Beef jerky had always been fine, but it always lacked a certain something, that certain something was caffeine.

“Hey there, blog boy,” you might say after reading that first sentence. “Noticed you used the past tense in that first sentence there. That, the photo and the headline have me thinking it may be that the era of caffeine-free jerky may have passed. Any truth to that?”

The answer is a resounding yes. Somehow two culinary miracles have occurred within a week’s time. (The first, of course, being the KFC Double Down). Perky Jerky boasts 150mg of caffeine in every bag — nearly double the measly 80mg in a can of Red Bull.

Reader Normlgirl spotted the ad site and sent it our way. The site boasts (emphasis ours):

Perky Jerky is the world’s first all-natural performance enhancing meat snack. Put simply, we’ve combined the most tender and flavorful beef jerky, with an extra dose of energy (caffeine, from the Guarana we add) to provide a jerky experience you won’t find anywhere else.

BizJournals dug a little deeper and discovered the inside story of the making of Perky Jerky:

According to PEMS’ website, the idea for the product originated “after a long, hard night of energy-drink-cocktail-fueled libation” at a ski lodge. The next day, or so the story goes, the skiers ate some beef jerky from an open bag that had been drenched in energy drink the night before.

“Much to [the skiers’] delight, the jerky had retained its original flavor, but had been made more tender by the accident,” the website relates. “What’s more, … they realized they’d been given an extra boost — the jerky had taken on some of the pep of the energy drink. On the next lift ride up, the greatest innovation in jerky since cracked pepper was born.”

The enthusiasm is understandably contagious. Now that mankind has achieved this plateau, we shouldn’t stop here. Commenters, I challenge you to come up with the next great culinary combo that might top the Double Down and Perky Jerky.

Grab a Jerk and Go [Perky Jerky]