Wicked Cutz Beef Jerky - Original Peppered

Wicked Cutz Beef Jerky is a new brand, having debuted just a couple of months ago. It was launched by Branch Warren, a well-known body builder who has won numerous competitions over past couple of decades. Warren also owns other companies that market apparel and body building supplements.

Warren's move into beef jerky touches upon his heritage in the Texas cattle industry going back 150 years. He grew up on a cattle ranch and in his youth spent time as a ranch hand before moving on to body-building. Now in his retirement, he sought to start his own jerky brand and touch upon his cattlemen roots.

This Original Peppered is described by the company as, "Smoked in a bed of flavorful bliss and peppered to perfection, this Jerky lines up all of your taste buds and peppers them with love and affection."

Ingredients

Beef, soy sauce, water, brown sugar, worcestershire sauce, hickory smoke, granulated garlic, lemon juice, ground pepper, seasoned salt, granulated onion

Review

The first flavors that hit my taste buds is a light soy sauce and a touch of sweet. There's a faint black pepper in the background. The chewing brings on more soy sauce definition along with garlic and onion and a bit more black pepper.

For being marketed as "Original Peppered", there's a light black pepper that shows up, just enough to be appreciated and generate a little bit of spice. But this is also the brands, Original flavor, and I think is meant to be their base entry, and not necessarily to go vertical towards a specific palate.

Otherwise, the primary taste profile is soy sauce, but doctored up with a bit of sweet, touches of garlic and onion, and of coursed spiced up lightly with black pepper. There's a light natural meat flavor that does show through a bit, while the salt tends to creep up on you over several pieces.

The chewing texture is overall easy, though retaining a light chewy nature. They do soften up quickly without much effort. They take on a meaty, steak-like texture, with only light stringiness. I don't see any fat on these slices.

Verdict

This Original Peppered from Wicked Cutz delivers a classic Texas-style jerky marinade weighted towards soy sauce and seasoned up with garlic, onion, black pepper, and a fair amount of salt. It's strong flavor would do well with cow punches and bronco busters who need a higher-flavored jerky to register on taste-buds worn down by years of hot coffee and filter-less cigarettes. I like the light natural meat flavor that lingers in the background, and I like the meaty, steak-like chewing.

Rating: Good (4/5)