Perky Jerky: This caffeine and meat snack has a dash of charitable cause

The unlikely marriage of caffeine and meat snack got its start in Utah, in the winter of 2005. Tech entrepreneurs and college friends Brian Levin and Matt Keiser were on a skiing trip at Snowbird, and after a day on the slopes, they partied hard and fueled up on energy-drink cocktails late into the evening. The next morning, as they loaded up their gear to hit the snow, the duo noticed that a bottle of caffeinated energy drink had spilled on some peppered beef jerky snacks.

After a few tasteless jokes, Keiser and Levin decided to pack the jerkies anyway for edibles on the slopes. "I took a bite and thought the taste was good -- actually better than the regular jerky taste. It was also more tender than jerky usually is. So some bells went off, and we thought: 'We have the world's first performance-enhancing meat snack,'" recalls Levin.