Grillo’s Pickles finally redesigned its notoriously awful lid, and the internet is happy again

I bought my first jar of Grillo’s Pickles in college. I carried them the half mile back from Target to my dorm room—which I had decorated like a ‘70s conversation pit, orange shag rug and all—and decided to have a quick snack. When I began to open the resealable lid, a tell-tale fizz should’ve alerted me to what was about to happen. But once there was a small crack in the jar’s seal, it was already too late. Pickle juice, bits of garlic, and sprigs of dill exploded like a chunky, vinegary firework all over my carefully curated dorm room. For months, the smell of pickles wafted up from the fibers of my rug. 

At the time, I thought my mistake was due to user error. But a quick look at Grillo’s social media proves otherwise.

“In college, the last night before my final capstone paper was due, a jar of Grillo’s exploded in my bag, frying my laptop,” one Instagram commenter wrote. “I graduated seven months late! Talk about being in a pickle.”

“I need reparations for the time where I struggled opening the jar and it exploded all over my mattress and bed frame,” another lamented on TikTok.

Grillo’s has finally heard its fans’ woes, and they’re taking action. The company just debuted a new jar design, complete with a twist-off lid, and it’s rolling out in stores across the U.S. over the coming months. The updated 32 oz jars are hitting shelves now, while new 16 oz jars are expected to drop sometime in the fall.

“The new lid will allow consumers to open and reseal with ease and prevent that signature Grillo’s splash when you open the jar,” Grillo’s VP of brand Eddie Andre wrote in an email to Fast Company. “It’s also a much better purchase process for consumers, as the jar will not leak during the shipping process and on the ride home from the store!”

According to Andre, back when Grillo’s was still a Boston startup selling its wares at farmers markets, the company actually started out by packaging its pickles in wonton soup containers. Then, when Grillo’s began to really take off, they picked a stock jar that was readily available from multiple vendors—the infamous exploding-lid container.

“The feedback on our old lid was WILD,” Andre wrote. “We would get stories about using power tools, invoices to detail cars, photos of jars that were smashed out of frustration, and lots of getting cussed out!”

Hopefully, the new jar will quell the influx of frustration-fueled threats from fans. Aside from the new lid, Grillo’s also took this opportunity to update the aesthetic of their packaging, opting for a more legible, bubbly font and a bigger logo (a pickle reclining on a beach chair, whom Andre calls “Sam Sam the Pickle Man”). Despite the new look, dedicated Grillo’s-eaters can rest assured that the signature recipe has remained the same.

“The response [to the new design] so far has been overwhelmingly positive,” Andre wrote. “A lot of ‘It’s about time!!’ or ‘Thank god!’ Some people have praised us for listening while others state that they’ll ‘miss the splash of pickle juice that makes them smell like pickles.’ Maybe we’ll put out a pickle fragrance this year to appease those people as well! In short—this was the brand’s biggest complaint, and we are thrilled to be able to give the people what they want without impacting the quality and taste of our product.”