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Carnivore Club, who sent me this box to review, is the exclusive meat of the month club for discerning individuals! Every month members of the Carnivore Club will receive 4 to 6 different selections of cured and smoked meats, charcuterie and jerky from across the planet.
Carnivore Club ships via USPS Priority Mail. Unlike last month, this month did contain perishable items, so the box had cold packs and came in a padded bubble wrap envelope instead of just the box that it came in last month.
I was seriously going to wait to open this, but B saw it on the counter last week and demanded we open it at once. I didn’t realize at first that it contained perishable items, so it’s a good thing he made us open them! They never would have lasted another day.
The December Carnivore Club featured meats from Indianapolis’ own Smoking Goose Meatery. Each “concoction begins with healthy livestock raised on independent farms in the Midwest. Smoking Goose also goes the extra mile and uses fruit wood salvaged at local orchards for their smokers. Here are this month’s selections:
~Smoking Goose Meatery All Natural Soppressata: I think I have mentioned it on here, but although I never really knew what kind of animal salami was made from, I really like it. This is pork salami and is “flecked with ground clove, ginger and nutmeg”. It’s delicious too.
~Smoking Goose Meatery Dodge City Salami: We haven’t tried this one yet, only because I think we are both scared by the looks of it. Well, at least I am. It has fennel pollen in it and is studded with pink peppercorns. Interesting.
~Smoking Goose Meatery Delaware Fireball Salami: Not super super spicy, but it’s certainly got a kick to it! It’s one of the Smoking Goode’s first unique creations and it gets it’s name from the street where the eatery’s butcher shop is located.
~Smoking Goose Meatery Guanciale Pork Jowl: This one has also not been sampled yet, but is another one that kind of scares me. Once it’s cooked though, I am sure it will be just fine and not scary at all. They suggest using it in place of bacon on a BLT (making it a GLT).
~Smoking Goose Meatery Elk Terrine: I can’t find this on their website, but it’s described as being spiked with peppercorns and is from elk raised at a local farm.
I couldn’t do a cost breakdown on this box because I couldn’t find anything from this meatery available for sale online anywhere! I love this box for B and think it’s be a great gift for the meat lover in your life. B laughed at me when I told him this, but this box reminds me of Ron Swanson from Parks & Rec. I think he’d really like a box like this. LOL!
What do you think of Carnivore Club? B loved it and it might be something we need to add to our monthly box rotation! At least every once in a while! Carnivore Club is $50/month, but you can use the code “ramble10” to save $10 off your first month! Click here if you want to order or just check them out.
The Smoking Goose is amazing! They are right next to my favorite brewery in Indy. So glad you got to try them! Good to know this subscription box has such great taste. 🙂
Oh how fun!!!
WOW they should have sent a note at least to let you know it had perishables this month. My dad and brothers would love this box. I’ll have to remember it the next time. I ordered my dad some Taste Trunks this holiday season. 🙂
It’s totally possible the box did say that and I just didn’t see it?.
I ordered a gift subscription for my cousin and his December box is much different than yours. Have you heard of them giving different versions? He was happy but I think yours looks much better.
What did he get? I haven’t heard of different themes? I thought it was always one meatery per month?
All of those meats were excellent.
You even came back to find the review!!
I ordered a gift subscription for my husband and it was also a much different box. It looks like a while lot less meat. The only thing that is the same is the pork jowl. Hopefully that wasn’t one that was perishable because there were no cold packs and no other instructions. He also says all the meat he received is really salty, to the point where it’s hard to eat. I don’t know why the company sent out two different boxes, but they will be hearing from us because his box was not good.
Was it by the same “meatery”?? That is so odd! Let me know what they say!
Different meatery, it was West Loop Salumi in Chicago. I’ll let you know what we hear.
Please do!!!
Hi Jennifer,
Just read the comments, the box reviewed was actually our November box and the previous one was our October box. West Loop Salumi was our featured December box, there was less meat than regularly expected because their meats are very expensive and exclusive. We did have some emails regarding the supplier chosen this month.
January will be similar to October and November in terms of quantity. And another amazing artisan lined up.
FYI. As we are growing we will be having multiple versions each month in 2014, because of the nature of dealing with small batch, artisanal producers.
Cheers.
Thanks for the update!
My husband did get in touch with carnivore club and their customer service is excellent (received a call within 24 hours). For whatever reason, it appears to be that the box we received was very abnormal and they are extending our membership to make up for it. We very much look forward to January’s box and hope to do more business with them in the future.
That is good to know! Thank you for the follow-up!
DON’T DO IT!
In theory, Carnivore Club is a fantastic idea. In execution it certain falls short of the mark. I signed up in November to start delivery in January. My order arrived in November. One product smelled “off” and actually had mold on it (and this was after being stored in a cold cellar until I contacted the company to determine shelf life). At that time I was told that a replacement order would be sent to me in January.
Our order arrived on a Friday and since we were not there to receive it was returned to Canada Post where it remained in an unrefrigerated warehouse until Monday evening.
I have requested a refund because I am certainly not comfortable ingesting meats stored at room temperature for three days when the package clearly advises consumers to refrigerate immediately.
The response has been inadequate and offensive. I was told we had received an order in December to rectify the early shipment in November (not true), that we were provided with a tracking number (not true) and that “many other companies would not have sent you another box due to an early delivery” (read: many other companies wouldn’t fix a mistake they made so why should we?).
They are not willing to offer a refund unless there is a problem with the quality (they are willing to risk food poisoning of customers) but “Spending an extra weekend at Canada Post will not ruin the quality of the product in the slightest, especially not in the winter”.
You are much, much better off taking the $50 a month and going to a local store and purchasing your cured meats there. Better, more personal service and a much higher quality of meat.
AMAZING PRODUCT! I have only had the BEST experience with Carnivoire club. I’ve gotten the past three boxes and I ordered the product as a gift for my dad and they even included a hand written thank you note! The quality of the meat and the level of customer service has always been fantastic.
I’ve had a similar situation as Chelsey-our January box was mia up for over a week at Canada Post, and when I inquired I received a very flippant and non-apologetic response. Basically, “if you read the website you will see that the January box comes at the end of January or the beginning of February” – silly me for thinking our January box would come in January! Next “it appears to be a canada post issue which is out of our hands but your meat is good for one month so don’t worry” – I guess one week less freshness is something I shouldn’t winge about…then when the box came it said “put in the fridge immediately!!!
My husband complained and said we wanted the renaming months cancelled and to receive a refund-nope sorry, “we offered you a extra month for your delivery even though it was only a week late and we have a no refund policy that is also clearly stated on the website”
Here’s the thing…when we finally received the meat in February 8th it was lovely, but the experience has been ruined. All they had to do was apologize for the hold up and show that they actually weren’t blaming me for the issue and I would have been cool. But I’ve worked in customer service and marketing for over fifteen years, and this was seriously what I would call worst-in-class customer service! They way the emails read it was basically saying “read our website are you dumb or what” ,”it’s you not us” and finally there was a serious “fuck you” tone to the correspondence. I would have thought that a Queens MBA program taught the 101s of dealing with human customers, guess not.
Too bad, such a cool business concept and lovely product. But it goes to show doesn’t matter how awesome a strategy is, if the tactics aren’t on point the strategy won’t save you. Aka-ship high end meats through a private courier for goodness sake, and learn to acknowledge customer complaints and apologize when necessary!the customer is your pay check, not your enemy!
Might be time for that patently impressive board of business professionals to revisit things…
So bummed.
Apologies to everyone for the spelling mistakes, this was typed out on a iPhone. I should have known better lol
– Annoyed
No worries!
Good customer service goes a long way! That sucks you had a bad experience. I hope you can find something similar you love!
I love Carnivore Club! I bought one for my husband to try out in December for Christmas and we loved it so much we ordered 6 more months! I ordered close to Christmas so I was worried my box was not going to arrive on time. I emailed customer service and got a reply two hours later! They gave me a tracking number and a gift certificate incase it didn’t arrive in time, but it did! Excellent customer service. Great concept and the meats are so delicious they disappear so quickly. Would definitely recommend this club and already have told so many of my friends about it.. Love it.