We write so much about the growth of plant-based meat sales that it can be hard to remember that traditional animal meat industry is still huge and the primary source of protein for most people. And to help people up their meat game, a new meat delivery service, Well Seasoned, launched today.
Well Seasoned was founded by Dan Treiman, who previously co-founded meal kit company HelloFresh. Unlike HelloFresh and other meal kit players, Well Seasoned is focused solely on meat. It offers pre-seasoned cuts of meat that are frozen and shipped directly to consumers.
This places Well Seasoned somewhere in between full-on meal kits like those from Blue Apron, and straight (unseasoned) meat sales a la CrowdCow. You still get cuts of meat, but they are fancied up to make them more flavorful.
Right now, Well Seasoned offers cuts of beef, pork and chicken. Options include items like Tuscan Herbed Whole Chicken, Tri-Peppercorned Skirt Steak, and Garlic Soy Pork Tenderloin.
Customers purchase Well Seasoned boxes a la carte, so you don’t have to sign up for a subscription. You can build your own box for $138 (six servings), $168 (24 servings), $198 (thirty servings). Or shoppers can pick up a curated box like “Thrillable Grillables,” “Well Seasoned Selects” (each are $98 for five lbs.), and “Well Seasoned Prime Cuts” ($128 for five lbs.).
The meat is shipped frozen, which also gives consumers a little more flexibility over traditional meal kits that ship food fresh. Well Seasoned’s frozen meats don’t have to be prepared right away and can be kept in the freezer until they are ready to be consumed.
If this sounds at all familiar, that’s because Firstchop tried something similar a few years back. It, too, sold only chef-prepared meats that were shipped frozen to your door. The difference though, is that Firstchop wanted people to cook their meats via sous vide — a pretty labor- and time-intensive process. That company eventually pivoted to something else entirely before going under.
Well Seasoned hopes to avoid a similar fate by letting people cook their meats as they like. To assist users however, each cut comes with a QR code that links to specific cooking instructions for that dish.
This is certainly an opportune time for launching a D2C meat service. Thanks to the pandemic, more people are eating at home, and consumers are shopping for more food online — including cuts of meat — than ever before.
Well Seasoned is open now, but is only currently shipping to the East Coast.
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