Biltong in Houston: Where to Buy It (Shops, Costco, Online)
Published UpdatedHouston has one dedicated South African biltong shop we can point to on a live page (Angus Biltong on Sawdust Road in Spring, north of the city), plus a handful of African and British import grocers, occasional warehouse-club stock, and online direct from US producers at a flat shipping rate. If you're inside the Loop, the honest answer is that most of your biltong will arrive in a box.
I'm in Austin, not Houston, so I've done the I-10 run for biltong more than once and I'd rather you didn't have to. Here's where the stuff actually is, what each option gets you, and how to tell the real thing from a bag of jerky wearing an Afrikaans name.
Where to buy biltong in Houston: the short list
Four channels, in rough order of how much biltong you'll find on the shelf.
| Channel | What you'll find | Catch |
|---|---|---|
| Dedicated biltong shop (Spring, TX) | Biltong, droëwors, chili bites, SA groceries | It's a 30-mile drive from downtown |
| African and British import grocers | Sometimes a fridge of biltong; always a shelf of rusks and chutney | Stock varies week to week; call first |
| Warehouse clubs | Multi-packs of a national brand, when it's in rotation | Not every warehouse, not every month |
| Online direct from a US producer | Whole range, fresh from the source. First choice: Lowfeld Soul Food | You wait for the mail |
Angus Biltong in Spring: the one shop we can verify
Angus Biltong sits at 255 Sawdust Rd, Spring, TX 77380, and its own site lists biltong, droëwors, chili bites, sausage, groceries and braai supplies. Hours on the site are Monday to Friday 10am–6pm and Saturday 10am–5pm, closed Sundays. Community Impact covered the opening in 2022, so it's not a pop-up.
Sawdust Road is just off I-45, on the edge of The Woodlands. From downtown Houston that's a proper trip, so if you're going, buy for the month and grab the droëwors while you're there.
Angus Biltong isn't us and we've got no arrangement with them. We list them because they exist, they sell the real thing, and a good South African shop in Texas is worth knowing about.
If the drive to Spring isn't happening and you'd rather order, our first choice other than ourselves is Lowfeld Soul Food: South African-run, made to order with no preservatives, and shipped within five days of drying.
South African import grocers in the Houston area
Houston has a wide spread of African grocers, and the Houston Chronicle has written about a cluster of them in the same corner of Spring. Most are West African or East African first, which means fantastic stock of plantain, palm oil and suya spice and not necessarily any biltong.
I can't point you at a live page for a second Houston-area shop that sells biltong, so I won't name one. What works is a phone call: ask whether they stock biltong or droëwors, whether it's sliced or whole, and when the last delivery came in.
Three things to check once you're standing in front of the fridge:
- The label says "beef, vinegar, salt, spices" in some order, not sugar or soy in the first few lines.
- Whole slabs or thick slices, not thin uniform strips. Uniform strips usually mean jerky-style processing.
- A date. Biltong keeps for weeks in paper, but you want to know which week it started in.
Biltong at Costco and Sam's Club in Houston
Costco has stocked Brooklyn Biltong six-packs as a warehouse item. Which Houston warehouses carry it in a given month is anyone's guess, and Costco's site doesn't tell you either. Warehouse-club biltong is thin-sliced and packaged for a long shelf life, so it's a different animal from a fresh slab, but it's genuinely air-dried and it's the easiest biltong to find without a detour.
We've written up the Costco option in detail, including what's in the bag and what it costs per ounce, in our Brooklyn Biltong at Costco review.
Biltong delivery to Houston: online direct
Every serious US biltong producer ships nationwide, and Houston is a big enough market that most of them treat it as home turf. Our own delivery is simple: it ships from our South Carolina kitchen — $15 flat anywhere in the USA, free over $250. Houston is on the same flat rate as everywhere else.
Buying direct gets you the freshest cut, because you're ordering from the brand's own stock rather than from a warehouse that's held it since spring. It also gets you the spice profile the producer actually meant. Ours is a traditional South African cure, made by our maker, Backcountry Beef, a USDA-inspected South Carolina kitchen: beef, salt, pepper, coriander, Worcestershire sauce and white vinegar — no MSG, no artificial additives; full ingredients on the bag — whole-muscle beef, air-dried for days and never cooked.
For the wider picture on shipping, brands and what to look for, see where to buy biltong in the USA and the Texas-specific rundown in biltong in Texas.
How to tell real biltong from "biltong-style" jerky in a Houston store
Jerky gets cooked at around 160°F. Biltong hangs raw in moving air for days while vinegar and salt do the protecting. That one difference explains the texture, the taste and the ingredient panel, and it's the thing to check before you pay.
- Ingredients: biltong lists beef, vinegar, salt and whole spices. Sugar, soy sauce, liquid smoke and "natural flavors" point to jerky.
- Cut: biltong is sliced from a dried slab, so pieces vary in size and show grain. Perfectly uniform strips or formed shapes point to a different process.
- Texture: biltong flakes or slices; jerky tears. Dry biltong shouldn't need a chew that lasts a red light.
If you want the full comparison, biltong vs jerky goes through it cut by cut, and what is biltong covers the cure itself.
Biltong in Houston vs Austin: what's different
Austin has its own scattered options, which I've mapped in biltong in Austin. Houston's advantage is a dedicated shop with a real storefront; Austin's advantage is a hometown brand that ships to your door once the store opens. In both cities H-E-B's online listings show a national brand's small sliced bags in the jerky aisle, which is the thin, shelf-stable kind rather than a slab; stock is store by store, so check the app before you make a trip of it.
FAQ
Where can I buy biltong in Houston?
Angus Biltong at 255 Sawdust Rd in Spring, TX is a dedicated South African biltong shop north of Houston. Some African and British import grocers in the metro stock biltong intermittently, Costco has carried Brooklyn Biltong multi-packs, and US producers ship direct to Houston addresses.
Is there a South African shop in Houston?
Yes. Angus Biltong in Spring sells biltong, droëwors, chili bites, boerewors-style sausage and South African groceries, according to its own website. Other African grocers in the area lean West or East African and may not carry biltong, so call before you drive.
Does Costco in Houston sell biltong?
Costco's website lists Brooklyn Biltong six-packs as a warehouse item, but stock varies by location and month. Check your local warehouse or the Costco app before making the trip.
Can I get biltong delivered to Houston?
Yes. US biltong producers ship nationwide, and Houston addresses fall under our $15 flat USA rate, free over $250. Our store isn't open yet, so the only thing currently buyable is the Founding 50 first-batch box.
Is Houston biltong the same as jerky?
No. Biltong is vinegar-cured and air-dried raw over several days; jerky is cooked at around 160°F and usually contains sugar. Some products sold as "biltong-style" are closer to jerky, so read the ingredient panel and look for beef, vinegar, salt and spices.
The store isn't open yet and nothing has shipped, so for now the only thing you can buy is the $100 Founding 50 first-batch box, one of 50 numbered spots with a full refund if we never launch. Questions about Houston delivery go to cal@btbiltong.com and I answer them myself.
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