ABOVE: Mad jerky scientist Puna Kaneakua applies some heat in the kitchen/laboratory at Jerky Lab in Kaneohe. Some of the far-out flavor experiments—like garlic Parmesan—are a hit. Others, like Pumpkin Spice Latte, might require further testing.
The space is full of dehydrators, industrial refrigerators and plastic bins overflowing with sliced beef marinated in ingredients like kimchi or ranch dressing and dried to leather. And is that a pouch of cookie icing on the spice rack? Nothing is off the table, says Kaneakua. Hence Jerky Labs' slogan: Dream it. Dry it. Devour it.
Like many of us doing the Hawaii hustle, Kaneakua has multiple occupations. He's a civil engineer, a CrossFit teacher (he's built like a WWF wrestler), a latte art practitioner (that one's pro bono) and, in his spare time, a mad beef scientist who co-owns Jerky Labs with two buddies from high school, Jesse Dowsett and Henry Rogers.
Kaneakua's experiments in jerky started with fishing. He used to dry his catch, which led to the idea of making his own beef jerky, since the snack was delicious but expensive. He bought a dehydrator and meat slicer in 2013 and started making jerky for friends and family, playing with unusual flavors (his first being garlic Parmesan). When people started encouraging him to sell his creations, he expanded his dehydrator fleet to two, then four. Soon he was buying shelves and extension cords going, "Ho! This is getting big!" He started the business when he hit nine dehydrators in 2019, marketing by word of mouth. By the time the world was in pandemic-land he was shipping orders as far away as Kalamazoo, Michigan. Today he sells seven hundred to a thousand bags of jerky a month.
Snacking on jerky has been a Hawaii tradition since paniolo (cowboys) began making pipi kaula (literally, "rope beef") in the late nineteenth century. Far from the simple sprinkle of shoyu (soy sauce) usually accompanying pipi kaula, Jerky Labs concocts dozens of flavors from Everything but da Bagel ("everything" being the seasoning on an everything bagel) to Pumpkin Spice Latte. Not every flavor has turned out to be a top seller, like the popular lemongrass, garlic Parmesan and Korean BBQ. "I had high hopes for Taki-flavored jerky, but it just tasted like corn chips. Also, candy corn was gross," Kaneakua laughs. He hopes to have a retail space built out within a year, but for now jerky fans can test the next promising experiment through Jerky Labs' online store. Turns out the icing was for the Pumpkin Spice Latte flavor, so iced cookie jerky will not be a contender, but a flavor called Pucker Up is. Stay tuned to find out whether jerky seasoned with Sour Patch Kids makes the cut.
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