Steve's Original - Paleokit Original

Last in the series on Steve's Original is this Paleokit Original. See my previous reviews of their Paleokit Coconut Pineapple and Just Jerky.

Steve's Original is the creation of Steve Liberati, the founder of Steve's Club, a fitness center for disadvantaged youth. Steve's Club was started in Camden, NJ to teach kids about health and fitness, and keep them off the streets.

The "Paleokit" is his flagship product, a mixture of jerky, nuts, and fruit based on the Paleo Diet, a concept in eating foods consumed in the paleolithic era when humans just hunted and gathered. The beef comes from grass-fed and free-range cattle.

This Paleokit Original is a mixture of cranberries, strawberries, almonds, pecans and macadamia nuts.

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Hsin Tung Yang - Fruit Flavored Beef Jerky

The idea of fruit flavored beef jerky might seem like an oddity to us Americans, but it's a popular style of "dried beef" in asian markets. In fact, it's probably about as popular over there as the teriyaki flavoring is popular to jerky snackers here. Most of the fruit flavored jerky is flavored with strawberry.

Hsin Tung Yang is also probably the most popular, or at least one of the most widely available, brands of meat snacks in Chinese grocery stores. It got its start in Taiwan in 1967, it wasn't until 1979 that they opened up a USA-based subsidiary. Most of the chinese-style of beef jerky retailing in the States is from Hsin Tung Yang.

I've reviewed only one other strawberry flavored jerky before, and I found it to have only a faint sense of fruit flavors. I'm hoping to get a more fruitier taste with this one.

Ingredients

Beef, water, soy sauce, sugar, stawberry jam, green onion, spices, sodium nitrite.

Taste

The tastes I pick up off the surface of these pieces is a strong sweet taste, along with a "chinese food" aroma which is difficult for me to describe. Moving into the chewing, I can get a slight meat taste, and something more of a fruity flavor that does seem to resemble strawberry jam.

That sweetness is probably the most strongest flavor in this jerky, and is what I'd say dominates this jerky overall. That's only expected since this is billed as a fruit flavored jerky.

The strawberry jam flavoring is definitely there, but I'd say it's probably the second most strongest taste. I get it mostly in the chewing. Note that I said it tastes like strawberry jam, and not so much like fresh strawberries.

The third most strongest flavor is probably the meat flavors. The meat doesn't taste anything like American style beef jerky, it has that "chinese food" taste. I'm not sure what creates that flavor by just looking at the ingredients list, but I note that all of the asian brands I've had have this taste to it. It's not a bad taste, but definitely something unlike the American jerkies.

In terms of saltiness, it's not that salty at all, somewhat mild actually.

I don't really taste the soy sauce or green onion mentioned in the ingredients list.

Overall, it's a not bad tasting jerky, but one that I'm not all that excited about. I guess I'd have to grow up eating fruit flavored jerky in order to like it. But I think it does pass muster for being advertised as such.

Meat Consistency

These appear to be slices of whole meat, sliced average thickness, and in small to medium sized pieces.

This is a soft and tender style of jerky, being somewhat moist. It's very easy to tear apart, and very easy to chew.

It provides a steak-like chewing texture for the most part, but there's also just a bit of mushiness to it. It's a fairly clean jerky as well, leaving no residue on my fingers. While the pieces are covered in tiny meat fibers resembling something like "fur", these fibers remain stuck to the pieces due to the heavy sweet coating.

While I don't find any pieces of fat on this jerky, I do find a good deal of gristle. Every piece has a streak of gristle on it, providing a decent amount of rubbery chew.




Snack Value

I paid $1.69 for this 1.5 oz package at a 99 Ranch Market in Irvine, CA. That works out to a price of $1.13 per ounce, making this an average price buy, but at the lower end towards cheap.

For general jerky snacking purposes, it presents a great value. It's got a good deal of flavor intensity, and is very tender to eat, and even has a decent chewing texture. Though the proliference of gristle is a turn-off for me.

As a "fruit flavored" beef jerky is definitely has excellent value for being priced at this low. If for some reason you want a good deal of strawberry jam flavor with your beef jerky then I suppose you're going to get some good bang for your buck with this.

Rating

I'm giving this an average rating.

While on paper, this jerky seems to score very well, I'm just not a fan of "fruit flavored" jerky. Yes, this jerky has a good deal of flavor intensity, it definitely lives up to advertised flavor, it's not overly salty, easy-to-eat, and offers a good chewing texture. I just find the overall taste to be undesirable, and that's just my personal preference.

On a factual note, the meat consistency is rather frought with gristle, which I feel is subpar with most of the jerky brands on the market. When I reviewed the "Hot Beef Jerky" also from Hsin Tung Yang, I again found some significant gristle. It seems that the company doesn't mind gristle in their jerky.

Or maybe rubbery gristle is something that chinese jerky snackers don't mind?

Probably a good beer to drink with this is a wheat beer (hefeweizen).

Rating: Average

Buy this online:

• 99 Ranch Market

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Vegas 808 - Fruit Flavored Dried Beef

Vegas 808 appears to be a very tiny, and localized brand of snack foods unique to Las Vegas, NV.

The name "Vegas 808" is a combination of the city Las Vegas, and the area code for Hawaii. There's an area of downtown Las Vegas, anchored by two casinos, Main Street Station, and The California Hotel & Casino, frequented by travellers from Hawaii, and this brand targets that demographic with snack foods that appeal to their tastes.

Vegas 808 has its own retail outlet inside The California Hotel & Casino, on the upper floor, and all it sells are snack foods favored by Pacific Islanders, in addition to some die-hard American favorites.

The label on packaging says that this product is "Exclusively Distributed by Golden Tigers, LLC". Doing a search on the Internet, it appears that Vegas 808 and Golden Tigers, LLC are owned by the same people. It's unclear to me exactly who manufacturers these snacks.

Taste

The ingredients list says that this jerky is flavored with strawberry preservatives, soy sauce, sugar, salt, and MSG.

I can't really taste much in the way of fruit or strawberry preserves, but I can taste a hint of strawberry. But if I didn't know this had strawberry preserves in it, I wouldn't know what it was. But perhaps the main point is to experience the combination of fruit and beef, and not so much strawberry. If that's the case, there is practically no fruit to be experienced. This mostly tastes like sweetened beef jerky, and not fruit flavored beef jerky. Being that the label clearly says that this is "Fruit Flavored", it's a disappointment.

There is also very little to taste in the way of soy sauce or salt. I don't particularly care for salty beef jerky, so this is a plus for me. But it would have been nice to taste some soy sauce; perhaps they could pour a little bit more on.

The beef flavors are not very evident either. I chewed on some pieces, and extracted the meat juices, and I could get a slight taste of beef. Had I been told this was pork, I'd have no way of knowing the difference. (BTW, Vegas 808 also offers Fruit Flavored Dried Pork, but I didn't buy some).

Most of what I taste when I eat this is the sugar and the hint of strawberry.

Meat Consistency

These are real slices of meat, with no fat to be seen, if any.

The pieces are soft, flexible, somewhat dry, and thick cut. It's easy to bite off a piece, and they chew easily. I found this brand of jerky was quite pleasant to eat in this regards.

The pieces are covered with a sticky coating of sugar and strawberry preserves, but it's not so sticky that it leaves your fingers gooey. If not for this coating, the pieces would otherwise be rather dry.

Product Value

I paid $12.50 for an 8oz bag, which works out to $1.56 per ounce. That's in the average-priced ballpark in my book. They did not have a smaller sized bag. The bag is resealable, so you don't have to eat the whole 8oz steak in one sitting.

Being that this was billed as "Fruit Flavored Dried Beef", I was expecting to experience some fruit flavors. Considering that all you're getting is sweetened beef, it's a big disappointment at $12.50 per bag.

I actually love sweetened beef jerky, but this particular brand doesn't offer much else in taste aside from sugar. It would have been better to get some other flavorings and seasonings with it. This doesn't have any smoke flavorings either.

Keep in mind that the Vegas 808 brand is intended to satisfy those Las Vegas travellers who come from Hawaii. Perhaps this is the kind of meat snack Hawaiian residents enjoy. I dunno.





Rating

I'm giving this a "fair" rating. The lack of taste, aside from the sugar and hint of strawberry, pretty much negates the point of making jerky, or "dried beef" as this is called. I kept it above "dog treats" because it's still slices of real meat, and it doesn't taste bad. It just doesn't offer much for the palate.

The concept of fruit flavored beef jerky was very appealing to me, but this variety left me disappointed. Perhaps if they tried pineapple, or apricot, they'd easily extract another $12.50 from my pocket.

Rating: Fair

Where to Buy: You can only buy this at the Vegas 808 store located inside The California Hotel & Casino, upper level, downtown Las Vegas, NV.

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