Golden Island Jerky - Teriyaki Pork

Finishing off the series on Golden Island Jerky is this Teriyaki Pork Jerky. See our reviews of flavors from Golden Island Jerky.

Golden Island Beef Jerky is a brand of Formosa Meat Co., Inc. based out of Rancho Cucamonga, CA. I had originally reviewed Golden Island back in 2008, but just recently the company unveiled a new package design, reformulated recipes, and eliminated the use of preservatives.

This Teriyaki Pork jerky is described as being, "an all-time favorite... Crafted with just the right blend of soy sauce, spices, mirin and real sugar."

Ingredients

Pork, sugar, corn syrup, mirin wine, soy sauce, soybean oil with citric acid, spices, michiu wine, salt.

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a heavy sweetness, followed by the tanginess of the mirin wine, which soon brings in a light saltiness.

The chewing flavor starts with a grilled pork flavor, and ushers in a faint teriyaki falvor.

For being marketed as "Teriyaki Pork", it seems to hold up. The teriyaki flavor is very light, mostly marked by the heavy sweetness and the tangy mirin wine. There's barely any soy sauce flavor that I can detect, and none of the ginger or garlic that you typically find teriyaki marinades.

Otherwise, the flavors that define this jerky is largely the heavy sweetness, backed up by the tangy mirin wine ingredient, and then the grilled pork flavor.

All of Golden Island's pork jerky is flame grilled instead of just smoked or dehydrated. This seems to give it a "fresh off the grill" flavor, and with the lightly blacked edges of these pieces, you get a light char taste too.

It seems the soybean oil ingredients adds a unique Chinese taste character, creating more of that Chinese barbecue pork flavor you get at Chinese restaurants.

Meat Consistency

These are slices of whole meat, sliced into slabs of medium thickness, and in small to medium sizes.

This is a dry jerky, with a dry surface feel, but having a very flexible, easily breakable consistency, with very easy chewing.

The chewing texture starts out feeling very delicate, breaking apart with no effort. They chew down immediately, and take on a meaty feel right away. The heavy coating of sugar seems to add a little gumminess to this, but overall it still feels meaty.

I don't see any bits of fat on these pieces, and no gristle or tendon. I don't encounter any stringiness or unchewable tissues. It's pure meat.

In terms of clean eating, my fingertips pick up tiny flecks of sugar which I find myself wiping on my pants before touching the keyboard.

Snack Value

Golden Island sells this Teriyaki Pork Jerky at select Costco Stores across the country (Visit their website to find a list). They will also be selling it online from their website in the next few months.

I don't have any pricing to work with right now, so I can't determine Snack Value.

Rating

I'm giving this a good rating.

This Teriyaki Pork jerky from Golden Island delivers a unique teriyaki flavor that's marked with a heavy sweetness and a strong mirin wine tang, but very weak on the soy sauce and ginger/garlic components. The result is more mild teriyaki, but very heavy on the sweet.

The flame grilling of these pork slabs actually creates a "fresh off the grill" flavor, and the light charring on the edges adds to the experience, imparting a blackened, smoky taste. The result is a natural meat flavor that mimics the barbecue pork you find in Chinese restaurants.

I found the pieces of meat to be very easy to chew, practically falling apart in my mouth on its own, while the consistency is excellent, being pure meat.

But with the heavy sweetness and mild flavor, this Teriayaki Pork jerky is perhaps a great choice for kids, offering them something different from beef jerky, and it's very low in sodium.

Rating: Good

Buy this online:

• http://www.goldenislandjerky.com/