Olivia Munn and meat on hold

Back in January, the lovely Olivia Munn gave a local smokehouse a Conan O'Brien shoutout:

The result of Olivia's brief mention was a rush to Maplewood Meats, both in-store and online (and hey, good for them!). As they're local to me, I recently got my hands on their venison meat sticks, and they're fantastic. Then I remembered I saved a Washington Post article from late January about jerky, and how it's taking over the world, at least the meaty part of it:

Why beef jerky, the manly, protein-packed snack, has become so damn popular

As the "junk food" conglomerates are looking to replace lost soda pop revenue, they're turning to snacks like beef jerky. Hershey's has just rolled out their own brand, Krave (which I think is a breakfast cereal brand too), and category sales are up, way up.

I thought about Maplewood and their new-found brand awareness, and I figured there's a "Maplewood Meats" everywhere. And as I usually do, I wondered "who's the best and where are they and can I order them online?"

So I'm gonna start compiling some lists/data/links and then deliver to you, dear reader/snack lover, the info you need to make solid snack consumption decisions. While I research and sample, I'd appreciate any submissions of local craft meat wizards with whom you're familiar. Just stick them in the comments, or post on SnackyPop's Facebook page here.

See you next week!