The next review on EPIC Bites will be on a 2.5 ounce/71 gram bag of their uncured bacon and hickory smoked pork flavored bites. This bag was purchased at a 7-Eleven store in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
The EPIC Bites brand name was created by Taylor Collins and Katie Forrest. This brand is distributed by Epic Provisions, and it is located in Austin, Texas. Both Taylor and Katie are physically active, and were looking for foods to satisfy their needs. Then they started eating a paleo diet. Shortly afterwards, they set out to create the world’s first 100% grass fed meat, fruit, and nut bar. In January 2016, the company General Mills acquired Epic Provisions.
Ingredient Review
Ingredients: Uncured Bacon – No Nitrites or Nitrates Added (Pork, Water, Sea Salt, Vinegar, Celery Powder), Pork.
The pork used is guaranteed to be raised ethically, meaning not administered growth hormones or additional antibiotics. The bacon used has a great ingredient list, as far as bacon goes. This ingredient rating starts at a Very Good (9/10) taste rating
These bites qualify to have a chopped and formed texture, or something similar. As a result, without having a natural whole sliced strip of jerky, two ingredient ratings are deducted.
The sugar level is perfect at 0 grams. The salt level is good at 240mg of salt per 28 grams of bites.
These bites do qualify to have no sodium nitrite, or any other similar unhealthy preservatives. Instead, the main preservative used is salt, and celery powder to a lesser extent. With further kudos, there is also no MSG added.
Decent (7/10) – Ingredient Rating
Taste Review
Written by guest jerky reviewer Stéphane Leclerc
The Epic Bacon & Hickory Smoked Pork Bites meat snack is described by its maker, as a “jerky like” snack. Here at www.jerky ingredients.com, we do not discriminate. It’s just not our style; we’ll pretty much always roll with it. We’ve reviewed all kind of meat snacks from beef to fish, snake and anything in between. Heck, we even reviewed jerky substitutes such as vegan and mushroom jerky.
I’d like to take a moment to introduce our beloved furry friend and mascot, Lexi. She is a beautiful and well-mannered Whippet. Over the past four years, Lexi has been a loyal and trusted member of the Jurrius family. In the past couple of years, Lexi has unfortunately had her fair share of challenges. She is doing much better now and she always enjoy being part of the Dream Team, having eaten hundreds of different jerky flavors herself. Whenever we get a chance to get together on a weekend, she loves spending time with all of us.
On with our review, I was first greeted with a pungent smell of smoky bacon and a decent taste of bacon and hickory smokiness. The pork flavor is fairly well defined with a moderate saltiness.
As I took another bite, the light to mild level of authentic hickory smoky goodness persisted. There wasn’t any sweetness to speak of and while there were some nice flavors, it was more on the boring side and left us feeling underwhelmed. Perhaps adding a little sprinkle of black pepper, garlic, onion or pretty much anything would have created some depth of flavor and a more interesting flavor profile.
The texture is presumed to be “chopped and formed”` or possibly “chunked and formed” or a similar variation. This “chunked and formed” texture results in no natural grain. It gives these bites a processed feel and unlike sliced beef, it can easily be torn in any direction. These strips have somewhat of a fatty/ oily solids feel while chewing them.
These small strips are all uniform in size and shaped into small “bites” with a medium thickness. The texture is on the dry side and easy to chew. Due to the unnatural processed feel of the meat, we seem to only be able to handle this flavor by nibbling on a small bite at a time.
Anyway, suffice to say: Lexi ended up “reviewing” the rest of the bag. On that night, we were playing a few hands of Texas Hold’em. Later on, some air came out of poor Lexi and filled up the room. It sent four grown men screaming like little school girls, pinching our noses and running for the door. We couldn’t tell for sure what the actual culprit was since she also had KFC earlier that night. We ended up blaming poor ol’ Colonel Saunders instead.
This Epic Bacon & Hickory Smoked Pork Bites flavor delivered on the bacon and hickory smoke flavors. The overall texture was uninspiring and the taste fell flat. We, including Lexi collectively all agreed on a Decent 7/10 taste rating.
This 2.5 ounce/71 gram bag cost $6.99, which works out to $2.80 an ounce. That rates as an average price.
Bag Review
This resealable plastic bag has everything printed directly on the bag, both on the front and back. There are no labels affixed to this bag. The front depicts a fairly high resolution picture of a pig.
Slogans printed on this bag are “Indulge in Pork Belly Lust” and “Feed others as you wish to be fed”. Some facts printed on this bag are “Made With 100% Natural Pork”, “Minimally Processed”, “No Artificial Ingredients”, “Handcrafted”, “Gluten Free”, “Soy Free”, “No Antibiotics Added”, “No Growth Stimulants”, “Made in USA”, and “8g of Protein per serving”.
All bag categories are covered with this bag. On the back, there is a great blurb printed about these bites and flavor. To the credit of Epic Provisions, a phone number is provided for customer inquiries. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram handles are provided.
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