ManíLife Deep Roasted Smooth Peanut Butter

Rating: 10/10 (!!!)

• 🥜 Category: Peanut, Smooth, Plain
• Country of origin: England
• Serving suggestion: Don't, send it straight to me 📮

My first peanut butter from the UK and we are starting out strong, my friends... Yep - you read that rating correctly. This is a perfect peanut butter.

Open the jar, inhale deeply. The aroma is divine. Dark chocolate and butterscotch / toffee. Ready your preferred stirring utensil (I use a butter knife that's so flat it almost looks like one of those wooden sticks you use to stir coffee) and mix well. Texture is as it says on the jar: smooth - like super duper smooth - caramel sauce smooth. Now taste it on the spoon. Almost dessert like - burnt sugar, or molasses, and sweet wood. Basically all the notes I love in a gourmand perfume, and in a coffee, and in wine, and in my peanut butter apparently. Salt level is optimal and brings out the best in everything else (we love a supportive friend).

Bonus points:  ManíLife is a B Corp, and if you're in the UK, you can find it at Tesco.

Delicious straight from the jar, on fluffy untoasted bread, on crispy toast, as a dip for a fresh crunchy apples, as a crucial component of your overnight oats... Honestly do I need to go through every scrumptious application of my favourite spread in the whole wide world?

🥜👑✨

Teddie All Natural Smooth Peanut Butter

Rating: 7/10

• 🥜 Category: Peanut, Smooth, Plain
• Country of origin: USA
• Serving suggestion: Drizzled on top of a sweet dessert (in a situation where you might crunch up some potato chips or add crushed peanuts) or a sweet breakfast

The last of the North American peanut butters in my rotation! Don't cry for me - I should be able to get my grubby little hands on some more soon before I "hit pan" (to borrow a term from the makeup girlies), although I am going through these clownishly large jars at a mildly alarming rate...

Another cute peanut butter mascot! 🧸 Some serious stirring is required whenever I open the jar, even for a natural peanut butter - but once I jump that hurdle I find this to be moreish: I get why it's been around since the (19)20s. Medium roast - I think the level hits just right. A very classic, nostalgic aroma, a bit like that smell of just-toasted bread and butter, that accompany the fresh peanut flavour, but then shifts into a plain flavoured salted potato chip aftertaste. (That bit is reminiscent of the Cream-Nut I reviewed a little while ago.) It's got very thick yet drippy and oily texture, and the slight grittiness is charming.

You know what, I do like this despite its fussiness. It makes me want to get a chocolate/vanilla sundae from the local ice cream shop so I can drizzle this on top, or use this in a PB&J sandwich with the white bread I grew up eating (untoasted and with crust - always with crust). Dear reader, this is a reminder from me to have a silly little snack that makes you happy once in a while, and hug your inner child. 💖✨

Once Again Unsweetened Creamy Peanut Butter

Rating: 4/10

• 🥜 Category: Peanut, Smooth, Plain
• Country of origin: USA
• Serving suggestion: Peanut sauce or salad dressing, think South East Asian (Thai/Indonesian) flavours

Fruity and floral to begin with but has an unpleasant plasticky aftertaste. The texture is fine for a natural peanut butter - very loose and drizzly but requires stirring, yadda yadda yadda. Not awful for an unsalted peanut butter but also not good. I reckon this would be a boring but safe choice if you're into organic products, making peanut sauces, and you are inclined to add heaps of stinky strong ingredients like shrimp paste and tamarind to said peanut sauce.

Trash pandas are my spirit animals - I was once followed by a family of five raccoons on a long walk in Vancouver. I love their resourcefulness and their motivation for food. Unfortunately for this cute mascot, this is not my spirit peanut butter. 🦝

Darryl's Fresh Roasted Peanut Butter

Rating: 8/10

• 🥜 Category: Peanut, Smooth/Crunchy, Plain
• Country of origin: Australia
• Serving suggestion: As a huge dollop in the centre of a bowl of overnight oats with juicy juicy sliced ripe peaches, thick yoghurt and a generous sprinkle of cinnamon

Happy new year (it's still January - better late than never)!!! Since I last wrote I have been busy travelling, working (to afford peanut butter), adding to my peanut butter rotation, and eating through delicious (including some peanut butter-y) holiday treats. Now I have a backlog of tasting notes to sift through, reviews to come, and peanut-related travel photos/notes to share. I hope the short hiatus will have been worth it!

To start off, I have this jar, which I realise I did not photograph when it was shiny and beautiful and new. More proof that I do actually eat my peanut butters??? (Did you need it though???) There's a little associated story - I have a friend (A!!!) who is very judgemental of my Mayver's dark roasted obsession and instead swears by Darryl's. Despite my valiant efforts (ok, medium-willed at best) over a couple of years, I couldn't find it at my local specialty stores, and ordering online seemed unnecessarily annoying. So when one fine summer's day, I spotted a container of this extremely hard-to-source nut butter at the cafe where my friend's birthday was held, I bought it immediately. (And used it as a prop in all event photos I proceeded to be in. What are you meant to do with your hands, anyway?)

It's very yummy - caramelly, chocolatey and sweet, with slightly bitter coffee / dark chocolate notes at the end despite it not being as dark roasted. Salt level is perfect. I've been hooked on summer stone fruit lately and find that a dollop of this salty crunchy peanut product is a lovely complement to, and brings out, the natural sweetness of peaches and Greek yoghurt.

Texture is somehow verging on too dry though, and the peanuts aren't as chunky as in the Pic’s crunchy, but still not the best on toast (the other very important-to-me use case). I'd put it as pretty smack bang even with the regular Mayver's, but, sorry A, my beloved Mayver's dark roasted has not yet been dethroned.

Koeze Company Cream-Nut Natural Smooth Peanut Butter

Rating: 5/10

• 🥜 Category: Peanut, Smooth, Plain
• Country of origin: USA
• Serving suggestion: Mixed with vanilla/pandan or some other flavouring (perhaps good quality cocoa powder) and spread on toast or drizzled on fruit

Surprisingly nice roast level - unexpected from the colour alone. Texture is wonderfully spreadable but thick and gritty. I believe, from some quick Internet research, this is what Cream-Nut is known for and divides the people of the town.

Cream-Nut has a slight toasty, ashy taste that to me is not unpleasant but that doesn’t linger too long. To me, this is plain (like Bazzini, it is advertised as an old-fashioned style of peanut butter, an "oldie but goodie") - but in a way where I see it as a blank canvas.

Really tastes like Smith’s original (salted) potato chips at the end and coats your mouth in a similar way. I do like this! - but I'm not sure that I like it enough on its own to give it more than a 5.

Bazzini Old Fashioned Roasted Peanut Butter

Rating: 8/10

• 🥜 Category: Peanut, Smooth/Crunchy, Plain
• Country of origin: USA
• Serving suggestion: Delicious on toasted sourdough with raspberry compote for an adult PB&J; pictured here with some vanilla, sliced banana and a dusting of cinnamon for extra oomph

Oh, I like this one a lot!

A very classic (old fashioned as it says on the jar) dependable peanut butter and it doesn’t claim to  do more than that. Beautifully balanced flavour and on-point salt level. Nutty nutty nutty, rich, and naturally sweet with a pleasant texture and aftertaste.

Timeless, tasty, and pantry-staple worthy.

BKLYN Larder Peanut Butter

Rating: 4.5/10

• 🥜 Category: Peanut, Crunchy, Plain
• Country of origin: USA
• Serving suggestion: A savoury sauce for your weeknight stir-fry - I made this baked crispy peanut tofu recently, or in baking where peanut butter isn't the main flavour (picture is a chocolate chunk banana bread I made with oats, good quality dark chocolate, super duper ripe bananas and peanut butter to tie it all together)
  

I expected a lot from this one because BKLYN Larder seems the kind of place I would absolutely love to live around the corner from. I simply have a soft spot for specialty food stores, and their housemade cookies, especially the peanut butter toffee flavour they sell (in which they put their own peanut butter) sound crazy good.

Tasting notes off the spoon: woody, earthy, and sways bitter. The texture is dry and too firm for my liking with some crunch. My main thought is that for a salted peanut butter it's very thirsty for more salt! Overall this jar a bit underwhelming, but I can still find ways to dress it up, and I see how it would play well as second fiddle to good toffee (maybe I need to make the cookies for myself) or some other sweet, already-flavoured, mix-ins, or maybe as an component in a homemade mixed nut butter (I’m thinking some creamy cashews and either coconut or dark brown sugar for a smoky sweetness and improved texture).

Big Spoon Roasters Cowgirl Cookie Peanut Butter

Rating: 9/10

• 🥜 Category: Peanut, Smooth/Crunchy, Flavoured
• Country of origin: USA
• Serving suggestion: Anything that works with coconut and chocolate - pictured is my Greek yoghurt overnight oats, home-squeezed mango puree, banana coins, shredded coconut, A-grade cinnamon with a huge dollop of Cowgirl Cookie PB; or for moments where you care not for decorum, straight out of the jar with a big spoon (ha ha)

This is not a straight nut butter: it includes granola so is more a nut/granola butter (I know granola butter is more of a concept in the US, definitely rarer to find local to me) so my blog's categorisation is slightly wrong. For all intents and purposes though I will rate it as a novelty/flavoured peanut butter. I have also seen a rise on social media recently of nut butters with mix-ins (we love to see it) which I have decided will fall in the same tag.

This is incredible - so very moreish. In the words of an influencer recording a video with their hand behind the jar to show the label to the camera, I am obsessed.

The ingredients list: peanuts, pan-roasted pecans, granola, coconut nectar and maple syrup, dark chocolate chips (sourced from French Broad Chocolate of Asheville NC), vanilla and sea salt. It seems like it would be too much, but they have the flavour balance on point. Close your eyes and you can taste all the notes. My one very tiny textural fault is that because of the relative size of the pecans, you might get a spoonful where you are missing one.

It's a novelty product - I'm not going to pretend for one second that I care about versatility here. But it's a limited edition jar - you enjoy your delicious treat made even more special by its transience. If you can get your hands on it, buy for a sweet and salty dessert-masquerading-as-breakfast dollop on your morning Greek yogurt bowl, or on your toast, or even as a dessert topper (if I were more of an ice cream person, I would mix this through a really good vanilla ice cream or coconut sorbet and add a swirl of passionfruit - yum).

Or just spoon it straight out of the jar - I quite literally cannot judge 😉

Meet The Cast

Thanks to my kind workmates who brought back a bunch of new peanut butters for me to try (yes - I sent a list!) from the east coast of the USA, I have an updated photo of my current nut butter rotation as well an updated profile photo of the entire cast / team behind the blog (me!).

It’s been a year since I started this project and I’m feeling a shift in the air: more quick fire updates, more content. I’m thinking peanut butter snacks/desserts I encounter while travelling or even traipsing about my own city, breakfast no-recipe recipes, and tangentially related commentary.

Get in nut butter enthusiasts, we're going on a ride! 🎢

Fix & Fogg Everything Butter

Rating: 7/10

• 🥜 Category: Mixed, Smooth/Crunchy, Plain
• Country of origin: New Zealand
• Serving suggestion: With overripe fruit mixed into overnight oats to make it thick and give it a savoury note; thinned with hot water and mixed with a solid combination of sweet-leaning flavours that can hold up to the intense savouriness & nuttiness (e.g. pandan, cinnamon and coconut) to make a spread, topped with a quick fruit compote

The very first time I opened this jar, I’m not going to lie, I didn’t have a lot of hope. It was giving off the same energy as opening that cupboard in the corner of the kitchen that hasn’t seen much sunlight because it’s a little awkward to get to and where you stash stuff you know you won’t use that often as well as the canned goods you know you’ll need when you forget to do a grocery shop and need to rely on pantry staples but are otherwise uninspiring… just me? This jar smelled - please forgive me for lack of creativity - dank.

But I have since spent a bit of time with it. I have in fact taken multiple spoonfuls just out the jar while I'm prepping my overnight oats. I’ll give you a summary of why; because of the combination of nuts and seeds, the texture is really addictive - thick and crunchy, and the taste is complex and leans very heavily savoury. When you pair it with really ripe, really sweet spring/summer in-season fruit (think overripe bananas and tropical fruit), spread it on toast, and add a heavy sprinkle of cinnamon and cardamom... It's great. Breakfast haters will never understand the joie de vivre that a perfectly balanced tasting morning meal inspires.

Not as versatile as a solid peanut butter, or a milder mixed nut butter, but in the right context this baby shines.

Noya ABC Butter

Rating: 8/10

• 🥜 Category: Almond/Brazil/Cashew, Smooth, Plain
• Country of origin: Australia
• Serving suggestion: Delicious as a toast topper with cinnamon and sliced fruit (any kind), or spooned generously over the top of overnight oats made with Greek yoghurt and a quick berry/banana compote

You know I'm a peanut butter girl through and through, but lately I have been experimenting with different kids of nut butters (in addition to the staple - not a replacement!!!). Ya gal cannot walk past a good deal, so when I saw Noya was on sale I thought I'd pick out the ABC because 1) I thought the acronym was cute and 2) I remember liking the Noya pistachio spread when I bought it a millennium ago.

And boy is my life better for it - this spread is lovely, spreadable and light with a subtle roasty toasty flavour. I can snack on whole almonds endlessly, but I am not the biggest fan of them if they are by their lonesome in nut butter form. The cashews in this add the creaminess and sweetness that balance the grittiness and musty note of almonds. And I can't quite pick out the specific note that the brazil nut brings to the party, but it doesn't detract from the vibe, and I am glad to know that I am getting my selenium in.

SKIPPY Natural Creamy Peanut Butter Spread

Rating: 4/10

• 🥜 Category: Peanut, Smooth, Plain
• Country of origin: USA
• Serving suggestion: As a replacement for butter or vegetable oil in peanut butter flavoured baked goods / raw treats

A disclaimer is in order here: according to the official SKIPPY® website (I can't believe they got the elusive peanut butter dot com domain, by the way - that's dedication and I admire it), the US label has palm oil in the list of ingredients; when I was scouting the aisles at my local Woolworths, however, for my next peanut butter to buy, and looked at the label on this jar, it reads vegetable oil. From some quick online research, it seems that the main difference between the 'Natural' version of SKIPPY Creamy and the regular is that they've replaced the hydrogenated vegetable oil in the regular with palm oil. I'm therefore not sure if the version I'm reviewing is exactly the same as what you would find in the US, or what the difference is between the non-'Natural' SKIPPY Creamy and this one.

Disclaimer aside... Am I missing something here? SKIPPY seems to me to be the brand of choice for many food people whose tastes I trust, but in a phrase I would describe this as being a very lightly peanut flavoured, sweet and salty source of fat (like - butter or coconut oil or vegetable oil, that's how much this tastes like oil and not peanuts). This post has been sitting in a draft because I was second guessing myself, but Binging With Babish's Peanut Butter Ranking Video came out 2 days ago. Babish very boldly stated that SKIPPY is the benchmark. I decided that was as good of a kick in the butt as any to get it done.

Since I started writing this up I gave Mr. SKIPPY Natural Creamy multiple tries - as a spread on toast [which is what they advertise this should be!] (plain; with banana; with fruit spreads; with honey - all no), as an accoutrement to my morning oats (also no), out of the jar (no), and then finally as an ingredient in baking (berry banana PB protein muffins - yes; peanut butter cookies - yes but needed the addition of actual chopped peanuts; chocolate coconut oat protein slice - yes but needed a good dark chocolate and some smoky sea salt to add richness and flavour). I will say it's unoffensive, but it's not good. At least I have found valid ways to get through the jar.

Mayver's Smunchy Protein+ with 5 Super Seeds Peanut Butter

 Rating: 7/10

• 🥜 Category: Peanut, Smooth/Crunchy, Plain
• Country of origin: Australia
• Serving suggestion: Spread on unseeded toast with fresh berries and a dash of cinnamon/cardamom/ginger, or dolloped in the middle of a fresh Greek yoghurt & oat bowl (topped with heaps of tang - think lemon and blueberry)

This one is not for plain flavour enthusiasts, but if you love an adventure give it a go.

The flavour of this spread is very interesting. As usual Mayver's nails the peanut flavour intensity and salt levels, and this leans extremely savoury, but then ever so slightly sweet - like there is a very vague memory of vanilla. Maybe because it's so rich, to me this jar just begs for some acid or something zesty and fresh to pair it with.

The texture is really addictive. It's truly in the middle of smooth and crunchy, with added excitement thanks to the 5 super seeds (chia, linseed, hemp, sunflower, and pepita FYI). It's a pleasant experience akin to eating cookie dough with plenty of mix-ins, but savoury.

I won't say much about the Protein+ claim since that isn't why I bought this product, but it's worth mentioning that unlike in the Mayver's Smooth Chocolate Protein+ PB, I don't think the peanut flour took anything away from the texture or flavour.

I do really like this stuff but it gets a little bit too much a little bit too quickly. It's visiting town for a couple of weeks and taking you with them to tick off everything on the list of things to see and do and eat, sleep be damned. You need some time to do nothing and reset, but it was worth the journey (probably).