Bad Buds Jerky - Hot and Spicy

Bad Buds Jerky is a brand run by Buddy Stone out of Hogansville, GA. Bad Buds has been in business since 2005. In addition to jerky, the brand also markets its own line of hot sauces.

Currently, Bad Buds Jerky offers four flavors, this Hot and Spicy, a Mild, a Hotternhail and a Hotternhail Ghost. I have the first three to review.

Ingredients

Beef, soy, spices.

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a light saltiness, progressing to more of seasoning blend. I can feel light bit of heat welling up, while a light soy sauce flavor is detected.

The chewing brings in a good deal of natural meat flavors, while the soy sauce becomes more defined. Meanwhile, the heat picks up just a little bit more.

For being marketed as "Hot and Spicy", it seems to hold up well. The "hot and spicy" is largely a heat, ranking on my personal heat scale as a "medium" (level 3 out of 5), giving off a noticeable burn yet still mild enough for hot food lovers to keep passing pieces of meat between their lips.

I don't, however, get a lot of natural chile pepper flavor, only just a touch here and there, and tasting more like cayenne.

Otherwise, the flavors that seem to define this jerky is largely the soy sauce along with the blend of seasonings. The seasonings feels much like garlic salt, but I can definitely pick up something else, perhaps thyme or oregano. The natural meat flavors are also well noticeable. I think there's even touches of sweet in this.

The level of saltiness in this feels to be at a medium level, though the heat makes it feel more salty.

Meat Consistency

These are slices of whole meat, sliced into strips of three to six inches, and sliced thick.

This is a dry jerky with a slightly moist surface feel. These strips are very flexible, maybe just a touch of rubbery feel. Biting off pieces can take a little bit of work while chewing ranges from easy to moderately tough.

The chewing texture starts out feeling chewy, almost rubbery, requiring some effort to get through, but starts to break apart and soon softens up into a meaty feel. By the time its chewed down to a soft mass, it feel very steak like, perhaps cooked medium-well.

I don't see any bits or streaks of fat on these strips, but I do taste some fatty flavor. There's a fair amount of stringiness in the chewing, and I can feel wads of tough, unchewable mass.

As far as handling goes, my fingertips pick up fine films of oil and sticky, but not enough to worry about when typing on a keyboard, and they also pick up scant bits of pepper and spice.

Snack Value

I don't have pricing info, and the company's Facebook page doesn't list pricing either.

Rating

I'm giving this a good rating.

This Hot and Spicy beef jerky from Bad Buds Jerky tastes much like the company's Mild variety, but with a fair amount of heat. I'm tasting what I believe is cayenne pepper in a tiny amounts here and there, which perhaps generates the heat.

Otherwise, it's a good blend of soy sauce and seasonings, with a noticeable, somewhat aged, natural meat flavor. For the most part, the seasonings are largely garlic salt, but I can notice other flavors in there, but without seeing the ingredients list, it's difficult to determine what they are.

The chewing texture is great, feeling just like eating chunks of real steak, though some were a little on the tough side. I also noticed considerable stringiness, some of which matted down into wads of unchewable mass.

Rating: Good (4/5)