Jenny's Jerky - Honey Teriyaki

Last in the series on Jenny's Jerky is this Honey Teriyaki variety. See my previous reviews of their Original and Spicy varieties.

Jenny's Jerky is owned by CorLa Foods based out of Alameda, CA. It was started by Jenny Ma, who with her family would make frequent trips from San Francisco to Los Angeles down the coast, stopping at shops and stores and picking up bags of jerky to much on. But not finding anything that really knocked her out, Jenny decided to try her hand at making her own jerky. So after a few years of experimenting with various recipes, Jenny's Jerky was born.

This Honey Teriyaki variety is described by the company as their "MamaSweeta", packing a teriyaki flavor, followed by the gentle sweetness of honey, ending with a hint of garlic and onion.

Ingredients

Whole slices of beef, teriyaki sauce, brown sugar, honey, garlic, and spices.

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a light sweetness, along with a light saltiness, and a touch of honey.

The chewing flavor starts with an increased saltiness, while a light teriyaki flavor comes into view. A light natural meat flavor also becomes noticeable, and a faint bit of garlic shows up.

For being labeled as "Honey Teriyaki", this seems to hold up. I do taste a light bit of honey separate from the sweetness, and I do taste a teriyaki flavor. The teriyaki has that soy sauce flavor in it, but not much of the unique flavor overtones that define teriyaki from sweetened soy sauce. I do pick up a light bit of garlic towards the end of chewing.

Otherwise, the primary flavor of this jerky is a teriyaki sauce, with a light natural meat flavor and a touch of garlic, both noticeable towards the tail end of chewing. There's a fair amount of sweetness in this, but not excessively.

I don't pick up any spiciness at all.

The level of saltiness in this feel to be at a low to moderate amount.

Overall, this is a mild flavored jerky, simple in taste, relying mostly on a teriyaki sauce that's weighted more towards the soy sauce component.

Meat Consistency

These are slices of whole meat, sliced into strips of medium thickness, and in length ranging from three to six inches.

This is a dry jerky with a mostly dry surface feel, except for a bit of oiliness where there are streaks of fat. There's a lot of flexibility in these pieces. Biting off chunks seems to be easy, while chewing ranges from easy to moderate.

The chewing texture starts out feeling pliable and somewhat soft, with a light to moderate initial chewing resistance. It seems to break down without too much effort, and once down to a soft mass, it has a rather mushy, but still somewhat steak-like chewing.

Several of these pieces have small bits and streaks of fat in them, and they seem to add a fatty flavor too. I didn't find any gristle or tendon. But I did find a light degree of stringiness, though very little in unchewable tissues.

In terms of clean eating, my fingers don't pick up any residue, except for a light bit of greasiness where there were streaks of fat, some of which required a bit of licking and wiping before touching my keyboard.




Snack Value

Jenny's Jerky sells this Honey Teriyaki variety from its website at a price of $5.99 per 3oz package. If you bought five packages, the shipping to Southern California is $11.95, for a total of $41.90. That works out to a price of $2.79 per ounce.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at the $2.79 per ounce price, this seems to provide a fair value. I get a good deal of snackability for an overall satisfying flavor, decent meat consistency and and average chewing texture. That price is considerably higher than what you'd pay for major brands of jerky at a grocery store, but seems to provide comparable snackability.

As a Honey Teriyaki beef jerky, at the same $2.79 per ounce price, it's a fair value. I do pick up a teriyaki flavor as well as a light honey flavor, but I'm not getting enough richness from the teriyaki, in particularly the flavor overtones that usually come from the mirin wine and ginger, and the honey flavor is also light.

Rating

I'm giving this an average rating.

This Honey Teriyaki variety from Jenny's Jerky provides both the flavors of honey and teriyaki as advertised, but doesn't generate enough intensity to awaken my senses. I still come away thinking as if this has comparable honey and teriyaki flavor that I've found in major brands of similarly flavored jerky.

Overall, it's very mild flavored, offering little excitement for my taste buds. Albeit, I'm used to rich, bold, spicy flavors, I can understand the need for Jenny's Jerky to offer something far more toned down for folks with sensitive palates.

If this jerky has a strong point it's that it does generate a decent amount of snackability to keep you reaching for more.

My recommended beer pairing for this, try a pale ale, such as the Anchor Steam or the Drifter Pale Ale.

Rating: Average

Buy this online:

• http://www.jennysjerky.com/