As many of you know, I’ve been a Thrive Market customer for years now. I was recently running low on chicken in between deliveries from Butcher Box (read full updated Butcher Box review here) so I decided to check out Thrive Market’s Organic Meat Delivery Options.
(To see a full review of Thrive Market overall, click here.)
If you haven’t heard of Thrive Market, it’s a membership-based online grocery store providing the highest quality, healthy, and sustainable products at reduced prices. If Costco and Whole Foods shacked up had a baby, it would be Thrive Market.
Speaking of babies, I find myself using my Thrive Market membership more than ever now that I’m a Mom because I’m busy All. The. Time. I know you are too, so here is the condensed version of this review:
Top 3 Pros Of Thrive Market Organic Meat Delivery Service:
- Huge variety of box options, including meat, seafood, pork, chicken, and shellfish.
- Lower pricing per serving when you purchase in bulk. Great if you have a big family or extra freezer space.
- Transparent sourcing information.
Top 3 Cons of Thrive Market Organic Meat Delivery Service:
- Must be a Thrive Market Member to order.
- The meat arrives frozen. (Pros and cons to this.)
- Their grass-fed beef is not local. It sourced out of the US. Explained on their website and below.
If that high-level review is enough for you and you want to try it out now, choose a FREE gift, up to $22 value, when you purchase a Thrive Market membership! (1 year and 1 month memberships available))
using this link!
Need a little more info? Keep reading, friend!
Delivery Options – Choosing Your Box
The thing I was most impressed with is that you can order a ton of different combinations of organic chicken, 100% grass-fed beef, sustainable wild-caught seafood, and pasture-raised pork. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any turkey products, at least not yet. They are always adding new combo options such as premium cuts or holiday-specific. So, who knows if turkey is something they might add in the future.
I also appreciated that they share the price per serving already calculated out for every single box, making it easy to see that value boxes or bulk orders offer a significant discount.
Free-Range Organic Chicken Options ($2.89 -$4.45/serving)
- Free-Range Organic Chicken Breast Box
- Free-Range Organic Chicken Breasts & Thighs Box
- Free-Range Organic Chicken Box –> This is what I ordered 🙂
- Free-Range Organic Chicken Value Box
100% Grass Fed Grass Finished Meat Boxes ($3.51/serving – $5.36/ serving)
- Family Style Beef Box
- Meat Sampler Box
- Meat Sampler Value Box
- Premium Cuts Box
Pastured Pork Box ($4.62-$4.69/serving)
- Pastured Pork Box
- Value Pork Box
Wild & Sustainable Seafood Boxes ($4.95 – $9.44/serving)
- Wild & Sustainable Seafood Box
- Deluxe Seafood Box
- Value Size Wild & Sustainable Seafood Box
- Shellfish Free Box
- Sockeye Salmon Box
- Build Your Own Box
Combo Boxes – ranges from $4.60 – $7.75lb/serving
- Build Your Own Meat & Seafood Box – average 20 servings, $5.95/serving
- Beef & Chicken Box – 7.75lbs, 21 servings, $4.60/serving
- Premium Meat & Seafood Box – average 26 servings, $6.12/serving
- Ultimate Sampler – 7.25lbs, 19 servings, $5.69/serving
- Pork & Beef Combo Box – 7.75lbs, 21 servings, $5.08/serving
- Surf & Turf Box – 6.4lbs, 17 servings, $7.65/serving
- Steak & Lobster Box – 4.5lb, 12 servings, $10.83/serving
- NEW! Box of the Month (see below)
Thrive Market Meat & Seafood Sourcing
I think it’s beyond impressive how transparent Thrive Market is about where their meat is sourced. Here is the deal with sourcing. I think for the average consumer, you and I, it’s hard to know what we are getting. In other words, there are no laws or very lose laws on terms like “free-range” “grass-fed” and many other products used to describe animal products.
You think free-range means happy birds frolicking around, foraging and hanging out like chickens do right? Wrong. It could just mean they were free-range outside on the way to super cramped cages.
Do you think grass-fed means the cows were grazing on a pasture? Wrong. It could just mean they’re feed contained grass.
Unless you go to the farm yourself, how do you know?
You don’t.
So we have to take their word for it, at least at the grocery store. But, by ordering your organic meat online, you have someone looking out for your back. I believe companies like Butcher Box, Thrive Market, and others want the same things for us that we want for ourselves. Thrive Market’s transparent sourcing information is proof of that.
So why aren’t all their products US Based? Thrive Market believes they found the best quality, 100% grass-fed beef in the Patagonian Mountains in Chile. I’m torn here because I think we should all support local efforts to move toward sustainable ranching, but I also believe the quality of the meat they deliver meets all the standards I would set if I were sourcing it myself.
Thrive Market Membership
One downside to the Thrive Market organic meat delivery service is the requirement of a membership if you don’t already have one. The yearly membership is $59.65, but here is the cool part, they let you try it before you buy it.
They carry over 6000 products offering a 25-50% discount on each one, so on average, their members save about $30 per order. So, if you order twice a year and you make up your membership fee (trust me, you can order twice a year.) Each membership payment sponsors a membership for someone in need so that healthy products are available to everyone.
Frozen Meat
With any organic meat delivery service, the meat will arrive frozen. Only having frozen meat has three potential downsides.
- Packaging to deal with. My box came with a full bag of dry ice which I had to put outside to let evaporate.
- Takes up your freezer space. Bulk ordering meat to keep in the freezer is going to take up valuable freezer real estate, so you’ll have to plan accordingly.
- When you buy your meat frozen, you can’t “prep it frozen.” For my maternity leave I prepped a ton of recipes with fresh raw chicken and then froze them still raw, like marinades, breaded chicken, etc… Once you defrost meat you have to cook it, you can’t refreeze it while it’s still raw. You can, however, refreeze it after it’s cooked. While I’m not the best planner, I do have an instant pot to save my butt if I forget to defrost any meat, so it isn’t that big of a deal to me.
Final Thoughts
I’ll likely keep my Butcher Box subscription going and use Thrive Market as the pinch hitter for extra chicken and seafood. I think a lot of people looking into organic meat delivery services may be trying to decide between these two services, but I actually think they compliment each other really well. Let me know if you have any questions!
Don’t forget, if you are ready to try out Thrive Market’s Meat Delivery Service, choose a FREE gift, up to $22 value, when you purchase a Thrive Market membership! (1 year and 1 month memberships available)) using this link!
Check out my recent box (no meat in this one, but still some good stuff!)
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So nice to have. 🙂 thannks for the good post.
I buy local beef from a farmer that raises grassfed, pastured beef. It ismyummy. I can’t get amwhole or even a half yet, but would love to. I too, just got a deep freeze and l.o.v.e. it.