A few months back Jeney and I visited Sprouts Farmers Market and purchased a pack of Krave plant-based jerky. To say that it was not as good as their competitors is quite frankly an understatement. The product itself was incredibly firm, lacked flavor and just wasn’t great. I let them know if my discontent.
What WAS great, was their customer service department. When I wrote them an email explaining that I did not enjoy their product at all, someone got back to me within a couple of hours, and apologized for the product. They let me know they were formulating new products that were plant-based and would let us know when they were available.
So to my surprise, I received a package from them containing their new plant-based snack stick. This product is meant to be similar to ‘slim jims’.
I was excited to try it, however that’s where the excitement ended.
Whereas the original product was incredibly firm, almost to the point of being like cardboard, this new plant-based stick was squishy – yet crumbly. They provided us with three flavors, Korean barbecue, smoked chipotle and cracked peppercorn.
The cracked peppercorn was soft, crumbly and the least flavorful option. Determined to give them all a fair shot, we tried the other two as well.
Next up was smoked chipotle. While it was a little bit more firm, it was still crumbly and didn’t really pack too much chipotle flavor.
Although our pallet was unenthused, we valiantly preceded onward to the final destination, Korean barbecue. This flavor was definitely the best out of the three. It still was not as firm as you would expect a snack stick to be, and it was still crumbly. I will say that it had a more distinct barbecue flavor that set it apart from the other two.
Overall, as much as I enjoy their customer service and the nice letter that they wrote to me, I cannot endorse this product. I certainly hope that they continue formulating their product and make it better. If anything, their customer service will entice me to give them another shot.
