The next review on Tillamook Country Smoker will be on a 3 ounce/85 gram bag of their All Natural smoked jalapeno flavor. The Tillamook Country Smoker team graciously submitted this jerky for review.
Art Crossley and a few others started Tillamook Country Smoker over 50 years ago. They are located in Bay City, Tillamook County, Oregon. Over 30 years ago, Art’s son Dick took over the business, and sales started to soar. The folks at Tillamook Country Smoker are guessing they are 3rd of 4th in North American bagged jerky sales. We tend to think that they are 5th or 6th, either way, an impressive accomplishment. Today, they are a third generation family business, with a reputation for their smoked flavor.
Ingredient Review
Ingredients: Contains Beef, Brown Sugar, Water, Sea Salt, Natural Flavors, Jalapeno Pepper, Vinegar.
The liquid marinade consists of just water, and healthy vinegar. While we are not exactly a fan of using the vague term natural flavors, we have been informed of some of the ingredients included, which are nothing untoward.
Jalapeno peppers are healthy if eaten in moderation. Hot peppers tend to flush toxins out of your body.
The sugar level is high at 7 grams of sugar per 28 grams of jerky. Our preference is 3 grams of sugar or less. The salt level is very high at 510mg of salt per 28 grams of jerky. However, that is negated because minimally processed sea salt is used.
This jerky qualifies to contain no sodium nitrite, or any other similar unhealthy preservative. Also as a bonus, and kudos to Tillamook Country Smoker, this jerky qualifies to have no MSG added.
Decent (7/10) – Ingredient Rating
Taste Review
These strips are mostly medium sized, and are sliced to a medium thickness. The texture is dry, but not overly dry. Chewing this jerky is relatively easy making this texture quite appealing. There are no visible signs of fat on this jerky, and handling this jerky leaves no residue on your fingers.
Nothing really immediately jumps out with the flavor, probably the natural beef flavor more than anything. The spiciness starts slowly, and builds moderately as you eat more strips of jerky. The heat level never does get all that hot, but you could say this jerky has a pleasant spicy taste.
The sweetness is mild, and the saltiness level is moderate. There is a faint garlic taste, and the smoked flavor is not that strong. No single taste is dominant here, just a blend of mild flavors.
This 3 ounce/85 gram bag of Tillamook Country Smoker teriyaki flavor sells online for $4.00. That works out to $1.33 an ounce, which is a very cheap price. There is free shipping for any order over $45. This jerky is worth your money, appealing to people looking for a mildly spicy tasting jerky.
Bag Review
No labels are applied on this bag, everything is imprinted directly on the bag itself on both sides. Tillamook Country Smoker shows some originality using their logo as the partial transparent window to actually view the jerky. This bag is resealable, but it uses glue, or some sort of adhesive to close the bag.
The Tillamook Country Smoker® company registered trademark logo is a circle with a ‘T’ in the middle. On the back of the bag, there is an informative blurb describing Tillamook Country Smoker, and their jerky.
There are many slogans printed on this bag such as “Natural Wood Smoked”, “All Natural”, “Minimally Processed”, “No Preservatives Added”, “No Artificial Ingredients”, “97% Fat Free”, “Gluten Free”, “No Nitrites”, “No MSG Added”, “Made With Sea Salt”, “Made in the USA”, “0g Trans Fat”, and “10g of Protein”.
All bag categories are covered, with some worthy notes. To the credit of Tillamook Country Smoker, they provide a toll free phone number for customer inquiries.
Excellent (10/10) – Bag Rating
Order their jerky online: www.tcsjerky.com
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