People’s Choice Beef Jerky – Old Fashioned – Original – Sugar Free, Zero Carb, 16g Protein, Keto Friendly – Dry Texture – Made in USA – 1 Pound (16 oz) Bag

I’m a total jerky connoisseur, and this one beats them all. I have People’s Choice Old Fashioned Original on Subscribe & Save twice a month, and I’m genuinely pumped every time it shows up in the mail. The dry texture is exactly how real jerky should be — not soft, not sticky, just perfectly classic. The flavor is clean, savory, and incredibly satisfying without sugar or carbs. Zero sugar, zero carbs, 16g of protein, and keto-friendly? Yes please. Plus they leave some fat on, which ads a boost of beautiful flavor. Made in the USA, high quality, and consistently delicious. If you like authentic, old-school beef jerky and care about ingredients, this is the one. I won’t be without it. If I could survive on Beef Jerky alone, this would be the only food i would eat. For those that crave jerky, who appreciate the need for protein, who need to it make workouts count, give this a try. Also, all jerky has a certain amount of sodium, so I eat this after I work out, after I drink quite a lot of water, which dilutes the sodium and the inflammatory effect it can have. I eat in 6-8 ounce servings, which helps keep my energy level boosted all day, and my protein intake on par with what my body requires.

TL;DR: This stuff is amazingly good. If you love a good steak, you'll love this jerky! Beef flavor up front and on the finish. Addictively craveable! BUYER: I'm NOT a jerky connoisseur. I've snacked on Jack Links for a decade or better without complaint. I am, however, a lover of fine steaks. I always assumed jerked meat couldn't compare to a fresh, succulent, woodfire-grilled, medium-rare ribeye. Boy, was I wrong. O_O SUMMARY: This "old fashioned" beef jerky, without any preservatives or the typical additives (like sugar, soy sauce, or worchestershire), stands head-and-shoulders above any other I've ever tried. You have to try it! FLAVOR: A fine au jus. Chewing this jerky is like devouring a fine prime rib dinner. In all sincerity, I joked with my prime rib-loving mother-in-law that a stick of this jerky and a little dab of horseradish on the tongue and you'd have prime rib in a bag. It doesn't have the overly salty, sweet, or peppery flavor of other jerkies I've eaten. The first bite made me think it might be under-salted, maybe TOO simple for me. Then, as I chewed, the flavors came out and holy cow (maybe literally?) that's some damn fine beef flavor right there. Just the right balance of... everything. TEXTURE: Dry apparently doesn't mean tough or unchewable. Another surprise! I've had lots of homemade jerkies (mostly venison, to be fair) that had all the tenderness of a truck tire. The chew-it-and-spit-out-the-flavorless-wad-ten-minutes-later sort. This ain't that. You can break it in half because of the dryness, but you can also bite through it with relative ease and it's more tender than an overcooked steak. So... don't let this deter you if you're a "wet" jerky fan like I was. HEALTH: Diabetes runs in my family. My wife's family, too. We don't do keto, but we do try to opt for low-carb, low-sugar snacking options. This jerky hits every one of those points without even trying. It's lean meat, too, so all the better. Admittedly, I actually love the little fatty bits that appear here and there in the bag. For the record, no mold was detected in my shipment, but I'd be genuinely surprised if the company (a small, family-owned business) didn't make right a bag that had gone bad. VALUE: At $30 a bag, my wife gagged a bit on the price of a 1 lb bag (as did I, at first), but what I expected to be a typical convenience store handful turned out to be more like a Family Size from Costco. I was seriously impressed by the size of the bag. I'm used to "premium" items coming in small, fancy packages. I guess I didn't consider that very dry jerky means MORE MEAT and LESS WATER. Holy steak strips, Batman. I don't know what the reduction ratio of a slab of juicy beef to a jerky like this must be, but I figure there's at least a good 5 lbs of proper beef condensed into this giant bag of meat snacks. In my opinion, even disregarding the vastly superior flavor, this bag is worth its price tag. ANNECDOTE: I brought maybe an ounce of People's Choice to work yesterday as a midmorning desk snack, but forgot to snag another few strips today before heading to the office. Instead I pulled out my old Jack Link's Peppered and ate a few of those. Man, I can taste Salt, Soy Sauce, Black Pepper, and nothing else. It's just an assault of frontloaded flavors... and the strips are both thicker and harder to chew. The contrast is startling. I've already ordered another bag of People's Choice Old Fashioned (and a free smaller bag of Secra something-or-other) directly from the manufacturer and am seriously thinking of throwing out the rest of this Jack Links. I'm not sure I can go back to prison gruel now that I've tasted ambrosia.

Honestly and objectively terrible beef jerky. Disclaimer, I purchased this item and the first bag I received was literally rancid, super fatty meat which had gone off in storage (jerky is generally done with lean beef for this reason, the beef has a long shelf life but the fat can go rancid). Bag smelled nauseating when opened. I got in touch with the manufacturer and they kindly sent me a replacement. I fed it to the neighborhood racoons. Please note: I wouldn't write a review like this for a one-off. This is based on the second bag, though I am taking into account the miss on the first one. Like, if the second was good, then it would be a non-factor, but since they're 0 for 2 and it's expensive jerky, yeah... Texture: Ok so I'm a 'saddle bag jerky' guy. I like a dry, "chew on it for a bit jerky". This is not that. It's meat potato chips. They actually crunch and crumble into unpalatable particles which then don't really have a chew. I would actually prefer a soft jerky to whatever this is. It's...unsettling. Meat is oily/greasy to the touch, leaves nasty residue on your hands. Flavor: Also bad. Like you can tell there were some seasonings there but you don't get much of anything. No smoke flavor or taste, just sort of a hint of 'orginal' generic jerky flavor. Aroma: It's off...not as bad as rancid bag one, but it just straight up doesn't smell like something you'd want to eat. Just bad. I ended up soaking it all in water to wash off the salt, re-dried it in my dehydrator, and tried to use it for dog treats. He's not a fan either. Like if a dog won't eat it I don't think you should be selling it for humans. Neighborhood racoons seem to like it though so I'm glad I spent $40 feeding 'em. This is just bad jerky, but if you're looking for an expensive way to feed the trash pandas then this is your product!