Jimmy's Sticky Jerky is a new jerky brand launched in September 2012. It's the creation of Jim Nielsen, based out of Hermosa Beach, CA. Nielsen claims his love for jerky goes back to when he was just a fetus, and his mother had been snacking on the stuff while she was pregnant. Just 10 ten years ago, he started making his own jerky, and was encouraged to go into business by his closest friends.
This new Cilantro & Lime beef jerky is uses fresh squeezed limes, lime zest, and fresh chopped cilantro, which the company claims gives this jerky a very clean, citrus, southwestern flavor, topped off with a hint of cayenne pepper.
Beef (top round), reduced sodium soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, vinegar, worcestershire, cilantro, lime, cayenne pepper, seasonings, smoke flavor.
Taste
The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a faint bit of lime. After some sucking, I can pick up a touch of cilantro and a light saltiness. I can also feel a touch of heat.
The chewing brings in the combination of soy sauce and worcestershire, as well as a touch of sweet and the ginger. There's also a light natural meat flavor noticeable.
For being marketed as "Cilantro Lime", it's really more of the lime I taste and less of the cilantro. The cilantro is only lightly noticeable to those with a more trained tongue at picking out individual ingredients.
Otherwise, the flavors that define this jerky starts mainly with the combination of soy sauce and worcestershire as the base. The ginger is well defined, creating much of this jerky's spicy, pungent character. But the lime also creates a noticeable fruity, tangy quality that's hard to miss. Lastly, the cayenne pepper creates a moderate level of heat, rating a "medium" on my personal heat scale (level 3 out 5).
Overall, the addition of cilantro, lime, and cayenne combines really well with Jimmy's Sticky Jerky, adding a nice tangy, fruity flavor to an already savory and spicy chew.
Meat Consistency
These are slices of whole meat, sliced into chunks and strips, some of which are bite-sized, and others enough for two bites. These are all sliced thick.
This is a semi-moist jerky with a semi-moist, lightly sticky surface feel. These pieces are quite tender and flexible. Chewing is largely easy.
The chewing texture starts out feeling quite tender, offering little resistance. They break apart with the first chew and take on a soft, meaty feel. It takes little time to chew down to a soft mass, and by that time it feels meaty, some of which is steak-like, but others more mushy.
I do see some small pieces of fat on a few pieces, but no visible signs of tendon or gristle. I felt some significant stringiness in most bites I took, resulting in a lot of unchewable tissues.
As for clean eating, my fingertips pick up a little bit of sticky, oily film, along with some bits of chile pepper seasoning, some of which requires a licking and wiping before touching the keyboard, others do not.
Jimmy's Sticky Jerky sells this Cilantro Lime variety from its website at a price of $17.97 for 3-pack of 2.5oz packages. If you bought 3 of those of 3-packs, shipping comes out to just $5.00. That works out to a price of $2.98 per ounce.
For general jerky snacking purposes, at the $2.98 per ounce price, it's a decent value. I'm getting a great overall flavor, a good meat consistency, and good chewing texture. Compared to other gourmet brands, it's considerably more costly, but still a little better overall than most.
As a cilantro lime beef jerky, it's a fair value. I'm getting more of the lime and less of the cilantro. But because the lime is still strong enough, it feels like I'm getting what I paid for, particularly paying a higher price than most brands.
Rating
I'm giving this a best rating.
This Cilantro Lime beef jerky from Jimmy's Sticky Jerky is packed with a ton of flavor stemming from a combination of soy sauce and worcestershire, along with a tasty blend of ginger, lime, garlic, and cilantro. But it's also spiked with a little bit of cayenne pepper for a medium level of heat.
In many respects it's like the company's Sticky Sweet variety, with the same base marinade and ginger seasoning, but with a more tangy, fruity flavor along with a medium level of heat. It's actually a similar level of heat as their "Sticky Heat" variety.
The meat consistency is still much like the other varieties from Jimmy's, with its thick chunks and strips of beef, feeling soft, moist and tender, and sometimes mushy. But it also has the issue with stringiness and the wads of unchewable tissues. However, I couldn't help liking the flavor so much that I opted to look past it.
Rating:
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I'm Steve Johnson, and I've been in the Internet marketing and publishing business since 1997. I've been a life-long fan of beef jerky and decided to merge my profession with my snack food of choice, and gave birth to Best Beef Jerky.
This is the review that got me started on Jimmy's Sticky Jerky a few months ago. I haven't had a jerky yet that tops the Cilantro Lime. I tried a few of the others, but it's something about the tenderness of the beef Jimmy's uses combined with the intense flavor of the cayenne, cilantro and lime. After six bags of this jerky, I haven't come across a single bite that has had the unchewably tough pieces that most jerkies sometimes get. The jerky ins't overly dehydrated. Honestly, the "sticky" approach makes it more like eating a perfectly-cooked steak than a jerky. Not one ingredient is overpowering, but you still get to experience them all. The company itself maintains the small business mentality while still delivering their product in a timely manner. Buy this stuff, and you won't be disappointed.
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