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Peanut Butter Reviews – Part 07

* Enjoy this review from the archives! 

It’s time for a review of other peanut butters out there. No matter how much peanut butter I eat, there’s always another brand begging to be tried, and I say bring it on! I can’t consider my life complete until I’ve tried them all! The offerings this time include two brands I can’t rememeber where I got and some standard offerings from a new grocery store I’m obsessed with, Wegman’s. Chances are, if you have a Wegman’s nearby then you already feel the love. If not, then I feel sad for you. In addition, Lee Zalben, the founder of Peanut Butter & Co, was kind enough to send me a few boxes of flavored peanut butter squeeze packs to try. Jealous?

Reviews:

Maple Grove Farms Chunky

= 65%
 
Great textured peanut butter with lots of very crunchy chunks. This variety comes unsalted, so I added some salt to help bring out the flavor we all know and love. The only problem was a general lack of flavor. I realize that different brands of peanut butter roast the peanuts to varying levels before grinding but it seems like Maple Grove Farms unroasted their peanuts; As in, before they were ripe, because there was barely any flavor. I really enjoyed the other aspects of this variety but the lack of flavor and fairly hefty price tag would preclude me from buying this again.

Krema Natural Crunchy

= 85%
 
Similar to Maple Grove Farms in terms of chunkiness but the peanut butter between the chunks was much thinner, closer to the Trader Joe’s Creamy variety. Again I added salt since it came unsalted but the overall peanut flavor was more pronounced than Maple Grove Farms. It was still a very mild flavor, nice and subtle, and tasted like the peanuts were only lightly roasted. Overall, an enjoyable peanut butter. I would mostly use it for baking or smoothies, probably perfect in Dark Chocolate PB Banana Bread.

Wegman’s Creamy

= 80%
 
Standard creamy peanut butter. Very similar to America’s Choice or Peter Pan. Best when whipped with a knife for 30 seconds or so, it becomes super creamy. I keep a large 4-lb jug at home and another at work. Perfect for baking so you don’t use up all your good/natural/expensive peanut butter. In fact, I just used it in a delicious Sweet Potato Casserole!

Wegman’s Crunchy

= 80%
 
Standard crunchy peanut butter, same as above but with chunks. Great chunks, slightly sweet and very creamy. Whip it up good first. Despite my love for crunchy peanut butter, I still prefer the creamy variety of this brand. The chunks of peanuts are the best flavored or crunchiest peanuts out there and they just don’t perfectly match the taste of the peanut butter in between. Still, this peanut butter is great on carrots or put onto each bite of an ice cream sandwich!

Peanut Butter & Co Squeeze Packs

= 80%
 
These flavors have been previously reviewed, but to recap, the plain is a very good creamy peanut butter that is perfectly salted and these flavors are some of the best flavored peanut butter‘s in the business. The texture is nice, thick and very creamy. As of right now, these 3 varieties represent the full line-up of squeeze packs available from PB&Co. My guess is that other than the maple flavored peanut butter, these are the only 3 flavors we’re likely to see in pack form because the cinnamon raisin and the crunchy varieties have chunks which may not package well in such a small form or come out easily when opened. Regardless, I like the idea of individual packs of peanut butter but I do have a few concerns. First, you have to knead the package quite extensively before you use it since the oil separates in the pouch. I deal with this all the time in the jar but it’s not quite as easy in the pouch and I’m often afraid it’s going to explode prematurely. Second, if you like your peanut butter saltier, or you want a little more or a little less peanut butter, things aren’t so easy. Luckily, I still have small peanut butter jars (that hold ~1.5 servings) that came as samples from another company. I use these to make my peanut butter portable, but they still require a knife. But this is a great product and perfect for those emergency cravings I get every 10 minutes or so.