The Jerky Junkie

Yes, you read correctly, “Fruit Flavored.” My adventures to new locales of the city of Boston have brought me to branch out into more foreign made snack foods for an array of palettes. Enter upon the scene an Asian palette-centric jerky put out by the Formosa company, promising a fruity flavored beefy goodness with an exotic twist. Will the jerky consumers and producers of the East meet with approval of a Western taste? Let us taste on.

The Jerky Scale Scores

4: very moist

1: terrible cuts of meat

2: challenging to chew

3: average thickness

5: incredibly sweet

2: lightly salty

1: no spice

The Fruit Jerky experience starts with hope and curiosity. Looking through the window of the plastic packaging, the would-be consumer is greeted by the look of impossibly moist meat. The sauce and delicious darkness of what we see promises a gentle chewing experience with an explosion of flavor. Tearing open the package to embrace the prize inside results in messy hands and a gritty surface texture. In an effort to create a sweeter jerky, Formosa has added a larger grain sugar to it’s sauce, resulting in a perplexing experience. Beyond the fingertips we enter the realm of the bizarre when actually consuming the jerky: the meat does not actually have a taste of it’s own and has an extremely dry texture akin to the previously reviewed Oberto. The cuts of meat used appear to be from the hind quarters of what we assume to be beef and have a tough consistency.

The Outer Scale Scores:

1: A bizarre and disappointing option

3: Average packaging

The packaging of this jerky serves its purpose of luring in the consumer with false hope. Should the desire to continue eating this product remain despite the textural difficulties, one would need to transfer the item to another bag. Re-sealable is not the motto of Formosa Beef Jerky, so it is somewhat of an all or nothing purchase.

As an adventure, Formosa Beef Jerky is more of a novelty into strangely phrased snacks than an item that will develop into a snack habit.

In hindsight, when in an Asian grocery store, don’t buy the item that the Asians in the store start snickering at you for picking up unless you already know how it tastes.

Stay tuned, there’s better meat to come.