Thursday, January 29, 2009

Dollar Tree Greenbrier Beef Jerky - Original

Dollar Tree Greenbrier Beef Jerky - OriginalThe Dollar Tree chain of discount stores sells this package of jerky depicted here. But if you look at the package, there's no brand name on it. If you look at the back of the package, it says it's distributed by Greenbrier International. Greenbrier does all the importing and sourcing of products sold at Dollar Tree stores.

And Greenbrier is a subsidiary of Dollar Tree Stores, Inc. This is basically Dollar Tree's store brand jerky. I think the reason why there's no brand name on it is because Greenbrier also distributes products for other discount stores; I'm guessing this allows those stores to carry the same package without having Dollar Tree's name on it.

It was actually manufactured by Mirab USA, a large private labeler of beef jerky. Mirab makes jerky for hundreds of store brands. This particular jerky is a chopped & formed style, and appears to be the same jerky that Mirab makes for other stores, including Rite Aid, and Walgreens, which I've reviewed earlier.

Ingredients

Beef, water, sugar, salt, garlic powder, maltodextrin, monosodium glutamate, black pepper powder, apple cider vinegar, sodium tripolyphosphate, sodium erythorbate, citric acid, sodium nitrite.

Taste

The tastes I pick up from the surface of these pieces is a slight sweetness, and a slight smoky flavor. In the chewing, I get more of the sweet, a slight meat flavor, and some saltiness.

When I put a piece into my mouth and chew right away, I get the slight sweetness, a clear saltiness, but I don't seem to notice the meat flavor.

Just as with Rite Aid's Original beef jerky, I get the same rough, abrasive feeling on my teeth and tongue.

I think the saltiness has the dominant flavor of this jerky, and after several pieces, it almost seems to drown out all the other flavors. It's probably somewhere between moderate and high in terms of intensity.

The smoky flavor probably has the second-most dominant flavor, but a distant second. Yet, it's still strong enough to be noticed throughout the chewing.

The slight sweet taste is perhaps the third-most dominant flavor, but fading away somewhere in the chewing.

The meat flavors I described above doesn't really taste like meat, but it gives off the sense that it's some kind of animal flesh taste. It's more like the meat taste in a pickled sausage, but without the vinegary pickling juice. I don't really

I'll note that after several pieces, I can feel a black pepper aftertaste.

Meat Consistency

These are chopped & formed pieces, with some larger bits of meat, so maybe it's "chunked and formed" as the package says. It's of medium thickness, and in small to medium sized pieces.

It has a bit of moisture to it, and probably better off calling it a moist jerky. It still takes just a bit of effort to bite off a piece, but it's fairly easy to chew.

The chewing texture doesn't resemble anything meat-like or steak-like. At first, it has a bit of a rubbery texture, but it chews down quickly, except it chews down into tiny little granules.

But it seems fairly clean eating. Unlike the Rite Aid branded version of this jerky, this doesn't leave that bit of stickiness on my fingers, and thus not as much smell as well.




Snack Value

I paid $1.00 for this 1.5 ounce package at a Dollar Tree Store in Murrieta, CA. That works out to a price of $0.67 per ounce, putting this into the cheap price range.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at this price, it's a fair value. It's only because of the price being so low, you won't feel like you've wasted money. Just the fact that it's a $1.00 per bag, and there's mostly small bite sized pieces and a couple of medium sized ones, that you can go through this quickly before it grosses you out. Otherwise, I don't really get any snackability from this.

Rating

I'm giving this a dog treats rating.

It's pretty much the same chopped & formed stuff that Mirab USA makes for several other store brands. If anything, this particular package from Dollar Tree seems more fresh than the Rite Aid version I reviewed earlier. But it still has the "blah!" taste, and it still leaves that strange rough and abrasive texture on my teeth and tongue.

Otherwise, it's mostly salt that I'm tasting in this, with some sugar and smoky thrown in. The meat flavors are slight, but mostly resemble some kind of snack wiener.

The chewing texture is poor, feeling nothing like meat, and having some rubbery chew in the beginning.

For a beer recommendation, get a strong hoppy IPA.

Rating: Dog Treats

Where to buy:
  • At any Dollar Tree Store

0 comments:

Post a Comment