Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Stubb's Beef Jerky - Texas Teriyaki

Stubb's Beef Jerky - Texas TeriyakiStubb's Beef Jerky is actually an extension of Stubb's Bar-B-Q, a famous restaurant in Austin, TX, and a popular line of BBQ sauces found in most grocery stores. This beef jerky is a new product, having launched in September 2008. The Stubb's line of jerky is marinated in Stubb's sauces.

The jerky line itself is the product of Thanasi Foods, LLC, a company that focuses on extending popular food brands into snack foods. They're also the company that brought Jim Beam Beef Jerky, Frank's Redhot Beef Jerky, as well as Vlasic Pickles Sunflower Seeds. Thanasi Foods outsourced the production of this jerky to Monogram Meat Snacks, the same processor that makes the Trails Best line of jerky, the NASCAR line of meat snacks, Jeff Foxworthy Beef Jerky, and Winchester Beef Jerky.

I talked to the VP of Operations at Thanasi Foods to find out what stores are carrying this jerky, and was told Exxon-Mobil stations, 7-Eleven, and Circle K stores. You can also get it online from Stubb's Bar-B-Q Sauce website. This particular review sample was provided to me by Thanasi Foods.

Ingredients

Beef, water, Stubb's Texas Teriyaki Marinade, brown sugar, contains 2% of less of salt, sugar, sesame seed oil, sesame seeds, hydrolyzed soy protein, spices, soy sauce, flavoring, sodium nitrite, sodium erythorbate.

Taste

The flavors I pick up off the surface of these pieces starts with a sweet flavor that quickly develops into a BBQ-like sweetness. I can sense a bit of the sesame oil, but just a faint bit. In the chewing, the flavors I taste starts with a light saltiness, with some more of the sesame seed flavor, and some natural meat flavors coming on.

This jerky seems to have a low-to-moderate flavor intensity in both the surface flavors and chewing flavors. There's enough flavor overall to enjoy, but there's not quite enough to pack a punch.

I think the best way to describe the overall flavor of this jerky is a light sesame oil flavor, with a moderate saltiness, a moderate sugary-sweet, with a moderate degree of natural meat flavors, highlighted by a faint smokiness.

The natural meat flavors don't really taste like steak, but reminds me of beef summer sausage. I keep wondering if that's the Stubb's Texas Teriyaki sauce, but I think it is in fact the meat flavors. The package says that the beef is hickory smoked, and I do in fact detect a smokiness to it.

As for being a teriyaki variety, I don't really taste any teriyaki sauce in this. Now, I've never had Stubb's Texas Teriyaki sauce, so it's hard for me qualify what "texas teriyaki" is supposed to taste like. But I would think it would still have some teriyaki taste to it.

As for the saltiness, the salt intensity seems somewhere between low and moderate.

Overall, the dominant flavor of this jerky is the sesame seed oil, followed by the natural meat flavors, and followed by the saltiness.

Meat Consistency

These appear to be slices of whole meat, sliced to a medium thickness, and in small to medium sized pieces.

It's largely a moist jerky, with a fair amount of moisture detected by my fingers. Some pieces seem a little more dry. It's easy to tear this jerky apart with my fingers, and chewing is also easy.

The chewing texture has a meaty, fibrous quality much like chewing a steak. There does seem to be a bit of rubber-like consistency that repels chewing, but doesn't seem to present much distraction. I found a couple of pieces that seem to provide a degree of mushiness, but still largely steak-like.

In terms of clean eating, this jerky seems to drop sesame seeds everything I tear a piece apart, though I'm not seeing much of any meat fragments dropping, There's also perhaps a very fine film of oil depositing on my fingertips.

I was able to find one piece with a sizeable streak of fat, but otherwise no chunks of tendon or gristle, and no pieces leaving behind small unchewable wads of connective tissue in my mouth.




Snack Value

Thanasi Foods has a suggested retail price of $5.99 for this 3.15oz package. That works out to a price of $1.90 per ounce, putting this in the average price range, towards the upper end.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at the $1.90 per ounce price, it presents a good value. I'm getting a good deal of snackability from its sweet & salty sesame oil flavor, and its smoky summer sausage meat flavor. It also has a good chewing texture and good overall meat consistency.

As a Stubb's Texas Teriyaki jerky variety, at the $1.90 per ounce price, I think it's a weaker value, perhaps around fair. I don't really get any teriyaki flavor from this, so I think it might create some disappointment with teriyaki jerky lovers. But then again, I'm not really sure what Stubb's Texas Teriyaki sauce tastes like. Still, I would think it would have a more tangy BBQ-like flavor, and more teriyaki flavor. And at the moderately-high price of $1.90 per ounce, my expectations are high as well.

Rating

I'm giving this a good rating.

This Stubb's Texas Teriyaki variety brings a rarely found taste of sesame seed oil in beef jerky, enhanced by some sweet & salty flavors. It also provides a well-noticed natural meat flavor, though one that seems to resemble the flavor of beef summer sausage.

I was able to get a good deal of snackability from that flavor, along with its ease of eating, and good chewing texture, and I think overall it's better than the average jerky.

I didn't assign it a higher rating because the jerky still has a low-to-moderate flavor intensity, and because I just didn't get any sense of teriyaki flavor in this. It also seems to fall short of its expectations as a Stubb's branded product. I mean for me, the Stubb's brand of BBQ conjures up thoughts of something tangy, exploding with flavor, and yet this jerky is actually light and simple in taste.

But for what this product ended up being, mostly a sesame flavored jerky, it's still quite snackable and enjoyable.

My recommended beer variety for this, a medium hopped IPA.

Rating: Good

Buy this online:

5 comments:

  1. I just went to their site to order (based on your recommendation), and there's a $35 minimum order... not exactly conducive to the experimental shopper. Should be mentioned in the review.

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  2. Unfortunately there ain't many places selling it. Try a 76 gas station, otherwise that website is about all there is.

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  3. I found this product at a Mapco Express in Bolivar, TN - it was delicious.

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  4. I recently began purchasing this when I noticed 7-11 in Southern California began offering it early in 2010. I'm a big jerky fan, but also am the type to just purchase from any store of convenience which limits the variety.

    I really liked the Stubbs Teriyaki. It had a good flavor that wasn't overpowering and the texture was exactly like what it was called: brisket. I liked it so much, I began going to this particular 7-11 to pick up another pack.

    Unfortunately, the 7-11 that had normally carried it, no longer carries it anymore and no other local 7-11 or grocery store carries it.

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  5. I found Stubb's at my local 7-11. This is now my favorite brand of jerky. I'm looking forward to trying the different flavors.

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