Bakke Brothers Brand Jerky - Ghost Peppered

Bakke Brothers Brand is owned by Whiskey Hill Smokehouse, LLC based out of Hubbard, OR. Whiskey Hill also owns The Jerky Hut, as well as its own house brand, Whiskey Hill Smokehouse.

Bakke Brothers was started by Phil Bakke, one of Whiskey Hill's founders. The brand differs from The Jerky Hut in that it's free of preservatives such as sodium nitrite, sodium erythorbate, et al, and it's also gluten-free.

This Ghost Peppered Beef Jerky is marketed as, "Gluten Free", "No MSG", and "No Nitrates", going on to say that it is, "if you like it hot, this one is for you".

Ingredients

Beef, water, brown sugar, red chili pepper, salt, ghost pepper, natural smoke flavoring, habanero pepper, cayenne, garlic, lime, celery powder, onion, black pepper

Review

The first flavors I pick up is a chile pepper flavor, with a fair amount of earthy pungent spice, much like a Ghost Pepper. There's a light bit of salt, and a touch of smoke. The chewing brings more of the Ghost Pepper flavor while the heat really builds up. There's a bit of sweet noted, and bits of garlic and onion seasoning. The natural meat flavors deliver a touch towards the end.

For being marketed as a Ghost Pepper beef jerky, this definitely lives up to its billing. It has a lot of heat, rating "hot" on our heat scale (level 5/5). In fact, it has that piercing heat that attacks your tongue relentlessly, and at the same time raises your blood temperature, and gets my eyes watering. But the flavor of Ghost Peppers comes through well too. It has that earthy, pungent, floral spice that Ghost Peppers are known for.

Otherwise, the primary taste profile is a lightly sweet, lightly seasoned marinade but flavored heavily with Ghost Pepper chiles. The salt is mild, and so is the black pepper.

These are thick sliced strips of beef that appear to be quite lean. They bite off easily enough, with maybe a touch of chewiness, and chew down to a steak-like texture. There's a light oily film that remains on the fingers, and better careful not to rub your eyes with this stuff.

Verdict

This Ghost Peppered Beef Jerky from Bakke Brothers Brand brings out the full flavor of Ghost Pepper chiles in all their earthy, pungent glory, but also attacks your tongue, blood temperature, and sweat glands with its ghoulish level of heat. Bakke Brothers keeps the marinade tame with a light salt and sweet so as to give these capsaicin-packed peppers a level of attention reserved only for the after-life. But Bakke Brothers goes a bit further, by serving up thick slices of lean beef that chew like real steak. Not only do you get full experience of these chain-rattling chiles, but the goodness of real beef jerky chewing too.

Rating: Good (4/5)

Where to buy:

• http://www.bakkebrothers.com