If you’ve never tried biltong or jerky then I suggest you amend that right away, it’s usually a very healthy food to eat – full of protein and carb free (it is just sliced meat after all). Some biltongs and jerkies are full of sugar however, and not surprisingly these are always far too sweet tasting and higher in calories. The Garlic Farm on the Isle of Wight produce and sell a wide range of garlic based products, (I recently reviewed the The Garlic Farm Red Thai Curry paste) and I was eager to see if their product could stand-up against biltong from specialist biltong manufactures.
The Garlic Farm Beef Biltong with Garlic & Chilli has quite a soft texture, and is easy to pull apart with your fingers thanks to a course meat grain. I found that when chewing the biltong it was surprisingly juicy and wasn’t dry like some other biltongs I’ve had in the past. There is a good variety of thick and thin biltong slices in the pack which means you get to try some slightly drier thin slices, and juicer thick slices. This is perfectly made biltong in my opinion.
The garlic really comes through well from the biltong, it’s a fresh garlic taste rather than a dried powder taste which works really well with the sweet flavour of the beef. The garlic taste lingers in your mouth between bites, and for quite a long time after eating the whole pack – great for keeping vampires back, but bad for speed-dating.
The chilli shines after eating a few pieces of biltong, again a pleasant fresh chilli taste rather than dried, however it’s not a particularly hot product so this biltong won’t blow your head off. This is well seasoned biltong, the salt and black pepper are just right, and there is a great balance between sweet and savoury.
Overall The Garlic Farm Beef Biltong with Garlic & Chilli is a very satisfying snack in terms of flavour and eating experience; the texture is wonderful, the beef flavour is present, and the seasonings are well balanced and very tasty. A great snack especially because it’s only 85.5 calories a pack!
Rating: 4/5
