The Jury’s Out: Spam Snacks

Since returning from Spam Jam in Hawaii this spring, I’ve had in my hands a hot little product from Hormel: Spam Snacks! And I wasn’t able to write about it until now.

During the opening events, simply labeled packets were handed out while I was tasting the various Spam dishes. As other attendees were ripping open the packets to chow down with the food (overkill if you ask me), I reserved mine until I was in San Diego and shared it with Paul.

There are no surprises here: it tastes like Spam but we both agreed that eating it alone without plain white rice didn’t put the product in the best light. The whole joy of eating Spam for me is usually comes with a big pile of carbs and eggs.

Unless you like eating Spam as-is and much drier, I don’t think it will appeal to a lot of people. A lot of people at the event were calling it “Spam jerky” because it has a lot of similarities to beef jerky with a bit of chew. I can foresee keeping it on hand if you’re on a meat-centric diet or if you’re looking to keep it in your emergency food stash, but isn’t that what a regular can of Spam is supposed to do?

Huffington Post calls it “weird.” While I won’t go as far as calling it that, I think sticking to different flavored cans Spam is the best course of action for Hormel.

Three flavors will be available on shelves soon: bacon, teriyaki and classic.

While I was in Hawaii, I also managed to pick up several cans of garlic Spam as well as a disappointing can of teriyaki-flavored Spam which you can find on the mainland.