Monday, June 11, 2012

Trailhead Beef Jerky - XXX Naga Jolokia

trailhead jerkyNext in the series on Trailhead Beef Jerky is this XXX Naga Jolokia variety. See my previous review of their Hot Smoked Chipotle.

Trailhead Beef Jerky is a new brand of jerky, launched in August 2011, a brand of Trailhead Fine Foods, based out of Cradley Heath, England.

Kevin Bigland, who started the company, first learned about beef jerky during the 1980's while travelling through the United States. Once he returned back to England, he couldn't find it anywhere, and would discover that the only way he could get more was to go back to the USA. He started researching how to make jerky, and soon perfected his recipe. While you won't find Trailhead Beef Jerky in USA stores, you can still purchase it online from their website.

Ingredients

Beef, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, brown sugar, Naga Jolokia, Naga pickle, cayenne pepper, celery salt, water, spices, worcester sauce, soy sauce.

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a lot of chile pepper flavor and a light saltiness. The heat is quickly intense.

The chewing flavor starts with an increased saltiness and a light natural meat flavor. The burn builds fast and pierces my tongue.

For being marketed as "XXX Naga Jolokia", this certainly fits the billing. It's extremely hot! I can also pick up the unique flavors of the Naga Jolokia pepper, along with the cayenne pepper.

Because of the intense heat, it's a little more difficult to pick up the other flavors in this jerky, but I can taste a moderate saltiness and just barely the natural meat flavors. Considering the ingredients list is not too different than the company's Hot Smoked Chipotle variety I reviewed last week, I'm assuming there's a garlic and onion flavor in there too, it's just that my tongue is undergoing such an onslaught of heat, that's it difficult to tell.

Otherwise, the flavor that seems to define this jerky overall are the chile pepper flavors, which seem to be a combination of the Naga Jolokia pepper and the cayenne pepper. There's a noticeable saltiness, and barely the natural meat flavors.

To sum up, you're going to get a massive attack of heat in this, and a good dose of the natural chile pepper flavors.

Meat Consistency

These are slices of whole meat, sliced into bite-sized chunks of thick thickness.

This is a dry jerky with a dry surface feel. They have a slight bit of flexibility, but otherwise feels stiff and hard. Chewing is actually somewhat easy despite the stiffness.

The chewing texture starts out feeling stiff and hard, but chews down without too much effort. It takes on the feeling of real meat as it hydrates in my mouth, and by the time it chews down to a soft mass, it feels like a real steak, one cooked well-done.

The pieces appear to be very lean, with no bits of fat visible. I don't see any gristle or tendon, and didn't seem to encounter any stringiness.

In terms of clean eating, my fingers pick up a light dusting of the Naga Jolokia pepper seasoning. You definitely must wash your hands before touching any part of your body.

naga jolokia beef jerky

naga jolokia beef jerky
Snack Value

Trailhead Fine Foods sells this Hot Smoked Chipotle beef jerky from its website at a price of £2.99 per 50grams ($4.60 per 1.764 ounces). If you bought 3 bags of this stuff, shipping would come to about £3.90 ($6.00). That works out to a price of $2.83 per ounce.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at the $2.83 per ounce price, it seems to provide a good value. I'm getting a good overall flavor, with an excellent meat consistency and great chewing texture. That price is considerably more expensive than major brands of jerky found in stores, but it seems to provide a better flavor and chewing experience.

As a "XXX Naga Jolokia" beef jerky, at the same $2.83 per ounce price, it's a good value. It generates plenty of tongue-damaging heat you'd expect from Naga Jolokia peppers along with a good deal of its unique flavors. And in all consideration, consider that variety of pepper is not cheap, $2.83 per ounce is a good price for this kind of beef jerky.

Rating

trailhead jerky nutritionI'm giving this a best rating.

This XXX Naga Jolokia variety from Trailhead Beef Jerky dishes out a good deal of tongue-burning pain along with plenty of its unique flavors. Because the level of heat is so intense, you might not pick up all the flavors that this jerky contains, but you'll still get the moderate saltiness and the light natural meat flavor. But considering the kind of people who buy jerky labeled, "XXX Naga Jolokia" are those who really appreciate unique characteristics of the world's hottest pepper, it perhaps doesn't matter.

Combine that with what I found as an excellent meat consistency and chewing texture, along with its relatively easy eating and bite-sized snacking, it's makes for an excellent jerky.

Congratulations to Trailhead Beef Jerky for becoming the first non-USA brand of jerky that scored the full five-star rating from me.

Rating: Best

Buy this online:

0 comments:

Post a Comment