Howdy!
Today we’re tearing into a bag of Texas Best Smokehouse Beef Stix purchased at their outstanding store in Italy, Texas.
Texas Best Smokehouse Beef Stix
No stranger to this veritable shrine to dried meats, the Beef Stix are just one of many tasty treats arrayed to tempt the visitor. Unlike sausage-style sticks, these “Stix” are strips of regular beef so the temptation to see how they stack up to the veritable cornucopia of other meats offered at the smokehouse was simply too great to refuse. Just how tasty are these narrow strip of beefy goodness? Let’s see what you get with this one:
Taste (A): Straight up, this jerky’s taste is fantastic! Foremost you taste a solidly delivered black pepper kick. It’s strong, and enjoyably so, and pairs up with the beef itself in an outstanding fashion. There’s also a pronounced garlic flavor accompanied by a low-key brown sugar sweetness that seem to chime in with the pepper in a way that takes the whole well beyond the sum of the parts. It’s an outstandingly tasty and yet deceptively simple flavor.
Texture (A): While this natural-style jerky is only slightly moist it is quite pliable and easy to tear. The bites start of slowly requiring a bit of effort to really dig into the beef, but it quickly softens up to really let the flavor out. The pieces are cut along the grain and can be torn by hand easily enough. The feel of this jerky in your mouth though is really something special. It’s substantial and tough while also quickly soft and tender. You get the whole gamut of feels from this jerky and it’s just really fun to eat.
Smell (B): This jerky projects a relatively low-key scent, primarily conveying garlic and hints of black pepper. It’s dry enough that there’s just not a lot of scent going on there, but what you do smell is still pretty pleasing, all told.
Appearance (A): This jerky is natural-cut along the grain into long strips, or “Stix”. These Stix are several inches long and generally around a half-inch wide. Cut relatively thin, the meat has a dark reddish-brown hue and very, very slight sheen. The meat itself looks to be of excellent quality and is really eye-candy in its own right. Simply stated, the folks at Texas Best Smokehouse make a find looking jerky.
Consistency (A+): These sticks are clearly the work of folks with deep expertise and zealous attention to detail. The moisture of each piece was indistinguishable from one another, always maintaining that exceptional dry yet pliable feel. The taste, similarly, was fantastically good from the first bite to the last with the pepper and garlicky sweetness steady throughout. This jerky is simply outstandingly made and is a real testament to the skill of the folks at Texas Best Smokehouse.
Overall Impression (A): This is an exceptionally good jerky. The flavor is delicious, it feels like joy in your mouth, and you have real sense of the quality and care that went into making it with every bite. This is the good stuff and if you’re a fan of peppery jerky this one will doubtless be a quick favorite. If you make your way into the Texas Best Smokehouse you can rest assured that selecting their Beef Stix is a choice you’ll definitely feel good about on your way out of the store. Swing on by Italy and grab yourself a bag of this awesome jerky and you’ll be in for quite a treat. Eat well!