In today’s world, you can order just about anything and it’ll come straight to your door, no matter if it’s from across the state, country, or even across the world. This may be a perk that many of us take for granted, but it wasn’t long ago that having fresh meat sent through the mail would have been considered insanity. But not now, not today, because some companies have fine-tuned the experience for its customers and can now send packages with dry ice through the mail, across the country, and it still be cold and safe to consume. It’s pretty amazing.

I recently partnered with ButcherBox to test and review one of their monthly boxes, and so here’s my honest thoughts about their service. I signed up for their Beef and Pork box, which included bacon, 85/15 grass-fed ground beef, NY strip, top sirloin steaks, pork chops and baby back ribs. At first, I was a bit skeptical about shipping all of that through the mail. In fact, my first box came and all of the dry ice had melted and the meat was no longer cold to the touch. I was instructed to throw out the box and was assured that this does indeed happen, but typically less than 1% of the time. Customer service was on top of it immediately, sending out a new box right away which arrived a few days later. It was sad to waste what looked like some damn good eats, but the second box was a success.