Next up in the series on Ed's Roadhouse Jerky is this Spicy Fajita Fiesta Beef Jerky. See my previous reviews of Ed's Roadhouse Jerky.

Ed Herman has been making his Roadhouse brand of jerky for about 20 years now, with a specific focus on blending sweet with hot. All of his jerky is made to order, meaning that he doesn't keep packages of jerky sitting around waiting to ship. You order it, he makes it, he ships it out. For that matter Ed advises you to refrigerate your jerky as soon as you receive it.

This particular Spicy Fajita Fiesta beef jerky is Ed's newest flavor, and is described to have a "Great Southwest flavor", and is made with fresh green peppers, onion, and jalapenos.

Ingredients

Angus beef, fresh green peppers, onion & jalapeno blend, water, garlic salt, sugar, soy bean, wheat, salt, molasses, natural flavoring spices.

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a strong savory and spicy flavor, though not necessarily hot. There's also decent saltiness and light garlic.

The chewing flavor starts with some natural meat flavors, and a slightly more defined spiciness. I'm also picking up a little bit of heat.

For being advertised as "Spicy Fajita Fiesta", I think this jerky definitely fits the bill. It's clearly spicy in terms of seasoning, but not hot. And it also seems to resemble the flavors you'd expect to find in a sizzling plate of fajitas.

I think the seasoning is stronger in garlic and salt, but I can sense there's more to this than that. The onion and jalapeno mentioned in the ingredients list must certainly add to that flavor. And overall, that's the dominant flavor of this jerky, the flavor you'll notice the most.

The saltiness in this jerky feels high, and after eating several pieces I want to say it is indeed a high level of saltiness. But I think the spiciness and the light amount of heat makes the saltiness seem higher than it is.

There's also the "sweet & hot" element that Ed's Roadhouse puts into their jerky creations, but it's a lighter sweet than in his other varieties, and the hot is also light. On my hot scale, I'd put it at a mild-medium. Folks with less tolerance for hot foods might see it as "medium". As I eat several of these jerky pieces, I can feel some of that capsaicin warming up my blood.

The natural meat flavors are easily noticeable, but take a back seat to the fajita seasoning. It's the same natural meat flavor that I've found in all of Ed's Roadhouse varieties. It has that marbilized steak flavor due to the marbilization easily seen on these pieces.

Overall, what you're going to taste in this jerky is a seasoning blend that resembles very much like steak fajitas, but with a higher amount of saltiness, and then backed up by that marbilized steak flavor that Ed's Roadhouse is known for.

Meat Consistency

These are slices of whole meat, sliced thin, and in bite-sized pieces.

This is a dry jerky with a dry surface feel, but still a soft flexible jerky. Chewing seems easy overall.

The chewing texture starts out dry, yet pliable with some initial chewing resistance. But it easily breaks apart with just a bit of sucking and light chewing. Once chewed down to a soft mass, it feels like a piece of real meat, comparable to a steak cooked medium-well.

The meat in this beef jerky has a fair amount of marbilization, but no large chunks of fat. I don't see any gristle or tendon, and felt no stringy sinews nor felt any unchewable wads of tissue.

It's also pretty clean eating, leaving no residue on my fingers, and it's bite-sized pieces means not having to tear this apart and thus not getting any fragments.






Snack Value

Ed's Roadhouse Jerky sells this Spicy Fajita Fiesta from its website in a variety of package sizes. Considering it needs to be kept refrigerated, I'd recommend getting it in smaller packages. So if you bought four 4oz packages, with shipping out to Southern California, the total would cost $34.75 ($29.00 + $5.75). That works out to a price of $2.17 per ounce.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at the $2.17 price per ounce, it's an excellent value. I'm getting a lot of snackability from its overall excellent flavor, good meat consistency and good chewing texture. Compared to the national brands you find in the grocery store, this jerky is still more expensive, but I think the flavor and meat consistency far exceeds the national brands.

As a "Spicy Fajita Fiesta" variety of beef jerky, also at the $2.17 price per ounce, it's also an excellent value. This seems to tastes just like sizzling plate of steak fajitas, though a little more salty.

Rating

I'm giving this a best rating.

This Spicy Fajita Fiesta beef jerky from Ed's Roadhouse Jerky is brimming with flavor that pops in my mouth the moment I put in a piece. It lives up well to it's name, providing a flavor that resembles a sizzling plate of steak fajitas that you might find in a mexican restaurant, as well having a decent amount of spiciness through its seasonings and a light touch of heat.

I've had only one other beef jerky brand that advertised a fajita seasoning flavor, and that one fell quite flat on its face. But this one from Ed's Roadhouse Jerky does a pretty good job.

Like with all the other beef jerky varieties from Ed's Roadhouse, this has an easily noticed natural meat flavor, more comparable to a marbilized steak. Combine those flavors with its bite-sized pieces, and being easy to chew, this jerky lover found it very difficult to stop eating.

In fact throughout eating this jerky I wanted to get some fresh made guacamole for dipping. So I went to the grocery store and got some, as evidenced by the photograph above. It's not bad, but the chewiness of the jerky doesn't work well with guacamole.

As for my beer recommendation, stick with the Mexican theme and go with a Negra Modelo, I think the maltier flavor will work well with this spicy beef jerky.

Rating: Best

Buy this online:

• http://www.edsroadhousejerky.com/