Columbus Brand "Calabrese Hot Salame"

I have long been a fan of the Columbus Salame Company. I even liked (although I admit have not been able to eat again) their crespone salami that uses a colon casing. I often buy their "All Natural Salame" as it is widely available at specialty stores such as Zabars. So I was a little surprised when I purchased their "Calabrese Hot Salame" and found it tasted like rubbery pressed pork product and chemical spices. It sort of reminded me of a large Slim Jim. I have a few thoughts on why this may be the truth.

If you look at the photo of the salame, you can see that its shrink wrapped. If you look at the label it says "Renaissance" on the top. It turns out that Columbus makes salame under several different sub-brands. The salames that I have liked are all under the "Columbus" brand. None of them has been shrink wrapped. Columbus has a seperate "Renasissance" line. My guess is that this is the shrink wrap line. Their web site provides no clear distinction as to what the difference in their brands is and I have emailed the company for more information. Unfortunately, it appears that they feel obligated to do something (press the meat to much or more preservatives) to make their shrink wrapped salame last longer than their regular brands.

In all fairness, I will try another "Renaissance" salame type to see if it is any better, but at the moment I am recommending only buying their regular line for your dry sausage needs.