Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Golden Island Jerky - Grilled Barbecue Pork

golden island pork jerky
Next in the series on Golden Island Jerky is this Grilled Barbecue Pork Jerky. See our reviews of their other flavors here.

Golden Island Beef Jerky is a brand of Formosa Meat Co., Inc. based out of Rancho Cucamonga, CA. I had originally reviewed Golden Island back in 2008, but just recently the company unveiled a new package design, reformulated recipes, and eliminated the use of preservatives.

This Grilled Barbecue Pork Jerky is described by the company as, "flame grilled", "sweet and slightly smoky", with a "hint of cinnamon and spice", and being comparable to the barbecued pork at your favorite chinese restaurant.


Ingredients

Pork, sugar, sorbitol, soy sauce, corn syrup, soybean oil with citric acid, salt, michiu wine, spices.

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a heavy sweetness, followed by a light cinnamon and brown sugar flavor.

The chewing starts with a little bit of saltiness, and a chinese-style barbecue pork flavor.

For being marketed as "Grilled Barbecue Pork", it seems to hold up well. It does have a flame grilled flavor, just like they had been hanging over a fire, and it tastes just like the slices of barbecue pork you get at a Chinese restaurant, except with a lot more sweetness.

Otherwise, the flavors that define this jerky is primarily that heavy sweetness with the light touch of cinnamon. The Chinese-style barbecue pork flavor is also dominant, but mostly in the chewing. Otherwise, that heavy sweetness carries all throughout.

This jerky is quite mild in terms of spices, and seems suitable for all levels of tolerance. The level of saltiness feels low to moderate.

It's hard to identify the individual ingredients, aside from the sweet, cinnamon, and salt, otherwise the others seem to collaborate to create that Chinese-style barbecue pork flavor.

Meat Consistency

These are slices of whole meat, sliced into small to medium sized slabs, and sliced to a medium thickness.

This is a dry jerky, with a dry surface feel, but is very flexible. Chewing is very easy.

The chewing texture starts out feeling tender, with almost no resistance. It chews down very easily and quickly, and by the time is down to a soft mass, it feels like tender pieces of pulled pork.

I don't see any fat on these slices, nor any gristle or tendon. I encountered no stringiness nor any unchewable tissues. It's all soft and meaty.

As for clean eating, it's mostly clean. My fingers do pick up a light sticky, oily film, but not quite enough to lick and wipe before touching the keyboard.

grilled barbeque pork jerky

grilled bbq pork jerky


Snack Value

Golden Island sells this Grilled Barbecue Pork Jerky at select Costco stores across the country. Visit their website to find a list of locations. Golden Island also plans to sell this Pork Jerky from their website in the coming months.

Otherwise, I don't have any cost information to determine Snack Value.

Rating

I'm giving this a good rating.

This Grilled Barbecue Pork Jerky from Golden Island seems to create a flavor very comparable to Chinese-style barbecue pork, but with a lot more sweet, and even touches of cinnamon. The sweetness is heavy enough that it seems to be dominant flavor of this jerky.

Overall, it's quite good in that Golden Island seems to recreate that Asian-style flavor in all of their jerky varieties. But this pork jerky is even better than their beef jerky I think, particularly because the meat consistency is so much better. No gristle, no fat, no stringiness, no unchewable wads.

I also like the flame grilled flavor that goes into this. The tips and edges of these slabs are blackened, which helps create a "fresh off the grill" taste.

Compared to other pork jerky brands, this one tastes a little too mild, but yet still seems to do well with that Chinese restaurant flavor.

Rating: Good

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