The Jack Link's flavour guide: how to pick the right beef jerky
Sep 17, 2026
If you have stood in front of a wall of Jack Link's bags wondering which one to grab, you are not alone. They make a lot of variations, and the words on the front of the bag are not much help in telling them apart. So here is the honest version, using the taste figures and nutrition tables from our own product pages.
The short version: three of the four are far more alike than you think, and the fourth is barely the same kind of snack.
The three jerkies are closer than you think
Original, Teriyaki and Sweet & Hot are the same beef, cut the same way, dried to the same texture. All three score 90 on our softness scale, which is the soft and pliable end, and all three land at 35 g of protein per 100 g. If you like the chew of one, you will like the chew of the others. What changes is the seasoning, and it only moves in two directions: sweeter, or hotter.
Original, the one to start with
The benchmark. Lightly smoky, a little sweet, nothing fighting for attention. At 18 g of sugar per 100 g it carries the least sugar of the three, which is exactly why it is the safe first order.
Try it if: you want a no surprises classic that goes with a beer, a long drive, or a three o'clock slump at your desk.
Teriyaki, the crossover
Soy sauce with a touch of ginger. It tastes the sweetest of the three, 85 on our sweetness scale against 75 for the other two, at 21 g of sugar per 100 g. Sweet & Hot actually carries more sugar, 24 g, but the chilli covers it. Teriyaki's heat is identical to Original, so sweeter but not hotter is the whole of the difference.
Try it if: you like sweet and savoury together, or you find Original a bit plain.
Sweet & Hot, the polarising one
The only one with real heat. It scores 70 for spiciness where Original and Teriyaki both sit at 20. The sugar arrives first and the chilli catches up somewhere around the third piece, which is exactly what the name promises. One thing the label does not shout about: it carries the least salt of the three, 3.0 g per 100 g against 5.0 g.
Try it if: you reach for the hot sauce, or you want to know what jerky tastes like when it bites back.
Biltong is the outlier, and the numbers are not subtle
Biltong is not jerky under a different name. The jerky is marinated, then dried and smoked over wood. Jack Link's Biltong is beef cured with vinegar and spices, garlic, onion and paprika among them, then air dried rather than wood smoked. That vinegar cure is the South African step that makes biltong biltong, and the method is older than refrigeration.
That difference shows up in every figure on the page:
- 50 g of protein per 100 g against 35 g for the jerky. Half the bag is protein, and it is the highest figure on the Jack Link's shelf.
- 1.1 g of sugar per 100 g against 18 to 24 g. That is not a small gap. It is a different category of snack.
- 50 on the softness scale against 90. Drier, firmer, more work for your jaw.
- 20 for sweetness against 75 to 85. Savoury and beefy rather than sweet and beefy.
So if you have only ever eaten the jerky, biltong will not taste like a new flavour of the same thing. It tastes like the beef with nothing standing in front of it.
And the protein bar
A different object again. Tender beef pressed into a bar instead of strips in a bag, 32 g of protein per 100 g, and much softer at 20 on the softness scale. It is the one that survives a gym bag without turning into crumbs.
So which one
- Never tried any of it: Original.
- Sweet tooth: Teriyaki.
- You want actual heat: Sweet & Hot.
- Watching sugar, or chasing protein: Biltong, and it is not close.
- Gym bag: the protein bar.
- Buying it for someone else: the Gift Box.
The honest answer for most people is to buy two and settle it yourself. If you already know what you reach for at midnight, the 12-packs are where the maths starts working in your favour.
Jack Link's Brand Week, 21 September to 4 October 2026
Jack Link's is 20% off across the range for those two weeks: Original, Teriyaki, Sweet & Hot, Biltong, the protein bars and the multipacks. The discount is already taken off the price on the site, so there is no code to remember. Advent calendars are not included. After Sunday 4 October at 23:59 everything goes back to normal.
Browse the full Jack Link's range
This article was created with AI assistance, in line with EU transparency requirements. Updated September 2026.
