Remington Trail Steaks - Cherry Maple Flavored Smoked Turkey

Next in the series on Remington Trail Steaks is this Cherry Maple Flavored Smoked Turkey. See last week's review of their Blazin' Hot Smoked Beef.

Remington Trail Steaks is a brand of Trailsteaks, LLC based out of Chattanooga, TN. The company licenses the Remington brand from RA Brands, LLC, which is the licensing branch of Remington Arms Company, Inc., the gun manufacturer.

Remington Trail Steaks was first launched in May 2008 at the All Candy Expo in Chicago, IL, and is marketed through sporting good stores, parks and resorts, and other outdoor enthusiast retailers, as well some online outlets.

According to the company, this Cherry Maple Flavored Smoked Turkey is their number one selling product. It was provided to me for review by Jedidiah's Jerky, who's one of their retailers.

Ingredients

Turkey, sugar, cherry syrup, salt, maple flavor, onion, garlic, spice, sodium erythorbate, sodium nitrite.

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a light smoky flavor. There's slight bit of sweet, and then a light turkey flavor.

The chewing flavor starts with a light natural turkey meat flavor, followed by a light saltiness. I can taste a slight bit of the maple.

For being labeled as "Cherry Maple Flavored Smoked Turkey", this doesn't totally hold up. It's the cherry part that I'm missing. There's just no noticeable cherry flavor, nothing fruity or tangy, or anything suggest cherry.

As for the maple, there's a slight bit of it in here, but I think if I were to snack away on this instead of analyze it, I may not even notice and see it just as a sweetness.

Otherwise, the only advertised flavor is the smoked part. I can definitely pick it up from the surface flavors, and it continues on in the chewing, though in the chewing the saltiness tends to compete against it.

But ultimately it's the natural turkey meat flavors that dominate this jerky. It tastes comparable to what I typically find in roasted leg and thigh meat, but with that bit of smokiness to it.

The level of saltiness in this feels to be at a light to medium level.

Overall, what you're going to notice in this jerky is the natural turkey meat flavors with a bit of smokiness. There's a light sweetness in this, and it does have a slight maple flavor, but not anything that's readily noticeable. There's no cherry flavor that I can identify.

Meat Consistency

These appear to be sliced of whole meat, sliced into small bits and chunks.

This is a dry jerky with a very oily surface feel. These chunks don't offer much flexibility, cracking apart with just a little bit of bending. They're somewhat chewy, but overall not bad.

The chewing texture starts out feeling like a stiff piece of plastic, and presents a good deal of chewing resistance. But as it moistens up in my mouth, with a few chews, it breaks aparts pretty quickly. Once chewed down to a soft mass, it feels very crumbly and dry.

These pieces appear to be very lean, with no visible signs of fat, no tendon or gristle, or any unchewable wads of tissue.

As for clean eating, handling these chunks leave behind copious amount of oil on my fingers, requiring a licking and wiping before touching my keyboard.




Snack Value

Jedidiah's Jerky sells this Cherry Maple Flavored Smoked Turkey from their website at a price of in a 2.88oz package for a price of $13.98 for two packages. Shipping is included in that price. That works out to a price of $2.43 per ounce.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at the $2.43 per ounce price, it seems to present a weak value. I'm getting a fair amount of snackability due to an overall satisfactory flavor, good meat consistency, though a lackluster chewing texture. Compared to major brands of jerky found in grocery stores, it costs considerably more, but doesn't really offer a better snackability.

As a "Cherry Maple Flavored Smoked Turkey", at the same $2.43 price per ounce, it's also a weak value. I don't pick up any cherry flavor, and only slight bit of maple flavor. Otherwise, it has a decent smokiness, and a good deal of turkey meat flavor. It just doesn't chew like turkey meat.

Rating

I'm giving this an average rating.

This Cherry Maple Flavored Smoked Turkey from Remington Trail Steaks doesn't really deliver on its advertised flavor of cherry and maple. What I'm actually getting in this is the natural turkey meat flavors with a bit of smokiness to it. The maple is slightly noticeable when I analyze carefully what I'm tasting, but largely only renders as a light sweetness when snacking away. The cherry flavor is nowhere to be found.

Overall, it comes off tasting like standard smoked turkey with a bit of sweetness. Just by that alone, this still has a fair amount of snackability. It provides a nice smoky turkey meat flavor, with a bit of sweet and saltiness. But then again, when I see a jerky advertised as "Cherry Maple" I get a little excited about it, but am disappointed that this doesn't deliver on that claim.

And as a smoked turkey jerky, this doesn't really chew like real turkey meat. It's quite crumbly, and feels like I'm chewing rubbery meat granules.

For my recommended beer pairing, I'd suggest a standard IPA to help bring out the smoky flavors and subtle maple. Try the Stone IPA or the Sierra Nevada Torpedo.

Rating: Average

Buy this online:

• http://www.jedsjerky.com/