Jimmy's Sticky Jerky - Sweet Turkey

Jimmy's Sticky Jerky recently launched a new line of Turkey Jerky, with two flavors available, Sticky Sweet and Sticky Heat. The company sent me their Sticky Sweet for review.

It's also worth noting that they increased their package sizes from 2.2oz to 2.5oz, but kept the prices the same.

Jimmy's Sticky Jerky launched in September 2012, the creation of Jim Nielsen, based out of Hermosa Beach, CA. Nielsen claims his love for jerky goes back to when he was just a fetus, and his mother had been snacking on the stuff while she was pregnant. Just 10 years ago, he started making his own jerky, and until recently, was encouraged to go into business.

Ingredients

Turkey breast, reduced sodium soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, vinegar, worcestershire sauce, seasonings, smoke flavor.

Taste

The first thing I notice from the surface of these pieces is a moderate sweetness. A light bit of ginger is noticeable, with a light saltiness soon following.

The chewing brings in the natural turkey meat flavors. I can pick up some black pepper, a touch of garlic, along with a saucy flavor.

For being marketed as "Sweet", it certainly fits the bill. The sweetness is well noticeable, though not thick and heavy. It's not particularly sticky as the brand name suggests, at least not where its gets gooey all over your fingers. But there is a stickiness to it, yet still dry enough to the touch where you don't have to wipe your fingers.

Otherwise, the flavor that seems to define this jerky overall is the combination of sweet and ginger. The saucy flavor I described above is certainly the soy sauce and worcestershire, which add the next most strongest component. The black pepper rounds out the third. A little bit of the smoke flavoring is noticeable.

The natural turkey meat flavor is light noticeable immediately upon chewing, but it seems that after eating enough pieces, the black pepper and ginger seems to create a significant aftertaste where the turkey meat flavor becomes harder to identify. But there's enough there for experienced jerky snackers to know that this is turkey and not beef.

The volume black pepper and ginger eventually creates a little bit of heat. On my personal heat scale, I'd rank this as "mild medium" (level 2 out of 5).

The level of saltiness in this feels low to moderate.

Meat Consistency

These are slices of whole turkey meat, sliced into chunks and strips of small to medium sizes, and sliced thick.

This is a dry jerky with a lightly sticky surface feel. These pieces have a lot of flexibility, but are still relatively easy to chew.

The chewing texture starts out feeling soft and tender, with a light bit of initial chewing resistance. It chews down to a soft mass quite easily, and by that time has something of gummy, rubbery, mushy character, not at all like real turkey meat.

I don't see any fat on these pieces, however when tearing apart one piece, I found a rather long, tough stringy tissue, indicative of tendon. Otherwise, I didn't encounter any other unchewable, crunchy tissues.

As for clean eating, it's mostly clean. I can feel a light film of stickiness on my fingers, but still dry enough to type on my keyboard.

Snack Value

Jimmy's Sticky Jerky sells this Sticky Sweet Turkey from its website at a price of $17.99 for a three-pack, with each package at 2.5oz. If you bought three of those 3-packs, shipping comes out to just $5.00. That works out to a price of $2.62 per ounce.

For general turkey jerky snacking, at that $2.62 per ounce price, it's a decent value. I'm getting an overall good flavor, good meat consistency, and decent chewing texture. Compared to other turkey jerky brands, it seems to offer a better snackability, mostly for its flavor.

Rating

I'm giving this a good rating.

This Sticky Sweet Turkey Jerky from Jimmy's Sticky Jerky offers a good overall flavor combination marked by a good deal of sweetness and ginger. The blend of soy sauce and worcestershire creates a nice saucy marinade with touches of ginger and black pepper to round out the flavor.

Despite being named "Sticky", don't worry about getting your hands all gooey, these pieces of turkey have only a light bit of stickiness, enough to touch your hair without making a mess.

I found the chewing easy and soft, though the pieces tended to feel gummy, and less like chewing real turkey meat. But otherwise, the flavor is good enough to overcome the chewing, and generate some enjoyable snacking.

Rating: Good

Buy this online:

• http://www.jimmysstickyjerky.com/