Cropsticks are a brand of disposable chopsticks made from sustainable materials and featuring a built-in rest. Here’s our Cropsticks review.
What are Cropsticks?
Cropsticks resemble your run-of-the-mill disposable wooden chopsticks you would receive in your take-out bag from your local Chinese restaurant, but are different in two very important ways: one, they’re made from sustainable fast-growing bamboo, and they have a built-in chopstick rest that can be snapped off the back end of the chopsticks.
Cropsticks Features: How Do They Work?
Cropsticks are deceptively simple. Each pair comes fused together in one single piece, and requires you to snap them apart in order to use them as a pair of normal chopsticks. This is common in the world of disposable wooden chopsticks, as many are shipped only partially detached from one another and require you to snap them apart.
However, Cropsticks differ in that the fused end of the chopsticks is thicker and longer, leaving a small block that can then be used to rest the end of your chopsticks at the table while you’re not eating. No longer do you need to risk your chopsticks rolling off the table after you set them down, nor do you have to rudely stick your chopsticks into your meal in between bites.
Who Makes Cropsticks?
Cropsticks are manufactured by Cropmade, a company founded by entrepreneur and educator Mylen Fe Yamamoto. While traveling on an intercontinental flight in early 2015, Yamamoto became frustrated with her chopsticks rolling off her tray table, prompting her to brainstorm a better product, and this also led her to decide on using production methods that relied on greener, more sustainable materials.
Cropsticks Materials
Cropsticks are made from fast-growing bamboo, a greener and more sustainable alternative to using trees to create chopsticks.
According to Cropsticks’ data, 45% of the world’s one-time use disposable chopsticks are still made from trees. In China alone there are 60 billion chopsticks produced every year, and an estimated 3.8 million trees go into manufacture in the country to that end – the equivalent of 10,800 square miles of Asian forest disappearing on an annual basis.
Using bamboo instead of trees makes a major difference, as bamboo grows much faster than trees. Using bamboo is a sustainable practice that can slow down the consumption of trees, making a positive impact on the environment.
Cropsticks Pricing
Cropsticks come in two different varieties – consumer packs and restaurant packs. The product is the same, but the quantity of chopsticks in each order is of course vastly different. The base Cropsticks Consumer Pack, which consists of 25 chopsticks, retails for $6.99. A second Consumer Pack, which consists of 100 individually-wrapped chopsticks, is $19.99.
There are also two Cropsticks Restaurant Packs. The Small pack consists of 2000 individually-wrapped chopsticks at $200.00, while the Medium pack is 10,000 individually-wrapped chopsticks for $1,000. All individually-wrapped chopsticks are made from 100% recycled paper.
Taxes and shipping are not included in the price. Cropsticks typically ships using USPS Priority Mail.
Cropsticks Reviews: What Do Customers Have to Say?
Cropsticks are only available directly from Cropmade currently; while there are plans to market the chopsticks through Amazon, the product is not yet listed. This means there are no reviews available to peruse.
However, there is one metric that might be helpful. Cropsticks started out as a Kickstarter project, and it garnered a positive response. 284 backers pledged more than $20,000 to the project, which enabled Cropmade to begin production. This indicates, at the very least, a strong desire for sustainable one-time use chopsticks.
Pros:
- Sustainable – using bamboo to create these chopsticks makes it a sustainable, ecologically friendly product. Additionally, Cropsticks come in 100% recycled paper wrappers.
- Traditional – Asian dining experiences with traditional chopsticks come alongside places to rest those chopsticks to keep them off the table. With Cropsticks having an integrated chopstick rest, this helps to provide a more authentic, traditional dining experience.
Cons:
- Price – The typical price of bulk, wooden chopsticks as ordered from a typical restaurant supply store is around $23 for 1,000 pairs. This means that a restaurant purchasing 10,000 pairs of chopsticks would pay only $230 for the no-frills chopsticks versus $1,000 for Cropsticks.
Should You Buy Cropsticks?
If you’re an Asian food fanatic and you prefer a more authentic dining experience on a budget, Cropsticks are likely the way to go. Likewise if you prefer knowing you’re supporting a company with an ecologically and socially conscious mission statement , you may want to consider ordering some Cropsticks for yourself and your friends and family.
However, if you’re a restaurant owner, it may be that Cropsticks are simply not cost-effective unless you’re willing to set your prices appropriately to recover the costs of chopsticks that are around 4 times as expensive as they should be. The choice is yours, of course.
