Bear meat is very good.....I shot one in Alaska at the outskirts of a blueberry thicket. Very sweet, tender and I thought all bear meat was a deep dark reddish purple. I shot one later in PA and couldn’t stand the smell while gutting him out. Certainly couldn’t find a way to cook it that made him palatable. Went back to the area to scout out the terrain and found an open pit county dump within 3 miles of where I was going to hunt. Mystery solved.