Saturday, July 5, 2008

Wal-Mart Great Value Beef Jerky - Teriyaki

Wal-Mart Great Value Beef Jerky - TeriyakiGreat Value is one of those brands you might know if you shop at Wal-Mart enough. The store's own brand represents a wide variety of consumer products and is probably one of the most successful brands around in terms of household penetration, but it's one of those brands that you never think of when you're thinking about a particular product.

It was only within the last several years that Wal-Mart understood beef jerky to be a big seller with women if they only rebranded it. Previously it was relegated to their sporting goods section. Then came the low-carb-high-potein diet craze, and Wal-Mart produced a new bag design that emphasized beef jerky's benefits, and moved it to the snack food aisle. It's been a big seller for them ever since.

Wal-Mart doesn't produce their own beef jerky of course. It's private labeled through Jack Link's, based on the USDA Est. Number on the package. And sure enough, this jerky looks, tastes, and feels just like Jack Link's.

Ingredients

Beef, water, sugar, salt, corn syrup solids, dried soy sauce, maltodextrin, monosodium glutamate, flavoring, hydrolized corn protein, sodium erythorbate, paprika, sodium nitrite.

Taste

The first thing I notice is a slight sweetness, then the teriyaki flavoring, and then the natural beef flavors.

The teriyaki taste is not very strong in this variety. It's mostly there as a background taste. If anything, it manifests itself as a sweetness.

The natural meat flavors comes through well in some pieces, and are subtle in others. I found a couple of pieces with some good fat marbilization that provided some good beef taste.

Otherwise, what lingers on in these pieces is the saltiness, and as far as saltiness goes, it's not overpowering.

Overall, this jerky has an OK taste, and it doesn't offer a whole lot of it. It's rather bland.

Meat Consistency

These appear to be real cuts of meat, sliced in average thickness, and in small, medium, and large pieces.

This is a "semi-moist" jerky that's very soft and tender. Tearing apart a piece is easy to do, and it's very easy to eat. Some of these pieces had that rubbery-like consistency, that gives you the sense that the meat went through some kind of change in molecular structure.

I found several pieces with some chunks of fat, but they were small chunks. I did find some tendon in very sparing amounts, otherwise no gristle.

The meat consistency is such that it provides a good eating experience, with a possible exception that a few pieces had a rubbery consistency, which might gross some people out, but is actually something familiar with Jack Link's.

Wal-Mart Great Value Beef Jerky - Teriyaki

Wal-Mart Great Value Beef Jerky - Teriyaki
Product Value

This jerky retails at a price of $2.98 for a 4oz bag, which works out to $0.75 per oz, putting this into the cheap range.

For that low of a price, I'd say this offers good value. Other varieties of Wal-Mart Great Value jerky that I reviewed got a "great value", because they offered more taste, at the same price. This teriyaki variety however just doesn't offer much taste. If you love teriyaki jerky, you'll be disappointed in this.

As a general beef jerky, it's OK. The taste is decent, it doesn't gross me out. It just doesn't satisfy me much.

Rating

Wal-Mart Great Value Beef Jerky - TeriyakiI'm giving this a "fair" rating.

If a jerky is sold as being a teriyaki variety, it ought to provide plenty of teriyaki flavor, and this just doesn't offer much. It's more like a plain variety, with a touch of teriyaki.

As for general jerky snacking, it might please with its ease of tearing and chewing. But for me, I need a jerky that offers more taste, even while I'm busy working, driving, or watching a movie.

Otherwise, it's best selling point is the low price. That might be good enough to get people to buy this over and over, considering it's still a "decent" eat.

Rating: Fair

Buy this at:
  • any Wal-Mart store

7 comments:

  1. You are right about this selling with women. Last time I picked up a bag, a lady was looking over the aisle with me and we discussed the various brands for a minute or two. She was very much a girly girl too.

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  2. I LOVE this jerky! It is my absolute favorite. I have tried many other brands, but none compare to this. It is tender and flavorful.

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  3. I could barf better stuff than Jack Links Jerky

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  4. I was extremely disappointed when Walmart quit selling World Kitchens jerky and replaced it with Great Value jerky. I tried a package of the GV jerky and found it to be far, far inferior to the World Kitchens jerky. Walmart lost a jerky customer with that decision.

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  5. I love Great Value Original Beef Jerky. I can't eat a single piece without at least going through 3 to 4 ounces. I usually get the larger 6.2 ounce bag. Most of the time I get a good bag with mostly tender and flavorful pieces. Every now and then there will be a very chewy pieces that I just end up giving to my dog. He NEVER complains... even if I've already chewed on it for a minute. LOL

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  6. my favorite is the Jack Links A-1 steak sauce flavored. it is sooooooo mouth watering and delicious. i've only found it in Walgreens which makes it more expensive than the other stores that carry Jack Links products. :(

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  7. I hate that they stopped selling the 1 pound bag and switched to the 12 oz. Still cheap, but you're losing 25%!

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