Thursday, April 22, 2010

Blerky Beef Jerky - Blueberry

blerky beef jerkyBlerky Beef Jerky is a brand of Longview Meat & Merchandise Ltd., based out of Longview, Alberta, Canada. They make the Longview Beef Jerky brand.

It's a beef jerky marinated in blueberry juice.

Longview is pushing the health and vitality aspects of blueberry, citing its high antioxidant qualities. But with the cartoonish character on the package suggests it's something targeted towards moms who want to offer a healthy snack for their kids.

Blerky Beef Jerky, along with its sister brand, Longview Beef Jerky, are made in Canada, and are only available in Canadian stores.

Ingredients

Beef, sugar, blueberry juice concentrate, blueberry puree concentrate, honey powder, prague powder (salt, sodium nitrite), ascorbic acid, sodium erythorbate.

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a heavy sweet flavor, along with a strong fruity flavor.

The chewing flavor delivers a bit more fruitiness, but the same heavy sweetness.

As for being marketed as a blueberry flavored beef jerky, it does seem to have some blueberry flavor to it. Fresh, raw, blueberries don't really have a lot of flavor to begin with, but the use of concentrate seems to have lent enough of that natural blueberry flavor that I think this jerky holds up to its namesake.

It's very sweet though. I mean, very sweet. In fact, that's largely the flavor that represents this jerky. The blueberry just adds that fruitiness to it.

There's a little tanginess that bursts out with each chew.

The level of saltiness is light. It's hardly detectable. In fact, this is the most lowest-sodium content jerky I've had to date. 90mg of sodium per 35g package equates to the USA standard measurement of 72mg per 1oz serving.

Also hardly detectable are the natural meat flavors. I don't taste them at all.

Overall, what you're going to taste in this is lots of sweetness, with a fruity, blueberry flavor, and some tanginess in the chew.

Meat Consistency

These appear to be slices of whole meat, sliced to a thick thickness, and in small pieces.

This is a semi-moist jerky, with a sticky surface feel. The pieces have a lot of flexibility, and are very soft. Tearing pieces apart are easy to do, and chewing is also easy.

The chewing texture starts out feeling soft and pliable. It doesn't take much chewing to get this to chew down to a soft mass. Once chewed down to a soft mass, it has a steak-like chewing texture, just a little more soft, but still very meaty.

I don't see any bits of fat on these pieces, and found no tendon or gristle. I do, however, find a good deal of stringiness, and several bites resulted in some unchewable wads of tissue.

As for clean eating, I only get a light sticky film on my fingertips, sometimes it's enough to require a licking, and other times it's not.

blueberry beef jerky

blueberry flavored beef jerky
Snack Value

Blerky Beef Jerky retails for $2.89 Canadian for one 35g package in most retail outlets. That works out to $2.31 Canadian per ounce. As of this writing the US exchange rate is pretty much dollar for dollar with Canada.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at the $2.31 per ounce price, this seems to offer a poor value. I'm not getting any snackability out of this. That price is actually higher than what you'd pay for major brands of jerky here in the United States, and yet this jerky offers less snackability.

On the other hand, as a blueberry flavored jerky, at the same $2.31 per ounce price, it's a good value. If you want the flavor of blueberry in a beef jerky, you'll get plenty of that here.

Rating

canadian nutrition facts labelI'm giving this a fair rating.

Blerky Beef Jerky offers a thick sweet fruity flavor, with a little bit of tanginess in the chewing, that does seem to resemble blueberries, though I think you'll notice the heavy sweet much more than the blueberry flavor itself. Aside from that however, you won't taste anything else, no natural meat flavors, and not even any saltiness.

The ultra-low sodium content in this jerky actually makes it taste more bland. This jerky comes off tasting like a sugary blueberry kids' cereal in a meaty chewing texture.

Considering Longview is targeting this product towards kids, perhaps it's fine. Maybe kids don't appreciate the flavor of wood-smoked beef, and would rather just stuff their faces with sugary goodness. If that being the case, maybe Blerky is a way to create a chewing habit with kids that will develop into a beef jerky addiction later in their lives.

As for my recommended beer pairing, go with a light bodied, light flavored, cream ale to help cut through that thick sweetness. Try the St Peters Cream Ale.

Rating: Fair

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