These Are the Only Peanut Butters Worth Buying
Covering the Spread
There are two types of people: people who obsess over peanut butter, and people who have a fatal peanut allergy. And even then, sometimes it’s a Venn diagram. Whether it’s for PB&J, celery slices, smoothie bowls, or just a big fat spoonful, peanut butter is a gift. In the olden days, it was as simple as choosing creamy or chunky — but today? There are natural peanut butters, there are honey-flavored varieties, there are health-conscious peanut butters, and many more. We’re here to save you some time, so take a look at these 25 different peanut butters that we tried, just for you.
Best Overall Peanut Butter: RX Nut Butter Honey Cinnamon Peanut Butter
Is it cheating for RX to win a peanut butter taste test simply because theirs is made far more delicious by the addition of cinnamon? It just might be. At the end of the day, this is a peanut butter taste test, and RX made peanut butter. They chose to put cinnamon and honey in it when nobody else did. They chose to create the perfect granular consistency full of peanut flavor, sweet honey, and autumnal cinnamon. They chose to bring a bazooka to a knife fight, and for that, they have won. This peanut butter is absolutely incredible. It’s a win with an asterisk, but a win nonetheless.
The Winner Without an Asterisk: Fix & Fogg Super Crunchy
If honey and cinnamon are an eye-roll for you, look no further than Fix & Fogg. The milky, buttery, umami-laden treat they’ve created is a stunner. It’s hearty and crunchy without getting stuck in your teeth, and that New Zealand sea salt just sings, y’all. You’ve come to this list to find the best classic peanut butter — Fix & Fogg is the one.
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Best Creamy: Justin’s Peanut Butter
If creamy and smooth mean the same thing to you, then you’ll want to move along. Smoothest Peanut Butter is a few slides down. Justin’s Peanut Butter is, for us, a perfect creamy peanut butter. It’s silky and flowy, but still layered with the slightest amount of texture. There’s salt, and deep, nutty flavor, and everything is right. Justin is a wizard, and he is doing magical things.
Best Crunchy: Jif Crunchy
The truth is, nothing really hits like Jif. There are times in life where a brand supersedes a craving. Rarely do you want any old cola, you want a Coca-Cola. You don’t want a burger, you want McDonald’s. For us, this is Jif. We want peanut butter, so we want Jif Crunchy. It’s the soft, spreadable, roasty wonderfulness of Jif, plus lots of perfectly crunchy peanuts that don’t turn your mouth into an echo chamber of squeaks. This is the stuff, right here.
Lightest & Cleanest: Whole Foods Organic Creamy
The first thing you’ll notice about a mouthful of Whole Foods peanut butter is how bright it is. Out of every single peanut butter we tasted, nothing came close to how light and clean Whole Foods was. On top of that, this stuff has a no-stir-but-still-natural situation going on. Stirring up your natural peanut butter is an absolute nuisance, so this is a miracle as far as we’re concerned. The fact that it’s got no sugar or salt is another miracle, because you’d never know. Say what you will about Whole Foods, but when they hit, they hit hard.
Related: When Is It Worth Buying Organic?
Best Natural Crunchy: Whole Foods Organic Crunchy
The brightness that makes the Whole Foods Creamy so great is a terrific juxtaposition with hearty, crunchy peanut chunks. Whole Foods knows what they’re doing here — the chunks are perfect, squeakless little morsels that have good crunch without getting stuck in your teeth. All that plus the fact that we’ve still got a no-stir natural peanut butter, and this is a winner.
Smoothest Peanut Butter: Skippy Natural Creamy with Honey
You know how Domino’s is still delicious, but it’s not the same thing as refined Italian pizza? That’s sort of the deal with Skippy. It’s like fast-food peanut butter. In fact, it’s not even really peanut butter, because in order to be considered actual peanut butter, you need to be at least 90% peanuts. Turns out this particular Skippy is peanut spread, which means it’s delicious, but it could be made of literally anything (much like Domino’s). That said, who cares? Skippy’s Natural Creamy with Honey is sweet, creamy, and wonderful. Thumbs way up.
Best Roasted: Santa Cruz Organic Dark Roasted
Roasty as can be, Santa Cruz Organic’s Dark Roasted peanut butter is exactly what it sounds like. This is a deep, thick, toasty thing, creamy with tiny little bits of peanut texture all throughout. It’s sticky, salty, and just the thing you want when you’re reaching for roasted peanut butter. This thing is begging for some milk.
Best for Peanut-holics: Crazy Richard's Crunchy
To be a peanut lover is one thing. We are peanut lovers. To be a peanut-holic is entirely something else. If you are looking for a peanut butter that makes you feel like you’re drowning in a sea of peanuts, something around your ankle, dragging, pulling you, deeper and deeper, down into the depths of the great peanut sea, then Crazy Richard’s is for you. The butter itself is as thick and sticky as we have ever encountered, and the dense, heavy peanut flavor is only matched by the 800 gallons of peanuts they’ve crammed into each jar. Crazy Richard’s is for only the most intense of peanut eaters.
A Healthy Choice, If You Must: Crazy Richard's Creamy
If you’re looking to make a healthy choice, Crazy Richard’s is probably the one. Much like the crunchy variety, it’s thick as can be, and a full-on peanut flavor assault. That said, it also contains no salt, no palm oil, is gluten-free and plant-based, and has no added sugar at all. In other words, it’s bad. So, is a healthy choice really worth it? Can’t be. Go grab some almond butter.
Best for Sticky Lovers: Trader Joe’s Organic Creamy Salted
The television series “Lost,” which had a terrific ending despite what the haters say, features a scene where sweet little Charlie Pace pantomimes eating peanut butter. In this scene, he is describing a fantasy peanut butter: the one you crave most on a deserted island. “Stick to the roof of your mouth, oh god it makes you want a glass of milk, extra smooth,” he waxes. Turns out Charlie is describing the Trader Joe’s Organic Creamy Salted peanut butter. Are you a Charlie? Is your mouth watering? You know what to do.
Related: The Best Frozen and Ready-to-Eat Meals from Trader Joe's
Best for PB&J: Trader Joe’s Crunchy Salted
The only thing stopping TJ’s peanut butter from hitting the top of our charts is the supreme stickiness. It’s simply not for us. Their crunchy flavor is all the greatness of the creamy and more, with salty, rich, delicious butter and a ton of crunchy peanuts that do not squeak at all. How do you neutralize some of that stickiness? Great question. Here’s a great answer: Put it in a PB&J. You’re probably not reading this guide because you want to know which peanut butter you should eat with a spoon (but if you are, that’s awesome). You’ll probably be making a PB&J with this.
Most Iconic: Skippy Classic Creamy
If you told somebody to shout out the first brand of peanut butter they could think of, chances are high they’d say Skippy. They might say Jif, and they may even say Peter Pan if they are pranking you, but we don’t see a lot of other brands being shouted out. There is a lot of power at play here, and we have to commend Skippy for it. When you reach for some Skippy, you know exactly what you’re getting. You don’t become the most iconic peanut butter in the game for no reason. Nothing but respect here.
Worst Crunchy: Laura Lynn Crunchy
We’re not quite sure if Laura Lynn was going for this on purpose with their crunchy peanut butter, but this tastes a whole lot more like peanut skins than actual peanuts. You know, those flaky bits you spend the whole baseball game peeling off. Is this something you’re into? If so, here’s a peanut butter that you need to try. Unfortunately, we are not into that. We are not into that at all.
Worst Overall Peanut Butter: Harvest Farms Organic Creamy
Until this taste test, if you had asked us if there was such a thing as bad peanut butter we would have probably said no way. We thought peanut butter was like pizza or fries, where no matter how bad it is, it’s still just fine. Wrong. Harvest Farms is up to some dastardly stuff with their Organic Creamy peanut butter, and it starts right from the minute you open the jar. Though it does not say that it’s natural peanut butter, the first thing you see is a menacing puddle of oil. If you’re unfamiliar with natural peanut butter, it’s probably not a desirable sight. It’s a thick boy, too, and to eat some feels very much like inhaling a pound of sand. Very dry, highly unpleasant, and on top of all of it, it takes a long time to stir. So sorry, Harvest Farms. This one’s a stinker.
The Who-Ya-Foolin’ Award: Skippy Natural Super Chunk
The truth is, we don’t know who Skippy Natural Super Chunk (which is what they called me in high school) is for. If it’s for lovers of Skippy, they’re going to be disappointed in the oily, au-naturel situation. If it’s for lovers of real peanut butter and organic natural brands, they’re going to be disappointed in Skippy’s low-grade ingredient quality. The truth is, go get a natural peanut butter if you want a natural peanut butter, and get classic Skippy if you want classic Skippy. It’s not like this is healthy; it’s Skippy, after all. Who ya foolin’?
The Underdog Award: Peter Pan Honey Roast Creamy
In a world of Jifs and Skippys, it’s hard to root against Peter Pan. Pan isn’t the first brand that comes to mind, but we all know him. And after tasting his Honey Roast peanut butter, we’ve realized there needs to be some more respect on his name. The consistency is just as creamy and smooth as Skippy — pretty indistinguishable, as a matter of fact. Mix in that great sweetness from the honey and you’ve got yourself a highly respectable peanut butter.
Worst Squeak: Harris Teeter Natural Crunchy
You’ve heard us talk about peanut “squeak” quite a bit now. You know the one: that nasty feeling when a peanut slides across your teeth and reverberates inside your head. On this one, Harris Teeter (a grocery store that generally makes good things), has massively beefed it. This butter is far too salty, far too oily, and full of massive, squeaky peanut chunks. Do not put this in your body.
Best for Dipping: Justin’s Peanut Butter with Honey
We handed Justin’s Creamy the title of Best Creamy, and by adding honey, they are still absolutely crushing things. The perfect grainy texture of the butter and the brightness of the honey make for a perfect spread or dip with celery, apples, pretzel sticks, or whatever your go-to peanut butter dipper is. And to make things easier? It’s also available in single-serve squeeze packets. Easy squeezy.
Best for Sticky-Haters: Reese’s Creamy
Don’t get us wrong, we love a Reese’s Cup. The fact that they’ve launched their own peanut butter is an interesting move, but the truth is, it’s quite forgettable. It’s not really candy-sweet like you’d expect, but it’s also not as salty or roasty as other nut butters. It is, however, unbelievably smooth and spreadable. If you want a peanut butter you don’t have to wrestle with, be it in the jar or between your teeth, Reese’s is as solid a move as you’ll find.
Best for Choosy Moms: Jif Creamy
We’ll be honest, we couldn’t think of another category for this one. You know how hard it is to make 25 highly specific peanut butter categories? Harder than it seems. The point is, Jif Creamy is wonderful, and simply because a few other creamy peanut butters are more wonderful doesn’t mean Jif should be forgotten about. “Choosy Moms Choose Jif,” as the old slogan goes, and even though that still means pretty much nothing, we like it. Sometimes when it comes to peanut butter, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. We often crave Jif, and if you do too, we don’t need to tell you. You’re choosy. You get it.
Best Honey Peanut Butter: Peanut Butter & Co. The Bee’s Knees
Wow, oh wow. Peanut Butter & Co. has a homerun on its hands. Of all the honey-flavored peanut butters, this one has the best salty-sweet balance by far. The honey is definitely prevalent, and the salty, smooth peanut butter compliments it perfectly. It’s natural, but the stirring process isn’t as much of a to-do as other natural butters. This is a winner, and you want it in your pantry.
Easiest Natural Peanut Butter to Stir: Smucker’s Natural Chunky
Let’s face it, natural peanut butter can be quite the production sometimes. Stirring things up until you get your desired consistency definitely isn’t as easy as popping open a ready-to-spread jar, but there are a few brands that make it easy. Smucker’s (which actually owns Jif) is one of them. Their Natural Chunky is actually one of the better natural peanut butters we tried, and its natural-ness is hardly an issue. The oil, which is sparse enough to not be super messy, is easy to fold into the rest of the jar and only takes a few seconds. Nice work, Smuck.
Related: Competing Brands That Are Owned by the Same Company
Most Unremarkable: Skippy Super Chunk
Though Skippy gets a shout out for their easy-to-rip-off foil (most of these brands require Hulk-like strength to pierce the foil), their Super Chunk is highly unremarkable. Skippy succeeds with a dreamy consistency, but the inclusion of actual peanut pieces really doesn’t help anybody out. They’re squeaky, slightly too big, and have a real knack for getting stuck in your teeth. There’s no reason to reach for this one. Go for just about anything else.
Best Peanut Butter for Dogs: Laura Lynn Creamy
You enjoy food that tastes good. Your dog doesn’t. He’ll eat anything. He especially loves peanut butter. For a generic-style brand that competes with Skippy and Jif, Laura Lynn is about twice as sticky and far more likely to make you look like a dog, forcing you to pry your tongue off the roof of your mouth between every bite. You deserve better than Laura Lynn’s overly intense, overly sticky peanut butter, so give this slop to your dog. Go get yourself a jar of RX.
This article was originally published on Cheapism
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