Meat Experts Blind Taste Test Every Beef Jerky

[Host] We've gathered three butchers and meat purveyors

to blind taste test every type of beef jerky

we could get our hands on

to see which ones meet their standards.

[lively music]

Old Trapper Old Fashioned Beef Jerky.

It's really red.

Most likely coming from the addition of nitrites

reacting with the hemoglobin.

Not too tough, not too dry.

It's also kind of, like, flaking,

probably that's the nature of the cut

that was used.

It looks like it's from a bottom round,

but it's also cut directly across the grain,

and makes it more tender

because you basically shorten the muscle fiber.

It's got a glaze to it.

Definitely gonna be on the sweeter side.

I definitely smell smoke there.

When you're naturally smoking,

the phenols in the smoke actually help preserve the meat.

There are all these antioxidants in smoke.

Beef jerky is often smoked.

I think smoke is mainly about

getting you to want to eat it.

For beef jerky,

I'm gonna be looking for a few different things today.

Beef jerky ideally tastes like beef.

It shouldn't be just a marinade flavor,

it shouldn't be just sweetness.

I actually want to taste the meat.

It should also have a really nice chew to it,

like a nice texture,

and doesn't have, like, a weird softness.

I want to feel like I'm eating dried beef.

And finally, I'm looking for a balanced seasoning.

Salt and sugar have to be in the perfect ratio

so that neither of them are dominant.

All right, let's dive in.

In terms of beef flavor, there's not a lot there.

It's a lean cut of meat,

so this doesn't have any real fat to it all

that's gonna coat my tongue

and deliver that beef flavor.

Most jerkies are made with eye of the round

or top round or bottom round,

and they're really lean cuts

and you don't want that fat.

It goes rancid.

Texture's actually really good.

It's not too chewy, it's not too soft.

It doesn't get caught in your teeth.

A couple things will make beef jerky more or less tender.

How the animal was raised, how the muscle was cut,

how was it marinated,

and how was it cooked and dried.

Sugar reduces the water availability for bacteria,

so you can create a moister jerky

and still keep it safe to eat.

In commercial beef jerky, you're getting a softness

because first they're cooking the meat

before dehydrating it,

and that's what kind of gives this generic,

like, texture that you get for most, let's say,

we'll call it gas station beef jerky.

The seasoning is pretty balanced, I would guess,

this is one of our market leaders.

Old Trapper Old Fashioned Beef Jerky, naturally smoked.

I've seen it on shelves.

What's good that beef is the first ingredient,

always important on a beef jerky.

They're adding beef stock, and for me,

that's an acknowledgement

that their beef doesn't have a lot of flavor.

So what they're doing is they're marinating

or adding beef stock to the product

to make it taste more beefy.

Sodium nitrite.

Nitrites stabilize the globulin in the meat,

and that keeps the red color.

They're a preservative.

We're probably gonna see a lot of sodium nitrite today.

Jerky is probably one of the oldest methods

of meat preservation.

Just air drying was probably one of the first methods,

and then salting and air drying,

and then eventually smoking and salting and air drying.

The more of those layers you add on,

the more longevity you're getting from that animal.

It's fine.

It's not gross.

It's not like I want more of this.

If I saw this on a shelf at a gas station

on a road trip, I'd totally take it and eat it.

[Host] People's Choice Original Beef Jerky.

That's a big piece of beef jerky.

Very thin.

Translucent.

I'm gonna assume that this does have nitrites.

It has got a nice pliability.

It's not overly dried,

so you can see they've cut it thinner.

If they cut it as thick as the other one,

it would be inevitably tough.

Ooh, geez.

Beef was not the first flavor here.

It was definitely sugar.

The chew and the texture are terrible.

Super chewy.

With such a thin jerky,

I would expect it to be a little crunchier.

But it's like tearing cardboard, man.

And that's because it's cut with the grain.

If you cut it the other way against the grain,

you're gonna get a much less toothy consistency.

It's like string cheese, so much sugar.

It's like crystallized.

It was a little too sweet,

but I did like the black pepper.

Big bag of beef jerky. Oh, my God.

People's Choice.

And they're supposed to be all natural.

Look at this bag, this is a dog food bag.

Celery powder is full of nitrates,

and nitrates can be converted by our body

or by bacteria cultured into nitrites.

But because it's a natural source of nitrates,

they don't have to say that includes nitrates.

Cultured celery powder is identical

to chemically produced or lab-produced nitrites.

Well, I think brands use celery powder

because it sounds more clean label.

It sounds like something you wanna put in your body,

but people should be aware that you're getting

the same nitrites that you would get from a product

that just says it contains nitrites.

Your body does not know the difference.

I like its style.

I don't love its flavor.

[Host] Jack Link's Original Beef Jerky.

I don't really want to eat this.

These little lines, I can tell it stuck to the racks

where it was laid on, like somebody was lifting it

and it broke because it was stuck.

This one is cut kind of across the grain,

but I think also still using bottom round.

Definitely got a little more moisture to it.

Look how easily it comes apart.

Watch this.

It's not super beef-forward.

What I really hate about this, it's soft.

That is straight mush.

Lot of sugar or at least something

that makes it taste sweet.

Definitely has soy sauce.

The black pepper that I'm seeing on it,

I'm not really tasting.

They're balancing the pepper with sugar.

I think it has too much sugar for this one.

It just doesn't really have a good meat flavor.

This is gross.

Why am I eating it?

It tastes just like all the other generic beef jerkies.

No guess, none whatsoever.

A sugar factory domino.

It's one of the big ones, would be my guess.

There we go.

You can't go into a gas station or a grocery store

without seeing Jack Link's.

This is gas station jerky in, like, New Jersey.

I can say that 'cause my wife's from New Jersey.

So when you have that kind of production,

you're naturally gonna be able to offer

a better price point.

Now I think there is something nice

and snackable about it.

I mean, you could chew this with false teeth.

So you're just kinda, like, popping it like popcorn.

Beef, the first ingredient, who would know?

Yeast extract on top of the soy sauce.

Now that's why it tastes so soy,

because both of those ingredients add a lot of umami.

They really accentuate the flavor and the soy sauce.

And then there's pineapple powder,

and that's why this is nice and soft.

Pineapple contains something called bromelain.

Bromelain, it's like a crew of college dudes.

That is a meat tenderizer.

It's used commercially.

Breaks down the connective tissue

between the protein structure.

Chewing this, I think that's what it's used for.

It's what you'd expect.

It is the large commercially available.

Stylistically, I personally do not like it.

Jack Link's would not be my first choice.

But if it was the only choice in the gas station

and I was on a road trip, I would buy it.

[Host] Brooklyn Biltong Original Air Dried Beef.

I like that it's not red.

I'm gonna bet there are no nitrites

or cultured celery powder in this jerky.

It doesn't have the color.

It's a nice change of pace.

It's a little bit strange.

It's so shredding.

You actually taste kind of beefy.

Very gamey.

One of the key signifiers of grass-fed beef

is the color of the fat

and the amount of intramuscular fat.

This is a little bit fattier than the other ones.

It's got a greasy flavor to it.

This might be something real.

Fat's not common in gas station jerky.

The texture is good.

It's kind of shredding.

Chewier than I thought it was gonna be,

which I don't mind.

Zero sweetness, and it's not overly salty.

The seasoning they're keeping pretty basic.

Not much salt.

Technically it's balanced,

but there's nothing to balance.

It might have went through a little bit of fermentation.

Even though I think it's a little under-seasoned,

as you chew it,

that fat is delivering the salt to your tongue

and making it work.

My guess is gonna be a smaller producer,

especially because of the fat content.

Biltong.

Brooklyn Biltong.

I was right.

This does go through some fermentation.

Biltong is a South African product.

It's a type of jerky,

but it's made completely differently.

They cut it in these, like, strips

that are, like, yay big from top to bottom,

and then they season those strips.

It's rubbed with the spices on the outside.

You're not getting as much spice

unless you're really caking it on there.

Instead of fully cooking the beef

in order to kill all the bacteria,

in biltong, they pickle the beef in vinegar,

and that makes it sterile

or kills all the bacteria

that could reproduce in the beef.

So essentially it's dehydrating and then cutting

instead of cutting and then dehydrating.

They then can dry the beef at a much lower temperature,

which is safe to do now

because it's got no bacteria,

and that's how you end up with a softer product

that isn't as dried.

Whatever it is, like, I like it.

I think it's pretty good.

I think it's delicious.

People should eat the [beep] out of this.

[Host] Tillamook Zero Sugar Original Beef Jerky.

This is cool.

This has fat.

It's cut on the thicker side.

This is a low moisture recipe.

It's also cut with the grain.

So we're gonna have a really nice tear on this jerky.

It's got a little redness to it.

Pretty sure this has nitrites.

And some visible spice on the exterior.

Ooh, tastes like beef.

It's got a little bit of heat on the backend,

but not a lot.

There's a right amount of chew.

It doesn't eat overly dry, it's not too hard.

Not overly dehydrated or soft.

And the more I chew on it, it gets very beefy.

Good balance of salt and sugar.

Spices don't overtake the beef.

Kind of a nice acid profile.

Really the flavor on this one is all about the beef.

So far consistency-wise, this is my favorite.

I don't think this is gas station jerky.

I think this is a little step up.

Tillamook Country Smoker.

Made with a hundred percent premium beef.

I don't know what that means.

Zero sugar.

Part of the reason that we're getting the dryness here

and less moisture,

that sugar will hold onto water

once you have it in the jerky.

Slow smoked over real hardwood.

I don't taste a lot of smoke in this.

Smoke dissipates in packaging so quick.

Smoking is really about preservation.

If they're really going to the trouble

of smoking this over hardwood,

it's partially to preserve the meat,

not just for the flavor.

Some smokes are more bitter than others,

but there's also a lot of variables, right?

The amount of time the smoke is applied,

how aggressively the smoke is applied,

what the humidity level is in the smoker.

I like the consistency a lot.

It's pretty good beef jerky.

That just blew my mind.

Very good.

[Host] Think Jerky Classic Beef Jerky.

I already don't like it.

So this one's a little bit glossy.

Back to Sugarville.

Some is cut with the grain,

and some is cut against it,

so it's not consistent.

This is gas station stuff.

Oh, God.

I do not like it.

Lots of sugar.

Where's the beef?

That's a fruit snack.

So there are two reasons to use a lot of sugar.

One to make it sweet

and make people eat a ton of it like it's meat candy.

And then the other reason is for water availability.

This is going very low water availability

with that amount of sugar in it,

and it's got a fair amount of salt as well.

When you use that much sugar and that much salt,

you end up with a really kind of soft,

pliable, chewable jerky,

and it is a trade-off

because without massive amounts of preservatives,

there's no way to create a soft, pliable, moist jerky

that's shelf-stable

unless you use a lot of sugar.

It's like some weird avant-garde dessert.

It has, like, a really plasticky texture to it

and kind of artificial flavor.

The sugar hits you, then the acid,

then this, like, black pepper thing.

All these garbage jerkies use the same black pepper,

and I think it's, like, a little stale.

Oh, Think, Think not.

Not my favorite.

It's so crazy, they have a pepper mill on the cover.

Oh, who's this garbage?

Package tells me it's premium.

I don't think it tastes premium at all.

So the signaling of the package

does not align with the end product.

Most beef, even grass-fed, is grain finished.

And if you look at the back here,

it says a hundred percent grass-fed beef.

That's important.

I mean, it's only had grass through its entire lifecycle

from birth through slaughter.

Not counting milk.

You're going to end up with a leaner animal.

So I guess more of the animal could be made into jerky

'cause you're gonna have more areas that have less marbling

that are more suitable for jerky.

In terms of flavor,

I don't think that grass-fed for me

is gonna come through in jerky.

It has over a year until the sell-by date.

That's a pretty significant shelf life

for something that has no nitrites.

I'm gonna throw this in the garbage.

[Host] Snake River Farms American Wagyu Beef Jerky.

I can, like, mash this beef jerky in my fingers

by squeezing.

Beef jerky shouldn't be mushy like that.

This one is glossy.

It's really reflecting light.

It's a little curled up.

It almost looks like bulgogi to me.

Chunky, chunky black pepper.

Look at this black pepper.

I love that.

I don't taste an ounce of beef in that.

It has that really generic flavor to it.

All that sugar in there,

it's got a pretty high moisture content.

The texture, oh, this is what people want outta jerky.

It's not crispy, it's not crunchy, it's not soft,

like right in the middle, it's great.

The balance is pretty good between the salt and the sugar.

The flavor to me is good.

This tastes like an attempted premium brand.

Oh, Snake River Farms.

I expected more of Snake River Farms.

Snake River Farms is a premium American Wagyu beef brand.

You're probably not buying this in a gas station.

They're raising Wagyu and Wagyu crosses

for mostly restaurant consumption.

Wagyu is a breed of beef

that is known for its high marbling,

its intramuscular fat.

Well, it shouldn't matter if something is Wagyu or not

when you get to jerky.

So we make beef jerky.

We wanna use cuts that have very little fat,

and here they're trying to kind of tout

that they're using a breed that has a lot of fat.

So it's a little bit counterproductive

and counterintuitive.

I don't see an ounce of fat on this product

or flavor for that matter.

So I feel like it's kind of a waste.

If I were guessing,

I would say that there's a bunch of lean Wagyu beef

that can't be sold as Wagyu

because it's not heavily marbled,

because those are the naturally less fatty cuts

in the Wagyu cattle,

and so those are made into jerky.

If you're going to eat beef jerky,

don't pay for Wagyu

because you're not getting the part of the Wagyu

that's the reason that we eat Wagyu.

It's a marketing thing, right?

People associate Wagyu with quality.

It eats to me like a commercially made beef jerky.

This is literally the consistency of a Swedish fish.

[Host] Good & Gather Original Beef Jerky.

It's on the thicker side.

Cut with the grain.

So we get this really nice pull.

Smells super smoky.

So I'm not getting a lot of beef flavor on this.

The texture is mush.

Jerky should be a little drier, a little chewier.

I like the texture of it.

I think by cutting the piece to, like, a reasonable size,

they're keeping the muscle fiber short.

That is so sweet.

It's got, like, a brown sugar thing going on,

but not a lot of other flavor aside from that.

I'm not really sensing any smoke flavor on this at all.

So it's a very basic jerky in terms of seasoning.

Mush city.

Good & Gather.

You're feeding me Target jerky?

It kinda lines up with what I would've expected.

There's a lot of sugar in this.

The second and third ingredient of this one is sugar,

which kind of lines up with my experience of it

that tasted pretty sweet.

This has brown sugar and regular sugar.

I think brown sugar gives it caramel flavors

that regular white sugar just doesn't.

I don't know why you'd use both.

They're like, all right, cool.

We got the color we want.

We got the molasses,

but we still want it to be sweeter.

It's like a quarter sugar.

Natural smoke flavor,

because it's an ingredient,

it probably means it's liquid smoke.

Smoke extract is what they call it.

Most liquid smoke is actually produced

by smoking a liquid.

So if you have a very large production facility

and you're trying to create, you know,

thousands and thousands and thousands of pounds

of beef jerky,

and you're faced with the choice, oh, well,

do we, you know,

hold this slowly over a raging fire of expensive hardwood,

or do we buy this extract

and add a few drops to the marinade?

It's a pretty easy choice for the manufacturers.

Too sweet for my liking.

Not my favorite.

Garbage.

[Host] Archer Original Grass-Fed Beef Jerky.

Very soft.

This has got a lot of water in it.

It's like damp.

It's just gonna be sweet

'cause that's how you keep that water in there.

I'm not excited to eat it.

No beef in there whatsoever.

Has no texture to it.

It's mushy and unpleasant.

Like super, super soft.

Crushingly sweet.

It all just has kind of, like, a synthetic thing

going on in terms of the flavor.

Maybe it has pineapple juice to tenderize it.

Not my favorite.

Archer Grass-Fed Beef Jerky.

It's too bad.

I would've really liked to have liked Archer.

I like what they stand for.

They use clean ingredients.

They don't use a bunch of preservatives.

They try to make good food that is good for you.

Long live real meat.

They put a lot of thought into this package,

and I don't understand any of it.

The marketing department got their hands on you, buddy.

It's got a lot of ingredients on this back.

Put a lot of good ingredients.

So I was right.

There's pineapple juice in here to tenderize the meat,

which personally I don't think was necessary.

It's really tender, too tender.

There's a lot going on here

for a product that eats very simple and not that good.

Whenever you see a brand that's no nitrites, no nitrates,

no celery powder,

well, then they're gonna have to do other things

to keep that product fresh.

In this case, beef jerky,

like, add a lot of sugar, add a lot of salt.

Then you really have to focus on packaging,

and then once you open it,

you've gotta eat it pretty quick.

It's pretty strange.

They probably sell this at Target.

Meat candy.

That's not what I think of as beef jerky.

[Host] 365 by Whole Foods

Original Organic Grass-Fed Beef Jerky.

Very natural brown beef.

No chemical preservatives.

It's a little better in intramuscular fat.

Fat can be great in terms of eating process.

The only negative with fat can be the shelf life.

I think the fat helps deliver that beefiness to it.

Thought it was gonna be mush, but it's actually not.

It's dry but not tough.

Very, very sweet.

I can see the black pepper,

but it barely comes through.

The flavor's pretty good on this one.

Like getting notes of Tabasco or something,

but I'm not sure what that is.

Maybe it's a teriyaki flavor.

Is that what they're going for here?

It's like mezcal,

not saying this is good like mezcal.

I'm just saying.

Ah, it's Whole Foods.

365.

So it's the first one and only one

that we've had so far that is organic.

Buying organic, you're being guaranteed

that there are a whole list of chemicals

that are not gonna be present in your food.

It says something

because beef jerky's already expensive,

and they are choosing to use organic beef,

which will be significantly more expensive,

and grass-fed.

That's kind of impressive.

Just because it's organic

doesn't mean it's gonna taste great.

To make beef jerky shelf-stable,

we have to get to a specific water activity level

that will prevent bacterial growth.

It's all about balancing those three variables,

which would be salt, nitrates, and water.

Overall, I think they've done a good job here.

They have reduced the water to a point

where it's still pleasant to eat,

but they haven't had to add any nitrates to it.

It's pretty solid.

This is not for me,

but it's definitely for someone.

Yeah, garbage, garbage.

[Host] Field Trip Original Grass-Fed Beef Jerky.

Thick, chunky pieces.

There's a little bit of fat in this piece.

Another natural jerky.

This brown color is missing nitrites.

This has a little more spice characteristic.

No beef flavor whatsoever.

This is sugar-forward.

Some sort of fruit.

The texture is pretty good.

It's got some chew,

it's got a little bit of fat.

Still very tender in that kind of soft,

sweet candy style.

The spice comes through as a background note,

I mean, black pepper forward.

A lot of soy flavor,

kind of a lot of umami.

Probably garlic, onion.

Field Trip!

Never heard of 'em.

My understanding, they were a small company,

I believe, out of Vermont.

One of their missions is no nitrates or nitrites added,

but maybe a bunch of these other things

are trying to control for bacteria growth

and water activity.

25 ingredients in it.

To me, it tasted like it.

It's got four.

There it is.

Apple juice.

That's what I'm getting.

We haven't seen that yet.

I believe it would be just

for flavor and sweetness.

Probably a tenderizer.

They're also using pineapple juice.

Another tenderizer,

it's solid.

[Host] Oberto Teriyaki Beef Jerky.

There's a hole in that one,

which maybe means it was hung on a hook.

So it's dehydrated while hanging.

It looks like it's on the softer side.

Almost always coming from sugar

because that's how you keep that moisture in there.

It's almost a beef-based flavor.

It almost tastes concentrated.

It also has kind of a soapy aftertaste

that I don't like.

Not a very satisfying chew to it.

Very, very soft.

Surprisingly mushy.

It's pretty sweet.

Hints of smoke in the back.

It's hard to say it has more sugar

or just less salt in it.

The same amount of salt tastes saltier

or less salt based on how much sugar

or spice are in it.

So it's all about the balance of the ingredients.

Soy or molasses to it as well.

The real reason to add soy is for that umami flavor,

which helps bring out the flavor of the beef

until you put too much in,

and then it just covers it up.

I think this is probably one of the big companies.

Oberto. Oberto!

Oh, this is one of the big ones.

Oberto is, like,

I think it's been around forever.

Teriyaki.

This doesn't taste terribly teriyaki to me.

It tastes like sweet soy,

which is part of teriyaki.

If you were to read this ingredient list

and compare it to all the other ones,

none of which were labeled as teriyaki.

It's not really any different.

Just maybe a little more soy.

I like to put a little bit of sesame in mine

and a little bit of spiciness.

Most teriyaki flavors

that Americans associate are, like,

basically just a shocking amount of sugar

and soy sauce.

So it makes sense

that teriyaki is a flavor profile

that works for beef jerky.

It's not for me.

This is not my fave.

[Host] Good & Gather Teriyaki Beef Jerky.

Ladies and gentlemen,

what we have here is a classic example of beef jerky

from a gas station.

A slightly firmer jerky, a nice tear.

When you rub it,

it starts to, like, kind of fold up

and turn into this, like, caramelized sugar protein paste.

In terms of beefiness, not that much going on.

And I can chew it for more than three seconds

before it's time to swallow,

which is what to me what jerky is all about.

Tastes mostly like brown sugar.

This definitely has some Asian flavors going on.

Is this also a teriyaki?

The soy is more prominent,

lot of umami.

It's getting closer to what I look for in a jerky,

but I'm still not quite it.

It's fine.

Yay!

This is Good & Gather, the Target version.

Targe.

This is their teriyaki.

It is not as bad as the other Targe one.

They do have honey,

which we haven't seen.

It's a natural sweetener,

but I'm actually gonna assume

that's in their teriyaki mix.

So here you've got the teriyaki on one side,

and you've got their original on this side.

It looked identical.

This one has about a third of the ingredients as this one,

and this one has so many obscure ingredients

like multiple juice concentrates and honey versus sugar.

At least you're seeing the things

that you expect in teriyaki, right?

Ginger juice, garlic powder.

They're not wildly different products, like,

I don't know what purpose

all of these additional flavors and ingredients are adding.

This is better than the Oberto's Teriyaki,

but still not my personal thing.

[Host] Think Jerky Grass-Fed Beef Jerky Sesame Teriyaki.

I see sesame seeds,

which is cool.

So it's going for a different flavor profile

than any of the other ones we've eaten today.

No beef flavor.

It has a bit of, like, a mealy characteristic

when you actually eat it.

Almost like if it was over-tenderized.

I think flavor profile, the sesame is coming out.

After I chew on it for a minute.

There is a bit of bitterness.

Like, almost like an orange peel.

It's possible they're trying to bring in, like,

a third element

that we haven't seen in any of the other ones.

Balancing salty, sweet, and bitter.

It is another Think Jerky.

This is their Sesame Teriyaki.

Well, better job this time, Think.

Cayenne pepper.

You could have fooled me with a cayenne pepper.

I didn't think this was particularly spicy.

But it's nice.

It kind of, like, helps round it out.

This was the first of our jerky today

that used an actual chili pepper and not black pepper.

Chili peppers use capsaicin as giving them their spice,

which is much more like a burning heat.

It is the last ingredient,

so it might just be, like, a very small amount

on the back end.

Let's find out what this bitterness is.

Ah, I was right.

Orange peel.

Yeah, of all the teriyakis we've tried,

I like this one the best.

They're making stuff the right way.

This is a very clean product.

[Host] Old Trapper Hot & Spicy Beef Jerky.

Okay, this one's encouraging.

Chili flakes and chili seeds.

My guess is it'll be quite spicy.

Crosscut is nice, fall-apart texture.

That's good.

This has some really nice heat to it.

If you're gonna get any beefy,

it's gonna be in that very first bite

before the heat takes over.

I like that level of chew.

The chewiness along with the heat is so much more

what beef jerky to me is supposed to be.

The spice definitely, like,

gives it a different flavor profile than the rest.

It's not over the top.

I can taste the beef.

It's got a nice saltiness,

it's just enough sweetness to support the spice.

Got a little bit of acid there.

This is much more balanced.

Chilies, for me, help accentuate the flavor,

the natural flavor of most foods.

I would buy this.

I like this.

Old Trapper, our friend.

Okay, well, if I'm gonna buy Old Trapper,

I'm gonna buy the one covered in chili.

Vinegar, there's that acid I was talking about.

They don't even list chilies on here.

It's all under flavorings.

Ballsy.

Flavorings.

I think as long as there's no allergens,

they don't have to list them.

If they're a certain percentage or less.

So this is naturally smoked.

The smoke and the chili enhance each other.

There's a lot of layers of flavor

that make it really appealing on your palate.

That's why, you know,

chefs will often smoke their chilies.

It's a pretty good product.

I am a fan of this one, yeah.

[Host] No Man's Land Hot Beef Jerky.

This looks like another spicy one.

Look how dry that is.

This is the driest that we've seen so far.

It's probably also not gonna be a sugar bomb.

Pretty good beef flavor.

It's not nearly as sweet

as most of the ones we've eaten today.

Texture has got some chew to it.

This is very toothy.

We gotta work for it a little bit, but it's not tough.

This is an example of using less sugar

and how it kind of crystallizes the protein differently.

This has, like, no sugar, no moisture.

I don't think there's any tenderizer in here.

The exact opposite of the meat candy.

Like a texture with a more natural product.

I like the heat and the acid combination.

The chili flake isn't prominent, it's just there.

It's got a brightness to it

that maybe comes from vinegar,

which would give it that kind of, like,

lighter brown color.

The flavor is, like, nine outta ten for me.

I like it.

My guess is this is a small producer.

No Man's Land Slow Dried Old Fashioned Jerky.

There are no preservatives.

They are drying it pretty far.

I love how they come out with it right away.

Liquid smoke added.

They're not trying to bull [beep] anybody.

The only sweetener outside what might be in the soy sauce

is honey, I love that.

It's got spice, it's got salt.

It's not too sweet.

I kind of like where it's at.

When you can get 17 grams of protein

out of a one-ounce serving,

that's concentrated beef.

Most of the other ones have been, like,

eight grams of protein.

Does it look the best? No.

It gonna actually be decent for you? Yeah.

Zero preservatives.

It doesn't need it.

It's got no water in it.

Nothing can grow in this.

It's literally just a hundred percent beef almost.

I can get behind this.

[Host] Jack Link's Peppered Beef Jerky.

We're back to a high moisture, softer jerky here.

Back to Thickville, back to Sugar Station.

I don't even know what I'm saying.

Almost has, like, a waxy look to it.

It also has that really commercial beef jerky smell.

This is not something I would wanna buy.

You don't taste any beef whatsoever?

I don't like the texture.

It's both soft and a bit mealy.

Waxy is definitely the way I would describe that.

Back to that kind of, like, translucency,

you can see through, like,

the meat has been crystallized.

Not as sweet as many of them.

The aftertaste is kind of, like, generically sweet

and, like, a little bit of black pepper, I would say.

The black pepper heat is kind of good.

I could eat this and be happy.

Jack Link's!

Yeah, I mean, not surprising.

It's fine.

Again, best seller.

I like this better than the other Jack Link's.

It's all the same as everything else

just with more black pepper.

The fact that they're calling it a pepper jerky,

it should be, like, powerful.

I wanna see, like, caked with fresh black pepper on there.

This tastes like black pepper, kids.

Black pepper's just another way to give you heat

rather than to get it from chili pepper.

It's gonna be a bit of a bite

but not, like, fiery heat to it.

I think this is popular for a reason.

I think it's very good.

Nothing special.

I think this is something that most people would like.

[Host] Krave Salt & Pepper Wagyu Beef Jerky.

I actually really like the looks of this one.

Very low moisture but still soft.

It also has, like, a lot of, like, aromatics

you can see on the surface.

Can't taste any beef.

Lots of vinegar notes.

This might be an uncured product.

No fat at all.

A little bit soft but not mushy.

Very chewable.

Not brittle at all.

It's sweeter than I want, but I don't hate it.

It's got a bit of pepper and other aromatics on it.

It's pretty balanced.

Oh, this is the Krave Grass-Fed Wagyu Beef.

So we're going back to Wagyu beef,

which is somewhat ironic

because there is no fat in this product at all.

This is not gas station.

If you have to eat Wagyu jerky,

have the Snake River Wagyu jerky.

But if you don't, just have something else.

I think it's fine.

Yeah, it's fine.

[Host] Now let's see

which jerkies our experts liked the most and the least.

That was a lot of jerky.

Probably my favorite would be Brooklyn Biltong.

You could taste the beef.

There was fat present.

It was dry but moist.

Like, it was kind of fun to eat and flavorful.

And then spicy.

I like the Old Trapper Hot & Spicy.

It had some good heat to it.

The big chili flake, evenly distributed on the jerky.

Great balance of beef flavor with nice umami backing.

The chew on it was perfect.

Something I could definitely see myself snacking on

on a road trip.

I did like the No Man's Land.

That is very toothy, a very traditional,

very slow dried jerky.

It tasted exactly like the ingredients

on the ingredients list were listed,

and that makes me trust the product.

There was a lot of not-so-good jerky we ate today.

Least faves would be the Jack Link's ones.

Very generic, kind of what you'd expect

from a mass-produced jerky,

kind of soft and mealy.

We tried two different versions,

and they kind of taste the same

even though they're supposed to be different products.

I wasn't into the Original Think Jerky Grass-Fed Beef.

All you tasted was sugar and sweetener,

and the spices were all kind of muddled.

They were trying to project a healthfulness,

but then there was just way too many ingredients,

way too many claims on the back for me.

I wasn't a big fan of the Archer Jerky.

Very mushy texture.

Just wasn't as palatable.

It was going for, like, a premium branding,

but the flavor and texture weren't there,

and there was a lot of strange ingredients in it.

And then there's the Good & Gather,

the Target brand, Original Beef Jerky.

If you're gonna get the beef jerky from Target

and you have to buy their brand,

to get the teriyaki,

but stay away from the original.

You know, over the last few years,

we've seen explosion in beef jerky.

Yes, jerky is a great source of protein

compared to other snack foods,

but it is also full of other ingredients.

It should not be, like,

something you're snacking on every day.

If I'm buying things, I'm looking for good sourcing.

So some sort of natural claim.

No hormones, no antibiotics, organic when possible.

The least amount of ingredients possible

with the highest quality product you can get.

If closer sugar is to the first ingredient,

the softer that jerky's gonna be.

And the further down sugar is,

the more toothy that jerky's gonna be.

And that way, you can kind of tell

what the consistency that jerky's gonna be

without opening the bag.

You could also buy a dehydrator, find a great recipe,

and make it very safely at home.

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