SONOMA, CALIF. — The Krave jerky brand is unveiling a refreshed look, a move to 100% grass-fed beef and new products, including zero-sugar varieties. The changes come a little over a year after The Hershey Co. sold the business back to its founder, Jon Sebastiani, at Sonoma Brands. 

Efforts to overhaul Krave include a return to the brand’s original quality and cooking methods, resulting in better texture and consistency, maximized marinating time and improved flavor quality, according to the company. Additionally, the brand has transitioned to sourcing all grass-fed beef, featured in its new Zero Sugar Jerky line, available in Sonoma-style barbecue and Southwest hatch chile flavors. The company described the new packaging as “vibrant and playful,” with bright hues and “cheerful humor.”

“With Krave we created a new better-for-you jerky category that proved so successful other brands followed suit,” Sebastiani said. “It was flattering to see brands emulate what was drawing consumers to Krave, but it also resulted in a surge of similar looks and attributes across jerky brands that made it hard to discern one from another on-shelf.

“As a brand that has always aimed to ‘Krave Better’ and set itself apart since its inception, we saw this sea of sameness and knew the time had come for Krave to disrupt the category once again. This complete brand refresh paired with our new products does just that and brings our Sonoma spirit to the forefront.”

Sebastiani founded Krave in 2009, igniting a gourmet jerky trend, and sold the business to Hershey in 2015. The following year, he launched Sonoma Brands, a consumer products incubator and venture fund, which has developed and introduced brands including Smashmallow and Peckish while investing in Dang Foods, Hu Products, Yumble and Milk Bar.

Krave has positioned itself as a maker of premium meat snacks with distinctive flavor varieties such as black cherry barbecue pork jerky, basil citrus turkey jerky, and chili lime beef jerky. The brand’s portfolio of protein snacks also includes pork rinds and plant-based jerky.