Double Deluxx Jerky claims to use grass fed beef, using all natural ingredients, with no MSG, no sodium nitrite, and no refined sugars. The brand currently offers five flavors, Original, Garlic, Honey Mesquite BBQ, Hickory Cracked Black Pepper, and Green Chili Carne Asada.
The company sells its Double Deluxx jerky online and at Flagstaff Farmers Market.
Original
The company describes this jerky as "Sweet peppery onion flavor followed with a hint of garlic. This is a mild yet flavorful beef jerky that is moist and tender".
Review: The first flavors I pick up on my palate is a moderate sweetness along with a saucy taste. It's comparable to an onion soup mix or an au jus sauce. The chewing brings on a black peppery flavor, with an increased onion and a noticeable garlic. There's also a noticeable natural meat flavor, comparable to roast beef.
Overall, it has a really good flavor profile, perhaps best described as "saucy", and compared to french onion soup, with a strong sweet onion flavor, but with added garlic and black pepper. There's actually a touch of heat to this, which still registers as "mild" (level 1 out of 5) on my heat scale, but could but seen as spicy to fairer tongues.
Rating:
GoodGarlic
The company describes this jerky as "Generously smothered with fresh roasted garlic nuggets. This beef jerky has a seriously bold garlic flavor and is moist and tender."
Review: The first flavors I pick up right away is a strong garlic flavor. There's also a saucy flavor as with the Original, but the garlic is rather powerful in this. The chewing squeezes out even more garlic. There's actually a moderate sweetness to this, but the garlic is strong enough that you don't really notice it.
I can also pick up some black pepper as I eat a few more pieces, and there's still an onion presence to help soften the garlic. This jerky also builds up a spiciness from the pepper while the strong garlic tends to create a light burn in the back of my mouth. The garlic does have fresh, roasted flavor as the company claims, and if you're a garlic lover you'll really appreciate this jerky.
Overall, this Garlic beef jerky holds up to its claims pretty well, though it's not quite "moist and tender", more like chewy and rubbery.
Rating:
GoodHoney Mesquite BBQ
The company describes this as, "A southwestern specialty that is flavored with sweet honey molasses BBQ, a light hint of mesquite smoke flavor, a twist of lemon and a splash of apple cider vinegar."
Review: The first flavors that I pick up on my tongue is a mesquite smoke flavor and a moderate sweetness. The chewing brings on a light BBQ sauce flavor, followed by a light saltiness. There's a light natural meat flavor as well, along with touches of garlic and seasonings.
Unlike the Original and Garlic varieties above, this Honey Mesquite BBQ doesn't generate as much flavor. I don't actually taste any honey. The BBQ is rather light in flavor, producing just a weak BBQ sauce flavor. Mostly, this is a mesquite smoke flavored jerky, with a light sweetness, a little bit of garlic seasoning, and some black pepper spice.
Compared to other brands of jerky comparably labeled, this tends to be similar in flavor. It's overall tame and mild in its approach to Honey and BBQ flavor, though it does belt a out a strong mesquite smoke. Perhaps the other ingredients that go into this complex marinade may overshadow the Honey and BBQ ingredients.
Rating:
Average Hickory Cracked Black Pepper
The company describes this jerky as, "A must have for black pepper lovers. Spicy hot with a subtle hickory smoke flavor followed by a light hint of onion and garlic; but at the same time, moist and tender."
Review: The first flavors to hit my palate is a meaty flavor along with a light hickory smoke. The chewing brings on a light sweetness and a light black pepper. There's also a saucy flavor noticeable, with noticeable garlic and onion and overtones.
The black pepper, despite the company claiming otherwise, starts out very light, but gradually builds up. By the second or third piece, it becomes more prominent and creates a peppery aftertaste in the back of my mouth. The hickory is less noticeable, except within the first seconds of putting a piece into my mouth. Afterwards, the black pepper becomes strong enough that it drowns out the hickory, and a fair amount of the other ingredients as well.
The black pepper flavor doesn't quite have that fresh cracked taste, that is, it's not quite sharp and pungent like freshly cracked pepper. Otherwise, this jerky is more about the base marinade, with its saucy, garlic and onion flavor. The black pepper and light hickory are really just swashes of taste.
Rating:
Average Green Chili Carne Asada
The company describes this jerky as, "Traditional carne asada flavor with roasted green chilies, fresh cilantro, onion and garlic. A spicy and bold citrus-flavored beef jerky that is moist and tender."
Review: The first flavors I pick up from this starts with a green chile flavor and tangy citrus. The minced garlic is well noticeable along with minced onion. The chewing brings on a light saucy flavor with some seasonings. There's also a light black pepper noticeable too.
Tangy is a good word to describe this jerky, along with the bold flavors of minced garlic and onion. It actually does a great job of recreating the flavor of citrus marinated carne asada. It's a very complex flavor with a lot of ingredients being individually recognizeable, creating a taste that keeps you thinking about what you're tasting.
This is also the most visually appealing variety from Double Deluxx with plenty of pieces of diced green chiles and minced garlic and onion. It also has a great aroma that hits you when opening the bag. Overall, this is probably my favorite from Double Deluxx.
Rating:
Good Meat Consistency
Double Deluxx uses slabs of whole muscle, cut into moderate thicknesses. The jerky is overall chewy, slightly rubbery, but not really tough. It takes a light to moderate effort to chew down, and once it's chewed to a soft mass it feels meaty, even somewhat steak-like, but retaining some rubbery chewiness.
Being cut from beef brisket, I find a fair amount of stringiness in the chewing, some of which renders into wads of unchewable tissues. I can also see some light spots and streaks of fat, but overall very meaty.
Despite the company's claims of being "moist and tender", it generally is not. I found it chewy, often laborious, though just shy of being called "tough".
Verdict
The Original, Garlic, and Green Chili Carne Asada varieties are perhaps the best of the five flavors that Double Deluxx offers. I actually like the Green Chili the best, but it's hard to deny the sweet onion of the Original and the rich garlic of the Garlic. The other two flavors, Honey Mesquite BBQ and Hickory Cracked Black Pepper just didn't do it for me, tasting much like the bulk of big brand jerky out there.
Otherwise, Double Deluxx actually has a good base marinade with its combination soy sauce and worcestershire and its use of fresh minced garlic and onion. Seeing the bits of chopped garlic and onion on these slabs of meat is impressive. The aroma that wafts from an open package creates a lot of mouth watering anticipation. The meat still tends to be chewy and rubbery, and not really the moist and tender pieces it claims to be.
Overall Rating:
Good |
| Double Deluxx - Original |
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| Double Deluxx - Green Chili Carne Asada |
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I'm Steve Johnson, and I've been in the Internet marketing and publishing business since 1997. I've been a life-long fan of beef jerky and decided to merge my profession with my snack food of choice, and gave birth to Best Beef Jerky.
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