Cholula, yumm… this Beef Jerky comes with the stuff I like already on the meat!
When you tear open the resealable Jack links bag you get a mild beef scent but no real exciting pepper aroma. Dig your fingers into the bag and you will find several strips of slick-to-the-touch beef. All of the strips are a dark red color with interesting machine made bends in the strips. The texture is pretty firm almost tough.
When you tear off a piece and put it in your mouth you notice the chew is also pretty tough. Then as your saliva mixes with the flavor of the beef you taste not Cholula Hot Sauce… all you taste is salt! My first impression was this may be the saltiest Jerky I’ve ever eaten. A quick check of the back of the bag reveals 690 mg of salt per oz which ranks at the very top of the Jerky’s I have reviewed. To be fair Jack Links Original was second highest so its safe to say Jack Links likes their salt vendor. Keep chewing… the quality of the beef is not real great either.
So where’s the Cholula you say? There is a mild heat on the backside of the chew. But any subtlety of the Arbol or Piquin peppers in the Cholula is masked by the sodium and of course you are also missing the hint of vinegar that defines the Cholula flavor. I worked my way through several tough pieces and found them all fairly disappointing.
To have a little fun I decided to get out my bottle of Cholula to see if adding the real deal helped. The answer is a little bit. What you get is a bright vinegar and pepper start but then its followed by a really salty chew and chew and chew.
Overall I’m giving this Jerky a disappointing 1.5. The flavor is masked by the sodium, the chew is bordering on tough, the sodium is through the roof and it’s not a very good value.
If you like Cholula get a bag of your favorite Jerky and add the Cholula yourself. Sorry JL you missed it on this one. www.jacklinks.com