Peanut Butter Reviews – Part 05

Reviews:

365 Creamy Peanut Butter

= 100% My new favorite peanut butter. This creamy peanut butter has a fairly coarse grind which makes for a wonderful grainy, almost gritty texture. It is also perfectly salted despite a lower sodium content than most other salted peanut butters. The peanut flavor is outstanding. I use this peanut butter for everything, but my preferred method of consumption is with a fork. It is truly a meal in a jar. I recommend it for everything including making flavored peanut butter like spicy or cinnamon raisin. As a bonus, this is also the cheapest peanut butter on the market ($1.79, 18oz) and can be found easily, since it is the store brand of Whole Foods.

365 Crunchy Peanut Butter

= 100% My other new favorite peanut butter. This crunchy peanut butter has the same gritty coarse grind with the additional of some fantastic chunks in between. Again, it’s perfectly salted despite a lower sodium content. I tend to use this variety for sandwiches, but I bet this would be great for making cinnamon raisin peanut butter for some additional chunks. Same price as the creamy variety ($1.79, 18oz), and you can’t beat it! The only downsides to this variety is that there was one jar I was disappointed with. It had minimal flavor and was too thick. I was actually debating whether or not I truly ever liked the brand, but it was just a fluke. Since it’s natural, every batch is slightly different, perhaps it was less roasted or salted. And another time I got a small piece of bark or wood (I hope), since it was too tough to be a peanut shell. But neither of these have deterred me from purchasing this peanut butter whenever possible!

365 Organic Unsalted Creamy Peanut Butter

= 70% This organic variety costs quite a bit more, almost double. Using what I learned in “Economics for Engineers”, one would assume twice the quality or at least some flakes of gold in it. Overall, disappointing. The peanut flavor is decent but nothing to rave about. It was a little better with salt but still lacked in flavor. The texture is nice and silky, but a bit on the sticky side. I did find one use for it – it works well in banana pudding, since it is unsalted and it doesn’t steal the show, so to speak. However, there is no comparison to the non-organic version above. On the plus side, it tastes better than glue.

Arrowhead Mills Crunchy Peanut Butter

= 80% I’ve often seen this brand but never purchased it before, probably because it’s fairly expensive, coming in at $6.99 for a 28oz jar. My mother purchased 2 large jars of it for me, mistaking it for the 365 crunchy peanut butter. Regardless, this peanut butter has nice large chunks that have a very good crunch. It is very creamy between the chunks and has an overall stickiness as a result. It comes unsalted, so I recommend adding some kosher salt. Overall, it’s very similar to Krema Crunchy. Good, but for the price I’d rather get double the amount of the 365 brand.

Bazzini Old Fashioned Peanut Butter

= 85% This is one brand that I have never seen nor heard of and I have the Peanut Butter of the Month Club to thank for this one. It comes in a cheap plastic container (on the right) that was dented from being vacuum packed, and the label was printed poorly and affixed crooked – I didn’t have high hopes for this brand. Despite it’s lackluster appearance, this peanut butter delivered on flavor but even more on texture. This peanut butter has a nice rich peanut flavor and a very smooth grind. The texture was unlike anything I’ve had before. It is almost fluffy, like buttercream frosting. It is smooth and airy, and goes down with ease. I generally dislike unsalted peanut butter but this one is fantastic. Even so, I mixed in some kosher salt to suit my tastes. This peanut butter is apparently made in the neighboring city of Manhattan, at a small shop in the Tribeca area. I’m hoping to go pick up some more!

Smuckers Natural Creamy Peanut Butter

= 70% This is a good standard peanut butter that you can find in almost any store. It is similar in texture to 365 but not quite as coarse and grainy. It is a little too salty but good when used to make spicy peanut butter. I’ve had this brand several times and the flavor and color range from a medium to dark brown, representing the level of roasting. The peanut flavor is decent but gets overwhelmed by salt. I forget the cost, but it’s certainly a better option than Skippy.