Apologies for the double post - even though they are weeks apart.
My sumo-jerky order showed up this morning. And well to this Brit it was well worth the price but I am aware of how much easier decent quality jerky is to find in the US! (I point out that there are far more options amount/pricing wise per month than the 6bags for $39 advertised on the main page)
(Terrible blurry phone photo sorry!)
I received 7 bags of beef jerky from 4 different producers all of whom seem to pride themselves on the quality of their base ingredients - things like "no nitrates" and "Grass fed beef" litter the packaging. I received a nice mix of flavours, from the standard "Classic" to spicy options like sweet habanero, and chi-potle all the way to the slightly odd mango-habanero. The 3 companies in my box were: Righteous Felons in West Chester PA who seem to retail at $10.00-$6.50 a bag depending if you buy in bulk, Lawless Jerky in Santa Monica CA who retail at $5.99 a bag, and People's Choice based in LA, CA (who also provided the strange "Tasting Kitchen bag at the top) who retail at $6.00 a bag.
The immediate thing I noticed actually was how much bigger the bags are than the standard size in the UK. Over here you can expect to pay £2 to £4 for a tiny 25g bag of Jerky, and it's usually the super chewy can taste the artificial flavourings stuff that petrol-stations have. Biltong can be even more expensive and well you get the idea. (I might post a quick and dirty size comparison to show you guys how pathetic portion amounts are in the UK!)
The bags I received were all at least 75g each, and all had different flavours. I've not tried all of them however I did try three bags (and even now I'm aware that having three bags of jerky open at once is slightly excessive!)
The Lawless Jerky Mango Habanero flavour was surprisingly pleasant - rather sweeter than I'm used to, but the primary flavour throughout was the beef, and there was a pleasant kick at the end.
I tried the Righteous Felons Che-potle Guevara flavour next. Despite my misgivings about the placing of sugar on the ingredients-list this was far closer to the salty/sweet jerky that I'm used to with a pleasant smokey flavour and mild heat.
Finally out of morbid curiosity I tried the Sweet Chilli Habanero from the "Tasting Kitchen" People's Choice bag - the huge amount of chilli seeds visible in the clear packaging was intimidating. Whilst it was hot it wasn't that bad actually, but the major disappointment was how very sweet this jerky was. The beef was still definitely there however I think it was sweeter than the odd but pleasant mango option from Lawless Jerky.
Thus far I like the Righteous Felon Chipotle bag the most for it's saltier style than the other two - but all three opened bags are probably going to vanish quickly! And I may find another flavour I like more.
I think I'll definitely be re-subbing to this company again - though probably with a smaller subscription given just how much jerky turned up!
Overall as an international customer I thought it was well worth the opportunity to taste some jerky-variants that I don't think I'd be able to find over here, but I fully admit I have no idea what the pricing of these apparently small companies would actually be like in store as opposed to online in the US but going by the online pricing I felt I received what I paid for!
