Butler Foods Sam's Harvest Jerky

I probably should've picked a better backdrop than a window sill
for something packed in a transparent bag. 

Vegan jerky seems to be one of those things where either you love it or hate it. I love the stuff myself, especially what I've had from Primal Strips and Stonewall's. Recently I've discovered this new vegan jerky, made from soy curls by the very same company that brought us soy curls! So how does this offering from Butler Foods compare to my old favorites? Let's find out!

Buying. I found this bag of Sam's Harvest Jerky at Food Fight for $5.35, other vegan-friendly stores will likely have it too. Butler has a list of stores that carry their products, but does note that many locations may not carry the jerky yet.

If you can't find it locally, you are in luck, there's loads of options for purchasing online! Food Fight, Vegan Store, Rabbit Food, and Vegan Essentials all have it available by single bags, or buy a whole case from Amazon or directly from Butler Foods.

Packaging. This jerky comes in a pretty basic plastic bag with a label on each side. There's 4 servings in the bag, and the bag is resealable. It's also notched at the top for easy tear opening, and I had no issues getting it open.

Nutrition. Soy curls, the base of this jerky, are just another form of TVP (as far as I can tell, some one prove me wrong!). Even if they do start out as whole soy beans, it's fairly processed stuff. Then there's safflower oil, hydrolyzed proteins, carageenan, and potassium sorbate in this jerky! Not good, not good at all.

Each serving is only around 100 calories, but it's only 1 oz per serving, I'm pretty sure most people will end up eating the whole bag in one sitting. Almost half the calories come from fat, and a portion of it is saturated. Jerkies are usually high in sodium, and this product is no exception, though it is slightly lower than a popular meat jerky I compared it to. It does have a fair amount of fiber and protein though, but ultimately I would just treat this as a junk food.

This is a one ounce serving size. 

Tasting. The flavor of Sam's Harvest Jerky was pretty good. It didn't taste overly salty, it had a pleasant amount of heat (could be too spicy for others though), it's just a bit smoky and just a bit sweet. The texture on the other hand, I did have issues with it. Most of the pieces were nice and chewy, but other bits were too dried out, making it hard and tough. The inconsistency of the texture made this jerky unpleasant overall.

I can't really compare this to meat jerky, since I never ate it enough to remember what it's like at all.

Final Words. If it wasn't for the overly dried out pieces, I probably would've liked it enough to get it again. Maybe, just maybe, I got a bad batch? It's hard to say, but until I can be assured that I won't get too dehydrated soy curls in this jerky, I won't be buying this product again. I will be sticking with Primal Strips or Stonewall's Jerquee for my jerky needs for now.

While I'm not interested in getting it again, I still think it's worth a try. Other people are raving about it, and maybe you'll like it as well.

Butler Foods website. Right now this is the only flavor/variety of the Sam's Harvest Jerky that they make, but the wording on the package makes me think they're intending on having more flavors.