer it over, right?
- Of course there is.
- Oh. No, I figured. I was just trying to set you up.
- I don't need your help with this.
- Okay.
- Transferring a domain to Google
is as simple as just hitting a few buttons.
And from there, you can enjoy all the tools
and benefits that come standard with Google products.
You can even create a whole website in minutes
for free with Google Sites.
- Huh? Good to know.
- Oh, are you taking notes?
- Sort of. I drew a picture of us.
- Aw, we're holding hands.
- Whether you're trying to take your business
to the next level or you just wanna take the first step
towards turning your idea into a reality,
claim your domain name today with Google Domains,
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And to get 20% off your first year on top of that,
use my promo code DREW20 at domains.google/drew.
The link is in the description.
Well, thanks for all your help, man.
- No, thank you for letting me stay here.
Can I crash on your cash for like six months?
- I guess.
- Awesome, and thanks to Google Domains
for sponsoring this portion of the video.
- So I may have made a slight error.
For the first time in my life,
I was fully prepared for something.
I planned this video so far in advance,
I might have actually planned it too far in advance.
You see, I bought the squares
while I was still halfway through my last video
with the intention of freezing them once I got here.
But then when they did,
I noticed their expiration dates all said 11/25.
So I was like, great, I've got plenty of time.
I'll just put them in the fridge.
And after 19 days of that, I was ready to film part two.
So I pulled them out
and noticed that they look kind of gross.
The problem is I don't know if that's the normal gross
that they're supposed to look like
or a slightly grosser gross that means do not eat this.
So I consulted their website
where I read that they last two weeks in the fridge.
Perfect. That's plenty of time,
and it's already been more than that.
So then I started panicking
and thinking "Should I order more?"
Well that's not an option
because this was right before Thanksgiving
and if I ordered them then,
they wouldn't have shipped in time for the end of the month,
my contractual deadline for uploading a video.
But this is where their customer service team
came in clutch.
After several typing bubbles popped up and disappeared
and popped up and then disappeared.
It was very nerve wracking.
They assured me that the squares have proven
to last up to three weeks in the fridge
as long as they've been properly sealed, which they were.
And I was like, "That's awesome. Thank you so much.
But they're kind of yellow. Is that bad?"
And she was like, "Don't worry. That's our secret sauce."
Vivian, I'm gonna choose to trust you on this,
but just know my life is in your hands now.
I know these look identical.
But believe it or not,
one of these plates has real food on it.
The other has little squares.
Now just first impression. Can you tell which is which?
- Rice, broccoli, chicken.
- I meant which one is the squares.
But it seems like you got it.
Is it the square plate that gave it away?
- Square plate for square food.
- Circle plate for circle food.
What were you planning to do with the big spoon?
That's a good idea. - [Amanda] I mean,
this does look really cool.
- Would you say it looks appetizing though?
- Kind of.
- Okay. Well that's good.
Hey, maybe this is,
maybe you're the target audience for this.
- I'm so tired of food
that looks like that. - I know.
- I'm excited to try something new.
- Maybe the novelty will wear off at some point.
But for now, it's just so exciting to have someone take food
in such an interesting new direction.
Taste like chicken?
- Chicken. - That's 'cause it is.
- It's actually not that bad.
- It's very dry.
Blind taste test,
would you be able to tell the difference between these two?
- Yes. - Yes.
- The texture. - I mean, I like my chicken.
- I like that chicken.
- Really? Okay. - They look like little rocks.
- All right, you ready for the broccoli?
Oh. Oh, that's nasty.
It's definitely wetter than the chicken is.
It's like you bite into it
and it sort of like bursts in your mouth.
- It doesn't really taste like broccoli.
- Well, it's broccoli and spinach.
- Oh, okay. I was gonna say.
- Yeah, it smells like broccoli.
It's got that signature broccoli stink,
but with all the flavor of spinach.
- I like the way it jiggles.
- It's like rice jello.
It's not bad. It doesn't taste like anything I feel like.
- That's the same thing.
What a fun way to eat.
- Hey, I'm glad you like it.
- Come into work, you bring your three little squares.
- Yeah, you would be the talk of the office.
I'm actually gonna slice this up in fry it
and we'll see how it compares.
Now we're talking.
No matter where I film videos,
Bimbim finds a way to the background.
She, in a past life, was a YouTuber or something.
Every time she's licking herself like crazy.
Yeah, it's a million times better.
The rice is actually pretty good.
- I think I liked the rice better before.
- Really? That's funny.
- Chicken tastes better.
- It has like a crispiness to it now.
- [Amanda] Almost reminds me of like...
- Runnier than I thought it would be.
- It tastes like sausage. - It does taste like sausage.
- That's what it is. - Yeah.
They make chicken sausage, right?
- Yeah, that's exactly what this tastes like.
- But you don't like sauces?
- I don't.
Maybe the psychology of it
that I think that it's square chicken, so I like it more.
But if you were to just say it was square chicken sausage,
I wouldn't like it as much.
- If I were to use that as a patty
in like a breakfast sandwich and I told you with sausage,
you'd be like, "Eh, I don't like it."
Even though it tastes the same.
- But if you told me it was square chicken?
- Yeah, the state-of-the-art, innovative,
new food technology, you'd be like, "Okay."
- Yeah, probably.
- I actually don't like the sauce.
I like it better without the sauce.
- What does it look like on a plate?
- Well, what they want you to do is prepare the chicken
the way that I prepared it.
Slice it up and put it on the stove
and then put it in like a salad or something
as a chicken substitute.
This gets crispier than chicken could like.
- This way it's almost tofu-y.
- Yeah, it's got like a different texture.
If it was cheaper, I'd be like, "This is surprisingly good."
But because it's still so expensive, it's like,
it's hard to justify getting these squares when I could...
It's more work, but if you go to the store
and get all this for super cheap
and just throw it in the oven,
you'll have five days worth of food in an hour.
It doesn't taste like chicken breasts,
but chicken breast is also kind of boring
and it gets repetitive.
So you know, if you've been on a diet for a while
and you're getting tired of this
and you want to venture out into something else
that's also low calorie or whatever,
like give it a shot.
- I would probably eat this like with other things.
I don't think I could just eat this by itself.
It looks like what I would imagine, as a kid, airplane food.
And people would make jokes about airplane food,
that's what I would picture as airplane food.
Oh, it must be like blended cubes of meat.
It looks like what eighties movies' idea
of what future food would look like.
And you know what? I'm proud of you. You tried it.
You stepped outta your comfort zone.
I stepped outta my comfort zone.
- Good game. - Good game.
- Okay, well it just goes to show you
you should never judge a book by its cover
because you never know how it's gonna taste.
For Channel Six News,
I'm Todd Todder reporting live.
- That's kind of a weird thing to put on the news.