Air Dried Grass Fed Meat Snack, South African Jerky - Whole30 Approved, Paleo, Keto, Gluten Free, Sugar Free, Made In USA - 16 Ounces Bag (Original)

Classic! Simple ingredients, clean taste, medium thickness slices, not too dry, great coriander taste. Only 6 natural ingredients. Love it. Made in NC, not NYC - interestingly (I wonder if the factory manufactures for others).

I had ordered Brooklyn Biltong (original) a while ago in a 1 lb bag directly from the company website. It was great - very tender, very flavorful. Whether you think its accurate to South African homestyle biltong is subjective, but to me it had great flavor and was very tasty. Fast forward to last week (7/28/22) and my experience could not have been worse. Two bags arrived from Amazon (fulfilled by Brooklyn Biltong) and I was super excited to have it again. Both 16 oz bags were quite pressurized when they arrived. I opened one, reached in, and ... ick. The texture was fine, the tenderness was what I recall, but wow was the flavor off. It was like I ate a small handful of biltong coated in unscented hand soap powder or something like talc - EXTREMELY dry and left a weird "I can't get it out from under my tongue" feeling. Very strange. The first bag I opened was missing a proper ziploc either - it has only one side of a ziploc back. Whatever. I reached out to the company via email and phone and no reply now in about a week. I decided to open the other bag to see if maybe the one was just compromised by the seal or something - nope, also terrible. A real shame because I had recommended this brand to friends, too. Looking through reviews here on Amazon and it seems like it's the same story - very inconsistent product, sometimes moldy (ew?), no reply from the company in any form. So frustrating and this is NOT a cheap food product. Will not order this again.

Nice and yummy for a South African craving

Update (01/29/2021): I just recently got the sample packs (2oz) to try out the other two flavors (Steakhouse, Lemon) and I was pleasantly surprised as these were really good. My favorites are still the original and peri-peri. Peri-peri has a nice hit of spice. Love it. The quality is still the best I have ever had. The slices are perfect and the freshness is there. My suggestion is to get smaller bags, (2oz or the 8oz) as they stay fresher. It's almost impossible to keep any meat fresh for a long time so the 16oz bag is a challenge for anyone making biltong. Unless you have a full household of South Africans. In which case they will finish bag in no time. As a South African this is the only one to get and it doesn't make me feel like I need to go back to South Africa to get my biltong fix. Nice work Brooklyn Biltong. ------------------------------------------- Original review: Superb quality. Always sliced nicely and fresh. Of all the ones I have tried (you name it, I have tried it), this is also the best value. What I noticed with most other biltong offerings (Bull and Cleaver is one example), is they are all from Braaitime and repackaged/rebranded for the company who's selling it. From what I can tell Brooklyn Biltong does indeed do their own biltong which makes a huge difference. I am guessing it's lower yield but higher quality of biltong.

I really like this biltong. I've tried multiple US-made biltong products and this is the one of the few that meets my expectations for taste and texture in comparison to the authentic biltong I enjoyed for years when I vacationed in South Africa. The texture is moist and not too dry. The spice mix is good, but has less coriander than most traditional South African biltong, which can be a positive or a negative depending on your taste preferences. The best part is no sugar, which makes it great for those on Keto diets or low carbers. The only real downside is the price, which is one of the more expensive products on the market. If this came down, it would be easy choice to buy and stock monthly rather than take the time and effort in making my own biltong at home. Definitely worth a try if if you've been on the lookout for good biltong in the US.