Slim Jim Monster Tabasco Beef Sticks Review

Slim Jim Monster Tabasco Beef Sticks have been around for at least the past few years. I very much like this bigger, 1.94-ounce size of all the Slim Jim flavors, including the Tabasco spiced offering. While this flavor, like original Slim Jims is a highly processed, highly seasoned beef stick, these meat snacks effectively stop hunger pangs during the work afternoon, and are a great night-time snack to enjoy when it’s too early to go to bed but too late to eat anything really heavy.

The heat of that Tabasco jalapeno pepper taste is lightning-speed obvious in the first bite as I munch on one of these while penning this. Aside from that, there’s not much to differentiate this flavor from Slim Jim Original flavored sticks of beef. The original flavor is still very much alive in this hot twist on that all-time favorite, decades-running meat snack.

Benefits, Advantages, Features, and Pros

I’ve thought of Slim Jim Tabasco flavored beef as tasting like a medium to hot and raw stick of pepperoni. They do exhibit some of the pepperoni-like grease. But their texture is somewhat less oily and exceptionally more spicy than your run-of-the-mill pizza pepperoni.
These beef Tabasco snacks are significantly hotter, though less chewy than beef jerky. While I enjoy jerky strips and jerky chew sometimes, I also appreciate the often more diverse and modern, exotic tastes of Slim Jims without having to flex my jaw muscles so much, just to swallow the beefy morsel without it becoming stuck in my throat. Slim Jims are way easier to swallow than beef jerky.
The Tabasco rendition of the Slim Jim matches original Slim Jims in terms of texture, color, and chewiness of the beef. So pieces of these beef snack sticks get stuck in the teeth far less often than do those of beef jerky. Any advantage the original stix have over beef jerky is also true of these Tabasco sticks.
Plus, this form of preserved Tabasco beef never needs to be refrigerated; not even after opening. So it will remain editable several months in your food closet. The best-if-used-by date falls roughly three months out from the purchase date. But they’ll stay fresh and hot-tasting for much longer than that if kept cool.
This bigger size of the Tabasco Slim Jim is awesome, and definitely appeases the appetite after eating just one.
I’ve never become burned out on the Slim Jim Tabasco flavor. Put them away for a few weeks, then resume eating them, and you will likely discover that they taste just as good as before.
Kids love these snack treats, which is nice since they have far less added sugar than candy bars or other sweet confections. Nor do they make much of a mess of the child’s clothing or hands, although you may have to wipe off the slimy juice that sometimes oozes from the really fresh sticks. They’re not put off at all by the little bit of extra Tabasco warmth.
That spicy juice, though a bit unsightly, is a delightful and flavorful feature of the Tabasco Slim Jims, though it requires soap and water to thoroughly remove from fingers and lips.
This flavor is generally easy to find, though not quite as easy as the original flavor.
There are no bone pieces in this snack to break your teeth while chewing it. Slim Jim does a good job of removing all that sort of trash from the beef beforehand.
This product has a pleasant, non assuming aroma of Tabasco and smoked beef that mirrors the actual taste precisely. So smelling these sticks can turn the mouth water on, as the aroma portends the satisfying experience to come at the first bite.
This product is popular at parties. Slim Jim sends a message of class to your guests, and the Tabasco spice adds a trifle of unusual sensation to the buffet table that will bring everyone closer to have a look.
They cellophane wrapping is quite air-tight, keeping the aromas inside from getting out, and any odors outside from getting in. This encasement easily peels apart for easy access to the stick within.

Disadvantages, Cons, Problems, and Concerns

24 fat grams per serving, and 10 of those grams is saturated fat. 1.5 grams of trans fats are also indicated. Indeed, the Nutrition Facts label on the wrapper paints a pretty doleful picture of Slim Jim Tabasco beef sticks as a healthful food. But it is nonetheless a wonderful-tasting food.
A nearly $3 cost for two ounces of seasoned meat seems excessive, especially since you can get over double the weight in Reese’s Fast Break peanut butter candy bars for about the same price.
Any flavor of Slim Jim beef sticks is a highly processed food with a sizable list of undesirable (in my opinion) food additives, including dextrose, salt, corn syrup, and sodium tripolyphosphate. It’s also rich in sodium at 860 milligrams per serving, and 300 calories to boot. These numbers restrict this product in my home to a once-in-a-blue-moon delicacy, though its deliciously satisfying beef and spice flavors can entice you to eat it way more often.

Nutrition Facts

Serving size: 1.94 oz., one stick.
Calories: 300. Calories from fat: 216.
Total fat: 24 grams, 37% DV.
Saturated fat: 10 grams, 50% DV.
Trans fat: 1.5 grams.
Cholesterol: 30 milligrams, 10% DV.
Sodium: 880 milligrams, 35% DV.
Total carbohydrate: 3 grams, 1% DV.
Dietary fiber: 1 gram, 4% DV.
Sugars: 0 grams.
Protein: 12 grams, 24% DV.

Product Rating

I’d highly recommend this Tabasco snack. No other company surpasses them, says my taste buds. So I’d award a 91 of 100 rating. I slightly-more prefer the original flavor to the Tabasco however, thus the slightly lower rating.

Where To Buy Tabasco Slim Jim Monster Beef Sticks

Look for this snack food at larger gas stations, 24-hour convenience stores, and bigger grocery stores. They come in a yellow and red wrapper with the white backing and black and white text, and the Tabasco label has some bright green near the top where the word TABASCO is imprinted in bold, capitalized, white text.

References

Revision History

2015-01-15: Rearranged tag and category assignments, added whitespace, and fixed typos.
2012-04-24: Originally published.