Clint & Sons Snack Sticks

While known more for their beef jerky, Clint & Sons markets their own line snack sticks too. The company, based in White Deer, TX, goes back to 1944 when Clint Freeman opened it up.

Today it's run by his sons and grandchildren. The company recently upgraded from state inspection to federal inspection, allowing them to sell meat snacks across all 50 states.

These snack sticks come in three flavors, Original, Jalapeno, and Honey Ham. The Original and Jalapeno are a blend of beef and pork, while the Honey Ham is all pork.

Ingredients

Original: beef, water, seasoning (spices, salt, sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, sodium erythorbate, BHA, BHT, citric acid), liquid smoke, sodium nitrite.

Jalapeno: beef, water, seasoning (salt, dehydrated jalapeno peppers, spices, sodium phosphates, sugar, dehydrated garlic, sodium erythorbate, BHA, BHT, citric acid), liquid smoke, sodium nitrite.

Honey Ham: pork, water, honey, salt, sodium phosphate, sugar, brown sugar, encapsulated citric acid, sodium erythorbate, maple sugar, spices, sodium nitrite.

Taste

Original: A very mild tasting stick, with a light tangy chew, low in saltiness. I can pick up a bit of the liquid smoke, along with faint touches of garlic and onion, and there's a light meat flavor.

Jalapeno: Has a little more tangy chewing, and a noticeable jalapeno flavor with a mild-medium level of heat. Otherwise, it's much like the Original.

Honey Ham: Also very mild like the Original, but noticeably more sweet. The meat flavor is considerably different, having more of a ham flavor, and just touches of tanginess.

Overall, both the Original and Honey Ham are similar in that they're mild with a light natural meat flavor, and touches of seasoning, with the Honey Ham being a little more sweet. The Jalapeno has largely the same flavor as the Original, but having the added jalapeno pepper flavor.

Meat Consistency

All three stick flavors have a very soft consistency, more to the point of being mushy, perhaps similar to a vienna sausage, though maybe a little more firm than that. They feel solid and firm, but tend to chew more mushy.

The casing doesn't quite give out nice snap when biting off a chunk, backing up the mushy consistency.

Otherwise, it's very smooth. I encountered no stringy, chewy chunks, and no hard bits of material. It also handles clean, leaving no residue on my fingers.

Rating

I'm giving these an average rating.

These snack sticks from Clint & Sons generate a good deal of flavor, mostly through a tangy chew, a light meat flavor, and a light dash of garlic and onion seasonings. These sticks are perhaps more soft than other brands of meat sticks, but tend to chew more mushy. They don't quite have the crisp snap that other brands of sticks have.

Overall, while they're a better stick than major brand labels like Slim Jim and Jack Link's as far as consistency goes, they don't seem to do much to put a lot of distance from them in terms of flavor.

My favorite of their three varieties, the Jalapeno. I like the added pepper flavor and the low level of heat, against the natural meat flavors and light seasonings. The Honey Ham, while more mild and more sweet, just ended up being too mild for my preference, and I'm not sure I'm sold on a 100% ham stick.

Rating: Average

Buy this online:

• http://www.clintandsonsbeefjerky.com/