Firecreek Jerky - Stix

Firecreek Jerky is a brand launched by Ryan Hansen based out of Jerseyville, IL. He got it off the ground in February 2016.

Hansen has been making "small batch" jerky from his family's meat business for the past three years. He makes jerky using USDA Choice Angus Beef. Since then, he's secured a deal with USDA inspected co-packer and is now relaunching the brand.

According to Firecreek Jerky, these snack sticks are marketed as, "natural" and "handcrafted", going on to add that they're gluten-free, with no added soy or MSG.


Original

Ingredients: Beef and pork, water, salt, sugar, encapsulated citric acid, celery juice powder, spices, garlic and onion powder, collagen casing

The first thing that hits my tongue is a beefy flavor much like a summer sausage, along with a light salt and touches of garlic and onion seasoning. In the chewing, that flavor evolves into something comparable to a polska kielbasa, but with a light vinegar-like tanginess.

Each bite comes with a nice snap in the casing, giving off a fresh, natural character. These sticks feel firm, and light chewy. The chewing texture is meaty, more like finely ground beef.

Kicker

Ingredients: Beef and pork, water, salt, sugar, encapsulated citric acid, jalapeno powder, celery juice powder, spices, garlic and onion powder, collagen casing

The first thing that I taste is a beefy, summer sausage flavor, much like with the Original, but the chewing adds a light jalapeno, more like the pickled variety. There's a similar polska kielbasa flavor that graduates from the initial impression. The jalapeno builds up a light bit of heat, registering as "mild medium" on our heat scale (level 2 out of 5).

These sticks also provide a nice snap with each bite, yielding a fresh, natural character. They have the same firm, and chewy nature, and also the same meaty texture, just like finely ground beef.

Verdict

These snack sticks from Firecreek Jerky seem quite impressive for their meaty, beefy, chewing. They're not at all like the oily, slimy sticks seen with the large, national brands, or even like the wrinkled, dried up sticks found languishing at convenience stores. Instead, Firecreek Jerky manages to create a snack stick that chews like real meat, and gives off a fresh, natural character through its firm snap, and its sausage-like taste.

As for the taste, these sticks taste "real" for lack of a more sophisticated way of describing them. They taste like real sausage. I used the comparison to polska kielbasa because that's exactly what the flavor tasted like, as opposed to overloading the taste buds with salt and preservatives.

Rating: Best (5/5)