The new bougie hobby: steak tasting

Prime Future 242: the newsletter for innovators in livestock, meat, and dairy

By the power of Substack vested in me, there’s something I want to will into existence.

I want need steak tasting to be a thing — it’s the bougie pastime the world needs right now.

People travel all over the world to go wine tasting, that’s a normal thing to do.

And cheese tasting is an accessible activity – states like California and Washington have entire "cheese trails" complete with maps to easily guide the cheese tourist to nearby cheese shops.

For crying out loud, even olive oil tasting is a thing. 🤢

So, why, for the love of all that is right in the world, is steak tasting not a readily available celebratory weekend activity or a common travel experience?

Clearly this isn’t about moving volume or the ‘mountain of meat’ that large processors deal with, this is a way for niche, high-end direct to consumer players to not only sell meat but to sell a meat experience.

This is something I’ve wished for since, oh I dunno, forever, but I recently spoke with someone doing a variation on this and it got me thinking that there are actually multiple ways to execute the idea.

I see three viable flavors of the steak tasting business model. Let’s take a quick tour through each of them.