About Thanks Danks
Jerky that tastes like the steak it came from is rarer than it ought to be. Thanks Danks is the work of Jordan and Garret Danks, a husband-and-wife team who say their love story involves beef jerky. Garret has been a jerky fanatic since he was four, studying the jerky jars at gas stations as a kid in search of the perfect piece. By 14 the store-bought stuff wasn’t cutting it, so he started making his own and researching cuts, marinades, seasonings and texture. Originally from Arkansas, he carried that interest through high school and college before heading to Austin, Texas. That is where he met Jordan; the two bonded over jerky on their first date, but her allergies ruled most of it out. So Garret went back to the kitchen to make something Jordan could eat safely, with none of the sugar or fillers. The result was Thanks Danks, which the founders describe as a personal fix that grew into a mission to raise the bar for jerky.
What makes Thanks Danks different
Thanks Danks calls its product steak in a bag, and the ingredient lists support the phrase: every flavor starts with trimmed USDA Choice flank steak, marinated in gluten-free soy sauce and apple cider vinegar with a short list of spices. The brand says it treats jerky like steak, carefully marinated and thoughtfully seasoned, and its case against the rest of the aisle is blunt: fillers, added sugar and water, and blended scraps sold as beef. Its answer is real cuts with no corn protein, no meat scraps and no mystery additives. The badges on the home page fill in the rest: sugar free, gluten free, non-GMO, corn free, no nitrates, no MSG, no artificial flavor, no liquid smoke, grass-fed beef and 44g of protein. Where there is heat, the company says it is marinated into the beef rather than coated on, which it credits for a cleaner burn.
Thanks Danks flavors we carry
The range is all beef and all flank steak, and it moves by place and style rather than by stunt. If you want the plainest version of the idea, The Original is the brand’s classic chophouse blend of garlic, onion and black pepper over soy sauce and vinegar, seasoned like a steak, with no heat called out; it belongs with the rest of our original beef jerky picks. Zydeco heads to Louisiana and is built on the Cajun Holy Trinity, the celery, bell pepper and onion base of that cooking, which the brand likens to a roast beef po’boy: bold, savory and New Orleans through and through, again with no heat called out. It is a natural fit among our Cajun-style beef jerky. Umai, pronounced oo·mah·ii, draws on teppanyaki-style cooking, layering ginger and onion for a savory depth the brand says enhances the steak rather than masking it. Viper is the hot one: cayenne and red pepper flakes marinated in rather than dusted on, for a burn the brand describes as hitting the back of your throat instead of setting your mouth on fire. If heat is the point, browse it beside our other spicy beef jerky.
Every flavor is billed as sugar free and gluten free, which is why it also sits in our cleaner-label jerky collection. Everything currently in stock is in the grid above.
Who it's for
Thanks Danks suits you if you want jerky that tastes mostly of beef, with heat confined to a single flavor and no sweetness anywhere, since the manufacturer lists zero sugar across the line. The brand doesn’t describe texture beyond its steak-in-a-bag pitch, so expect real cuts of flank steak rather than blended or chopped pieces. Every flavor contains soy, because gluten-free soy sauce is the base of each marinade, so check the label if soy is a concern. The brand positions the line as sugar free, gluten free and corn free for shoppers reading labels around food sensitivities.
