Monday, July 22, 2013

Steak 'N A Bag - Sweet Barbeque

steak in a bag
Next in the series on Steak 'N A Bag beef jerky is this Sweet Barbeque variety. See our previous reviews of Steak 'N A Bag.

Owned and operated by Runnin Wild Foods based out of Norcross, GA, the Steak 'N A Bag brand was conceived by a couple of brothers originally producing steak seasoning blends. Since then, they've gone on to add beef sticks to their product line-up.

According to the company, this Sweet Barbeque beef jerky is described as, "Rich. Bold. Authentic smokehouse seasoning. Rip off a piece of this incredibly tasty, tender and moist Steak 'N A Bag and let your inner carnivore and your sweet tooth duke it out."

Ingredients

Beef, barbecue sauce, salt, sugar, monosodium glutamate, paprika, spices, garlic, sodium nitrite.

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a sweet barbecue sauce flavor, with noticeable tomatoey, garlic, inlfuences.

The chewing adds a saltiness to it along with a light bit of tangy. I can pick up other seasonings in this, including a light black pepper and a bit of onion.

For being advertised as "Sweet Barbeque", it represents quite well. This tastes very much like a sweet barbecue sauce, perhaps any one of the thick, bold sauces you can buy in a bottle at the grocery store. There's a tomatoey base that I can identify along with a blend of spices and a touch of tanginess.

Otherwise, the flavor that defines this jerky overall is largely the barbecue sauce and its thick sweetness. There's a nice amount of garlic noticeable, as well as a lighter onion and black pepper.

The natural meat flavors are quite light in this and hard to identify against the stronger barbecue sauce ingredient. But there's just a bit of beef flavor noticeable.

The ingredients all seem to combine to create a jerky flavor that mimics the taste of a sweet and bold barbecue sauce much like something you'd expect after slathering a piece of steak with gobs of sauce on the grill.

In terms of spiciness, it's still rather mild by my standards, with just a light touch of spicy seasonings, and nothing hot.

Meat Consistency

These appear to be slices of whole meat, cut into strips of three-to-four inches in length, and sliced medium thickness.

This is a dry jerky with a semi-moist surface feel, and slightly oily to the touch. The pieces have a plastic like flexibility to them, and are easy to bite off and chew.

The chewing texture starts out with a somewhat soft and tender feel, a little waxy, but somewhat meaty. They easily chew down to a soft mass and at that point, feels kinda mushy and not really like a piece of steak.

I do see some small spots of fat on these pieces, and I can taste them as well, leaving a light oiliness in my mouth. Otherwise, I don't see any gristle or tendon, and I didn't encounter any stringiness or unchewable wads of tissue.

In terms of clean eating, it's pretty clean aside from a very thin oily/waxy film on my fingers, but nothing requiring a licking or wiping.

sweet barbecue beef jerky

sweet barbecue jerky

Snack Value

Runnin Wild Foods sells this Sweet Barbeque beef jerky from its website at a price of $5.99 for a 3.25oz package. They offer $10.00 flat rate shipping on all orders of $50.00 or more. If you bought 10 packages, it would work out to a price of $2.15 per ounce.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at the $2.15 per ounce price, it's a good value. It has a great overall flavor, very snackable, with a good mixture of flavor profiles from sweet, to salty, to tangy, to saucy, and even spicy. Compared other other brands of jerky, it has better than average flavor, and a good meat consistency and decent chewing.

As a Barbecue style beef jerky, at the same $2.15 per ounce price, it's a great value. I'm getting a lot of barbecue sauce flavor, rich with sweet, spicy, tangy, and tomatoey flavors. Compared to other brands barbecue flavored jerky, this has more flavor, and more like real barbecue sauce, but priced about the same.

Rating

steak in a bag nutrition
I'm giving this a best rating.

This Sweet Barbeque variety of "Steak 'N A Bag" from Runnin Wild Foods does a really good job of delivering a sweet barbecue sauce flavor, rich with bold seasonings, a little tanginess, and tomatoey flavor, just as if you were eating a steak slathered in the same sauce right off the grill.

Not only does it hold up its advertised flavor well, but it offers a complexity of flavors, from sweet, spicy, salty, savory, and tangy, spreading the wealth across the entire surface of my tongue.

The meat consistency seems good, being mostly meaty with nothing stringy or unchewable, and offering a tender easy chew.

Rating: Best

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