This peppered pork jerky is the newest offering from Oh Boy! Oberto. Pork jerky is something that's been around for awhile in other brands, but has only recently gained popularity.
Oberto is constantly introducing oddity varieties like this as a way to attract consumer attention. That is, they'll place a shelf full of this stuff, right next to their basic staples of beef jerky. People will take notice of the purple color, and slow down, or stop altogether, and that gets them noticing the regular beef jerky.
Ingredients
Pork, brown sugar, dextrose, sugar, corn syrup, salt, smoke flavor, flavorings, water, vinegar, sodium erythorbate, molasses, high fructose corn syrup, sodium nitrite, caramel color, citric acid.
Taste
The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a good deal of smoky flavor, followed by a bit of sweet, a light black pepper flavor, and a bit of saltiness. In the chewing, I taste the same as above, but with a bit more saltiness, and even more black pepper, but I do sense faint bit of meat flavor.
For being pork jerky, I can't say that I taste the pork. I did say above that I found a faint bit of meat flavor in the chewing, but not enough to appreciate the flavor of pork. For general snacking purposes, there really isn't any meat flavor in this. To me, this could be Oberto's peppered beef jerky, and I wouldn't know the difference.
But as for being a peppered jerky, there is indeed plenty of black pepper flavor, mostly in the chewing. Over several pieces, a black pepper aftertaste builds up quite well.
I'd identify the primary flavor of this jerky as the saltiness. For a moment I debated on the black pepper being more strong, but the saltiness is more consistent whereas the pepper varies in intensity from piece to piece.
The black pepper is the second strongest flavor.
The smokiness is the third strongest flavor.
The sweetness is quite noticeable too, but I think it's less intense than the smokiness.
Overall, this jerky is very similar to Oberto's peppered beef jerky, with a good deal of flavor intensity. You're going to taste the saltiness and black pepper mostly, with a noticeable amount of smokiness and sweet. But you really won't taste anything that resembles pork.
Meat Consistency
These appear to be slices of whole meat, sliced to a medium thickness, and in small to medium sized pieces.
This is a semi-moist jerky, feeling very moist on the surface, and one that's quite soft and tender. It's very easy to tear apart with my fingers, and easy to chew.
The chewing texture, once chewed down to a soft mass, has a fibrous feel to it, much like a well-done cooked steak might be, but yet it's quite crumbly. I wouldn't say that the chewing texture is like a well-done cooked steak, it just has the fibrous quality. When I first put a piece into my mouth, it tends to break down quite easily, and it doesn't seem to have any rubbery resistance.
I found small streaks of fat on only some pieces, but no tendon or gristle. And I didn't find any chewy sinews either.
The pieces do drop quite a bit of meat fragments and pieces of pepper as I tear them apart, and the moisture on the surface will leave a fine film of oil on my fingers.
Snack Value
I picked up this bag of Oh Boy! Oberto Pork Jerky at a Costco in Temecula, CA. This bag is actually quite large, at 9oz. On top of that, Costco tapes two bags together. As a result, they sold them at a price of $9.99 for 18oz total. That works out to a price of $0.56 per ounce.
For general jerky snacking purposes, at this $0.56 price per ounce, this jerky provided me with an excellent value. I do get a good deal of snackability out of this for its medium-to-strong flavor intensity, satisfactory taste, along with its soft and semi-moist chew. Albeit, Costco's bulk pricing is what made this such a great buy. If I paid $1.50 per ounce at a convenience store, it would definitely take the value down.
As a peppered jerky, at this $0.56 price per ounce, it's also an excellent value. I'm getting a good deal of black pepper flavor, at a very low price.
But as a pork jerky, at the same price, it's a weak value. I don't taste anything resembling pork. The only thing keeping me from giving it the lower "poor" value rating, is that it still a snackable jerky. But if you bought this out of curiosity, thinking you'd get jerky that tasted different, you're not going to find anything different about it.
Rating
I'm giving this an average rating.
This peppered pork jerky from Oh Boy! Oberto is quite snackable, I actually found myself digging into this bag over and over, which is what I would expect out of any jerky. It's good flavor intensity, satisfactory taste, and moist easy chewing, creates a snackable jerky. Moreover, it also lives up to its billing as a peppered jerky.
But aside from those positives, there really isn't anything about this that goes above and beyond average. The fact that it offered no natural meat flavors, means that it has to rely on its flavorings to win high marks. Yet, it's flavorings are quite average, being just a medium level of saltiness, black pepper, smokiness, and sweetness.
And while it does offer a moist and easy chew, it doesn't really feel like real meat. It tends to crumble instead of feeling like a piece of pork chop.
My recommended beer pairing for this, try a regular a pale ale.
Rating: Average
eBay Beef Jerky Store
Nice review. I recently had the Oberto BBQ Pork jerkey (comes out Mid May) and felt that the meat flavor was lacking as well, but I really dug the BBQ seasoning. Compared to Oberto products I've had in the past I thought it was much better than the same old same old beef jerkey they have with their other products.
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