Even if I weren't trying to cut back on meat consumption, I would have a hard time getting excited about the Tanka Bar: "100% Natural Buffalo Cranberry Bar." Here is the sales pitch:
Based on traditional wasna and pemmican, we combine high-protein, prairie-fed buffalo and tart-sweet cranberries with our secret, patent-pending herbal-based preservative. Then we slow-smoke it to perfection for 9 hours. At only 70 calories, these bars are perfect for today's nomadic Native always on the go! Take some with you next time you hit the trail.
So, this is like jerky with cranberries added?
Even if that doesn't appeal to you, the business behind this story is interesting. Here is the scoop from Marketplace:
Trendy as energy bars are, in point of fact Native Americans have been onto the secret for ages. Last December Steve Tripoli brought us the story of a company in South Dakota hoping to repackage and market a more traditional high-protein snack. The Tanka bar is a combination of dried buffalo meat and cranberries. Tanka roughly translates to Big Idea. A fitting name, says company president Mark Tilsen:
MARK TILSEN: Coming from the pioneer reservation, which is one of the poorest places in the country, this is as grand and as big as you could think of to launch a nation and hopefully someday an international brand.
We talked to Mark at the Black Hills Pow Wow in South Dakota where he's launching the bar today. He says his company, Native American Natural Foods, has produced 100,000 bars for the launch and they've almost sold out.
TILSEN: Every time somebody tastes it their eyebrows go up and they say, "That's not what i expected." Because it's all natural and the cranberries are almost whole in there and you get this burst that we call the taste of energy.
As opposed to the sawdust most of 'em taste like. But good flavor's not cheap. A Tanka bar will set you back $2.25.
This is the first product for Native American Natural Foods, but it's not the first business with big aspirations riding on buffalo ... or, more properly, bison. Remember Ted Turner's Montana Grill? (Which, oddly enough, has no restaurants in Montana.)
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1. Posted by Jake on October 8, 2007 @ 18:59 | Permalink
This product actually sounds sort of tasty, at least compared to the kind of K-ration stuff backpackers used to have to eat in the 1960s.
An early entrant in the consumer market for buffalo was Bubba's Burgers on Westpark Drive in Houston. In the 1980s and early 1990s, you could stop at Bubba's and get a great bisonburger and an icy cold longneck for about five bucks, more if you wanted cheese on the burger or fries on the side. Progress, alas, left Bubba's behind a few years ago.
2. Posted by eric on October 8, 2007 @ 19:14 | Permalink
I'm with Jake -- these sound yummy. If I had to limit myself to just one form of meat, it would unquestionably be Buffalo. If I could have a second, it would be goat. As meat goes, they are relatively low in fat and high in flavor.
3. Posted by Jake on October 8, 2007 @ 19:33 | Permalink
Ditto goat. Cabrito BBQ is excellent.
4. Posted by Lynne on April 1, 2008 @ 12:27 | Permalink
I tried the Tanka Bar at the Natural Products Expo in Anaheim last month and they are fantastic! Not what I expected at all. If I could get them in Chicago, they would be my new, favorite snack. The fact that they are only 70 calories per bar is a real plus. I wish them all the luck in finding success with this bar. It may be a tough road because of it's uniqueness (does it belong in an energy bar set or with the jerky?) and unusual (at least to the average American's mind) ingredient of Buffalo.
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