Last Updated On: May 1, 2021

My team and I have ordered from just about all meat delivery services available. If you like premium beef but hates going to the grocery store, that's the best way to go. Take Crowd Cow, for example.

Boasting high-quality beef and sustainable options like seafood, bison, and Wagyu beef, their juicy steaks instantly caught our attention. Ever the skeptic, let's see if they're worth subscribing to in this Crowd Cow review.

Table of Contents
What Is Crowd Cow? What Are The Menu Options? How Does The Quality Compare? Crowd Cow Shipping How Does Crowd Cow Work? How Are The Items Packaged? Crowd Cow Pricing Crowd Cow Consistency Ease of Delivery
Additional Benefits of Crowd Cow
Our Only Complaint FAQs Is Crowd Cow Worth It?

What Is Crowd Cow?

Crowd Cow meat variations

Crowd Cow is a subscription-based meat delivery service company located in Seattle, Washington. As the brand name implies, the idea was to crowdfund a cow's purchase so that multiple people get to share in one cost.

Crowd Cow was founded in 2015 by Ethan Lowry and Joe Heitzeberg. They wanted to purchase a cow directly from a ranch without storing a year’s beef supply in the freezer. Thus, Crowd Cow became a company specializing in sourcing high-quality grass-fed beef in the United States, coming straight from local ranches and independent farms.

Crowd Cow has since expanded into an online meat store and sold a full range of pasture-raised meats like quality beef, chicken, seafood, and pork that you can cook and enjoy at home. The company's investors include Joe Montana and Ashton Kutcher.

Pros
  • 100% grass-fed, pasture-raised meat
  • Humanely-raised without added hormones
  • Wide menu selection
  • Flexible shipping options
  • Customizable meat orders available
Cons
  • A little pricey

What Are The Menu Options?

Crowd Cow sells a large selection of high-quality meat from local ranchers or farmers market. You would get to know a lot of different options, as you'll see on their site, including grass fed meats (beef, pork, chicken chops) and seafood. You can even see a wide variety of different fresh meat cuts like ground beef for your kitchen staples.

Some high quality meat choices you can order in large quantities are:

  • Grass-fed beef - New York strip, filet mignon, boneless Ribeye, dry-aged steak, sirloin tip steak, ribeye steak, skirt steak, beef pork, strip steak, ground beef, etc.
  • Seafood - black cod, wild Maine lobster, Alaskan halibut, Atlantic sea scallops, Norweigan salmon, etc.
  • Pork - Heritage pork, pork chop
  • American Lab
  • Pasture-raised grain-fed beef - Ribeye, New York strip steak, tenderloin tips, tomahawk steak, chuck roast, ground beef, dry-aged steak, kobe beef
  • Japanese and Domestic Wagyu Beef
  • Bison - ground bison, ground bison grill box, bison bratwurst
  • Bacon
  • Pasture Raised Chicken - whole chicken, chicken breast, and many more

How Does The Quality Compare?

Crowd Cow meat service

Crowd Cow says that they strictly commit to quality when sourcing the pasture-raised meat they sell to customers. It's good to know that Crowd Cow currently sources meat worldwide and how they find it important to visit every single one of their local farm partners.

Crowd Cow works with independent farmers and co-ops, avoiding factory farms dominating almost every local grocery store and even Amazon. The company also said that any farmer or cattle rancher they support must never use hormones in their meat and only employ environmentally-friendly practices.

According to Crowd Cow's policy, each specific cut of meat they source must first go through able flavor experts who taste it to ensure consistency for a good meal experience at home. We were able to whip up a delicious recipe of craft beef and olive oil.   

Crowd Cow Shipping

Like other meat box services, Crowd Cow delivers to all US areas within a designated amount of time. The restrictions on delivery of agricultural products are also aptly followed (1).

You will even get free shipping if you buy a meat subscription box worth at least $99. For all other boxes, the shipping costs you pay will change based on the quantity you're ordering and your area. All Crowd Cow beef boxes that you get will be shipped frozen with dry ice. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there might be changes in their policy. For added information, links are available on their site.

How Does Crowd Cow Work?

Like Butcher Box, Crowd Cow works by offering both subscription-based pricing and one-off purchases on their website. Their prices depend on whether you get a subscription service for a few months or choose to pick and buy meat per pound or two.

Custom Box - this is a great way for you to try cooking your favorite types of meat that you and your family can share at home. You can get and make anything from a list that includes salmon, chicken, pork chops, beef ribs, roast, and ground beef.

Coupons and Discounts - For every meat subscription box, you'd get a 5% discount on the prices. Compared to buying individual meat cuts, this is a much better way to save money. When using Crowd Cow, keep an eye on their official website and read email alerts for current sale products. You may also avail of special seasonal sales during holidays. Promo codes and coupon codes are also available from time to time.

Steak Lovers - This is a great box for people who really love eating steaks. You can try cooking four different cuts in each package, like flat iron steaks, short ribs, ribeye, sirloin steaks, and New York strip steaks. And yes, they have bone-in Ribeye steak and filet mignon steak, too.

Japanese Wagyu Box - If you want more beef, we recommend this as a better and sure option. This box comes with a small 12oz or a 14oz Japanese Wagyu beef. It's a special type of beef that has lineage still tracing back to Japan. It is well known for its great marbling that gives it a truly tender texture and delicious, buttery taste that you may love. Based on reviews, the production of Wagyu is heavily regulated to ensure quality. For highest grade of A5 Wagyu, you can also check out Holy Grail Steaks.

How Are The Items Packaged?

The Crowd Cow site claims that their subscription boxes and packaging are 100% recyclable (2). The meat is vacuum-sealed with soup bones wrapped in butcher paper packaging on the date of delivery. You'll also find it already placed in the package with dry ice. While you are away from home, dry ice ensures it can sit for the day before storing it in your fridge or freezer.

Spread of disease from factory farming is exacerbated when waste products, including manure and the remains of animals who have died, are used to feed livestock being raised for meat.

- Gene Baur, National Geographic

Crowd Cow Pricing

different meat cuts

Even though reviews around will be quick to point out that Crowd Cow can get very expensive, we figure that their prices are mostly reflective of their meat quality.

Because the ranches and farmers they work with are all smaller and standard-focused, the cost of each cut of meat came to be a bit more than the prices you would normally find at most grocery stores, like choice beef, for instance.

An example is their different beef options, which are all pasture-raised and seafood, responsibly-caught.  So if we consider the types of meat, the way it’s sourced, the flavor of each cut, and delivery fees, the fact that it’s a bit more expensive than some other alternatives isn’t unexpected.

More delivery service options:

Crowd Cow Consistency

During our review, we found a couple of main benefits to using Crowd Cow. First, as people being focused on the carnivore diet for years (and like to review meat dishes), the main benefit for us is the consistent life supply of fresh and high-quality meat to help us stay on track.

Like Snake River Farm and Fossil Farm, each meat cut has a fat content that's close to zero, and a little meat box of ground beef also goes a long way for a year or two. They do the guesswork of finding food from sustainable farms, which often tends to be one of the most challenging aspects of the carnivore diet itself.

Ease of Delivery

We also like how things get easy during the ordering process. Crowd Cow's online subscription service brings frozen meat delivered to our door to help us save time. We worry less about going to the store every few days to get our favorite order of meats, especially in times like these. Throughout this COVID-19 pandemic, we can just order or send an email every month or two months.

When we tried to order, we only needed to approve the email we got to let us know and confirm each product in our next box. Then our shipment order would be good to go. We also thanked their customer service for being fast when we did a follow-through.

Additional Benefits of Crowd Cow

  • Save you extra time by making fewer trips to the grocery store
  • You'll see how they use dry ice to keep your order frozen
  • Quality meat purchases from small family farms

Our Only Complaint

meat and fries

There is only one drawback we've seen so far, and that’s their pricing. However, with the way they source their premium products,  it is natural to expect them to be a bit expensive than your local grocery store. After doing a taste test, we believe the variety you get to choose from and how they collaborate with family farms and small farmers balance this cost per box.

FAQs

Does Crowd Cow take EBT?

Not yet. Crowd Cow does not accept EBT or Food Stamps at the moment. They only accept major US and Canadian credit card as forms of payment. You may also use Apple Pay.

How do I cancel my Crowd Cow subscription?

You may cancel your membership anytime through your membership page so long as it hasn't been shipped yet. You'll also get a notification when your Crowd Cow order is close to the delivery date to make adjustments.

Is Crowd Cow Worth It?

After our taste test and reading through many Crowd Cow reviews, we believe they are worth it. We tried two of the three Crowd Cow meat subscription boxes, and both were consistent in terms of quality, freshness, and taste. We were very impressed with their wide meat selection and flexible delivery options.

We liked how we can place an order in just two steps, which saves time and adds to the convenience of using the service. The fact that each order comes from farms that meet strict guidelines was also a key deciding factor.

Overall, we believe Crowd Cow is a great option if you want high-caliber meat delivered consistently to your front door.

Crowd Cow meat delivery service

Crowd Cow

Recommended Meat Delivery Service

  • High-quality meat delivered right to your door
  • Humanely raised without antibiotics or added hormones
  • Customizable meat orders available
  • Select from up to 21 different cuts
  • Get the BEST PRICE until the end of this month
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About the author

Timothy Woods Timothy Woods

Timothy Woods is an advocate of the carnivore diet, athlete, and a pure health-enthusiast. He started this blog in order to educate people about the all-meat diet and to debunk all the myths that surround it.

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