What is the Best Beef Jerky Brand?

We love going on road trips! There’s something magical about the freedom of the open road and exploring places off the beaten path. Any good road trip is made up of adventure, good company, and of course, good snacks – including jerky. Not only does jerky taste good, but we love that it can help you stay awake, and it also keeps well in the car on hot sunny days unlike our haribo gummy bears that always melt into one giant gummy.

I know everyone has a different palette and may look for different things when it comes to food, but for us good beef jerky:

  1. has a great balanced flavor
  2. is tender
  3. the texture and quality of meat isn’t gritty or dry

While there are so many options out there, we decided to check out some new flavors from our current favorite brand and some recommendations from our readers in hopes that we’ll find the best beef jerky brand! I’m sure we will be adding to this list in the future as we get more suggestions. This is what we found so far!

FIELD TRIP JERKY

Field Trip Jerky (The Best Beef Jerky Brands Reviewed).

Field Trip Jerky Flavors We Tried:

Overall: Field Trip had the cutest packaging, which I’m a sucker for. When it came down to the jerky itself, they were not my favorite, but they were still solid. I would actually try these again. It’s gluten free and all natural, which is a plus, and the flavors and consistency were good. We’d like to try more of their other flavors to see if they’re consistent across the board.

 

KRAVE JERKY

Krave Jerky (The Best Beef Jerky Brands Reviewed).

Krave Jerky Flavors We Tried:

  • Pineapple Orange Beef Jerky: The flavor is mild. The meat is tender but dry – and very gritty like the texture of organs. I wouldn’t be able to eat much of this at once and the smell is really pungent.
  • Sweet Chipotle Beef Jerky: This one smells and tastes of Indian spices. It’s very flavorful but we don’t like the consistency of the meat.
  • Chili Lime Beef Jerky: The meat is tender but gritty. There’s a good balance in flavor.
  • Garlic Chili Pepper Beef Jerky: This tastes more like cumin chili than garlic chili. It has a nice kick.
  • Lemon Garlic Turkey Jerky: We can’t taste the lemon or garlic flavor. Taste just like regular jerky and kind of smells like a burp.
  • Basil Citrus Turkey Jerky: You can smell the basil, and it’s well balanced. This flavor was our favorite, but unfortunately it was dry and tough.
  • Black Cherry Barbecue Pork Jerky: The pork is really tender and isn’t gritty. The flavor is pleasantly mild and slightly sweet, but it doesn’t really taste like BBQ or cherry.
  • Sweet Teriyaki Pork Jerky: The meat is tender and sticky. It doesn’t really taste like teriyaki at all. It smells and tastes like pineapple.

Overall: I don’t really get why this brand is so well loved. They had some of the most interesting and creative blends of flavors. I will give them that. Unfortunately, the blend of flavors did not work for us. Their flavors often didn’t taste anything like what they were labeled. The texture of this jerky was very gritty. It was inconsistent with some tender, while others were dry. Our overall favorite beef jerky from Krave was Sweet Teriyaki Pork Jerky.

 

LAWLESS JERKY

Lawless Jerky (The Best Beef Jerky Brands Reviewed).

Lawless Jerky Flavors We Tried:

  • Sweet Sriracha Beef Jerky: I’m obsessed with sriracha, so I love the sriracha flavor. The ginger sometimes overpowers the sriracha, and the meat was on the dry side.
  • Mango Habanero Beef Jerky: I typically relate habanera flavored things to be really spicy, but this wasn’t spicy. The flavor was good and balanced, but the jerky was dry.
  • Pho Beef Jerky: This really tastes like pho! If you like pho, you’ll probably really like this jerky. It is dry though.
  • Japanese Curry Beef Jerky: You get the Japanese curry flavor in the aftertaste. The flavor is good, but the meat is dry.

Overall: Lawless uses Grass-fed beef. We liked the world inspired flavors, but they were on the dry side. we really enjoyed the sweet sriracha and the pho but hope in the future the beef won’t be as dry.

 

ALIEN FRESH JERKY (Favorite)

Alien Jerky (The Best Beef Jerky Brands Reviewed).

Alien Fresh Jerky Flavors We Tried:

  • Smokey Chipotle Beef Jerky: This one isn’t too saucy. There’s a spicy aftertaste, but we prefer a little more kick (like our favorite Southwest Hot).
  • BBQ On The Moon: This has a nice BBQ flavor, and it’s tender.
  • Abducted Cow Pineapple Teriyaki: The flavor was too sweet for our taste, but it had good texture and tenderness. We couldn’t really taste much pineapple.
  • Pepper Teriyaki: This has a nice sweet peppered taste. The meat is tender and moist, but I still prefer the regular peppered flavor over the pepper teriyaki.

UPDATE: Never buying these again. Not only did they raise the prices, but the quality also went down as well.  

P.S. We didn’t do a tasting for this series yet, but we also like the Trader Joes turkey jerky. :P

Is there another beef jerky you feel like we need to check out?
What are your go-to road trip snacks?

xoxo estherJacob

We received these products free of charge to facilitate this review. All opinions are our own. Thank you for supporting the awesome brands that make local adventures possible.

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