Blackbeard’s – Barbecue Beef Jerky

In 2010, I bought this barbecue flavored bag of Blackbeard’s beef jerky at a convenience store just off I380 in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania. It is a fairly common sight to see Blackbeard’s jerky for sale in Pennsylvania. For whatever reason, I have only seen the 1.5 ounce/42 grams for sale in stores, but they do sell their jerky in larger bags.

Blackbeard’s beef jerky is located in Northampton, Pennsylvania, and is distributed by T & L Distributing. The company was founded in 1990, and also sells meat snack sticks. The jerky is advertised as using select cuts of meat, slowly marinated with distinctive spices, and then smokehouse cured.

Ingredient Review

Ingredients: Beef, Brown Sugar, Water, Tomato Powder, Salt, Natural Flavorings, Natural Smoke Flavoring, Molasses, Monosodium Glutamate, Paprika, Citric Acid, Spice Extractives, Sodium Nitrite.

The beef used is not guaranteed to be free of growth hormones or additional antibiotics. Also, the beef is not guaranteed to have at least partial free range access to graze on grass. As a result, the highest ingredient rating that can be awarded is a Good (8/10) rating.

This is what you call a dry rub, or an old fashioned jerky, where no liquid ingredients are used. From a price perspective, it is much cheaper to use a dry rub as opposed to using expensive liquids.

Tomato powder is healthy, which is loaded with the antioxidant lycopene. The spices used are healthy also.

The sugar level is high at 8 grams of sugar per 28 grams of jerky. With a barbecue flavor normally being sweet based, 4 or 5 grams of sugar or under is preferred. The salt level is extremely high at 640mg of salt per 28 grams of jerky. Our preference is 350mg of salt or under.

This jerky does use unhealthy sodium nitrite as the main
preservative, apart from salt. Citric acid also acts a preservative to a lesser extent. The quality of how citric acid is manufactured can vary widely. It also disappointing to see the flavor enhancer MSG used as an ingredient.

Fair (4/10) – Ingredient Rating

Taste Review

On the bag this jerky is advertised as moist & tender. I do not recall this jerky being overly soft and tender, but certainly not really dry either. The barbecue flavor itself was mild tasting. Overall, nothing special.

This 1.5 ounce/42 gram bag cost $3.29 which works out to $2.19 an ounce. Today on their web site, a 2.8 ounce bag costs $5.75 which works out to $2.05 an ounce, which is an average price. Not worth the money.

Average (5/10) – Taste Rating

Bag Review

This bag has a mixture of affixed labels, and more information imprinted directly on the bag. Blackbeard’s can use the same bag for all their flavors, and use custom labels on the back and front for each particular flavor.

The logo looks seems to be a pirate with a black beard. Their slogan appears to be “Traditional Style”. Some facts printed on this bag are “87% Fat Free”, “Natural Wood Smoked”, “Made from Solid Strips of Premium Beef”, “Made in USA”, and “Moist & Tender”.

All the major bag categories are covered. Missing is a blurb about this jerky and this flavor.

Decent (7/10) – Bag Rating