Katie's Premium Jerky & Snacks is a brand owned by Katie's Snack Foods, LLC based out of Hilliard, OH. It was started in 2014 by Katie Levesque, a graduate of The Ohio State University.
Katie loves jerky so much, that she actually sleeps with it under her pillow (in a plastic bag), and prefers spicy jerky (so that other people won't ask for some). She loves it so much, she left her career as an engineer to launch her own jerky company. Katie's Premium Jerky & Snacks is made in its own USDA inspected facility.
This "Black Cherry Bourbon" variety won an award at the 2017 ZestFest Fiery Food Challenge. It's described as "gluten free", and offering, "the sweet taste of black cherries soaked in bourbon!".
Ingredients
Beef, brown sugar, black cherries, red wine vinegar, salt, natural flavor, garlic powder, onion powder
Review
The first flavors that hit the tongue is a light sweet, a light salt, a hint of garlic and onion, and a faint fruity character. The chewing brings on a bit more fruitiness, with a slightly increased salt.
As for being advertised as "Black Cherry Bourbon", this jerky holds up, but more so with the thicker, softer slices, and hardly at all in the thinner, chewier slices. On average, it does have a fruity character, and if you look hard enough it does resemble cherry. The same is true with bourbon, you get more or less flavor based on the meat slice thickness.
Otherwise, the primary taste profile, when averaged out, is a marbleized natural meat flavor lightly seasoned with garlic and onion, along with low levels of salt and sweet, touched with a mixture of fruity, malty flavors.
The meat consistency looks great with its light marbleized streaks of fat. It's a mixture of slices, some thicker and softer, others thinner and chewier. On average, it's easy to chew through. The chewing texture is good. It starts out a little gummy, and a little like soft plastic. But once chewed down soft, they take on a steak-like feel. I found light amount of stringiness.
Verdict
This Black Cherry Bourbon variety from Katie's Beef Jerky delivers only a faint cherry flavor in the chewing and just shades of bourbon ferment in the background. I was hoping for something more tart, more fruity, and was looking for that famous Kentucky-style mash, yet finished the package still waiting for the party to get started. The thicker, softer slices tend to deliver more of this flavor, while the thinner, chewier slices deliver virtually none.
But on its own merits, it's still a very snackable jerky because if you average everything out, it does give a little bit of a fruity character and there is a little bit of a fermented note that lingers. If I were to only judge the thicker, softer slices, a five-star rating would be warranted, but if I judged only the thinner, chewier slices, I'd award three-stars.
Rating: Good (4/5)
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