If I could only eat one ingredient for the rest of my life it would be nut butter. More specifically, peanut butter, but I'm sure you all know by know that the nut butter scene has expanded way beyond just peanut butter. There's almond butter, cashew butter, mixed nut butter, cinnamon roll nut butter, pumpkin pie nut butter, unicorn sunflower flax chia berry sprinkle palooza nut butter...you get the point.
The key things I look for when purchasing these products are a low sugar count, a short ingredients list, and no preservatives or hydrogenated oils. By meeting these requirements, a nut butter maintains its status as a healthy fat source rather than a jar of creamy (or crunchy) diabetes.
In terms of quality and texture, I have different preferences depending on what I'm using the nut butter for. For Greek yogurt, I prefer an ultra thin and creamy consistency. For oatmeal, I prefer a thick and relatively grainy consistency. For toast, I prefer something in between that's spreadable. And finally, for eating with a spoon, I will gladly use any, and all, of the above.
When figuring out which nut butters to buy, it's best to start with the simple ones that you'll find in grocery stores. Here, there are tons of basic nut butters available ,such as peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter, and sunflower seed butter. There are even different variations of these like maple almond butter and chocolate peanut butter.
Let's start with my all time favorite nut butter: peanut butter. I would just like to point out that until about six months ago I had used Jif all my life. The reason I'm mentioning this is because if you're worried you won't like a natural peanut butter because it'll be too bland, I can say from experience that it doesn't take long to adjust, and you'll actually wind up preferring the plain stuff without all the added sugar. Jif can be great if you're treating yourself to a grilled PB&J or if you're baking and want the peanut butter flavor to standout more, but after straying away from it, you'll likely come to think it's way too sugary. Hooray for a matured palette!
My new favorite type of peanut butter is Simply Balanced Organic Creamy Peanut Butter, which can be found at Target. Granted, this was the first peanut butter I tried after switching off of Jif, but it's so damn good that I don't even feel the need to try any other brands. This peanut butter is EXTREMELY smooth and creamy. So much so, that I'm convinced it was churned by angels. This one does have some oil separation, so I store it upside down and mix it around every time I open it up to use it. It starts of runny during the first few uses and gets thicker as you make your way through the jar. Because of this, this nut butter is, at least in my opinion, perfect for Greek yogurt because you don't want a chewy nut butter plopped on top of creamy yogurt. Creamy + Creamy = Luscious
Above is my attempt to photograph the inside of the jar just to give you a peek at how thin and smooth this peanut butter is.
Another Simply Balanced nut butter I've tried is their cashew butter. This one is almost the same texture as the peanut butter, maybe a smidge thicker, but there's something about the taste that doesn't work for me. It's not bad per say, but there's a weird aftertaste and it's not very nutty. Unfortunately, this is the only brand of cashew butter I've ever tried so I can't be certain if it's just this brand of cashew butter that I don't like, or cashew butter in general.
Probably the most versatile and widely used nut butter behind peanut butter is almond butter. My first taste of almond butter came from Nature's Promise. This definitely isn't a bad option, but it's not a great one either. The flavor is pretty decent, but the majority of the jar is way too thick and chalky once you get past the initial layer.
The next brand of almond butter I went to was Trader Joe's, aaaaaaaand we have a winner. This almond butter is thicker than the Simply Balanced peanut butter, but still extremely smooth, making it another great option for yogurt. It beats the Nature's Promise almond butter by a long shot.
For a delicious twist on almond butter, I've become obsessed with MaraNatha's Coconut Almond Butter. It's a medium level of thickness and has just the right amount of coconut flavor that makes it perfect for everything from yogurt, to oatmeal, to spooning from the jar. I also tried out MaraNatha's banana peanut butter, which is a similar consistency to the coconut almond butter. The flavor is actually on point, providing equal amounts of banana and peanut butter, but there's an unpleasant aftertaste that lasts long after eating it which was a bit of a turnoff for me.
Here we have Wild Friends' chocolate coconut peanut butter. I was debating whether or not to put this one down in the specialty nut butter section, but since Wild Friends is a pretty well known company mainly focused on the basic nut butter flavors, I decided it went best up here.
I've never been the biggest fan of chocolate, but I'm pretty sure this product is single handedly changing that with how luscious and perfect it is. It almost tastes like a Reese's peanut butter cup (aka the best candy) with the sweetness toned down the perfect amount to make it appropriate for breakfast. My guess is that the coconut mellows out the sweetness, and the best part about that is that there is actual coconut meat in here; not just shredded coconut or coconut flavoring. Did I mention there's only 5 grams of sugar per serving? This is actually less than most of the specialty nut butters I'll be discussing later, so bonus points for that
The last basic nut butter I'll be covering actually deserves a moment of silence. I'm talking about Trader Joe's mixed nut butter, which combines almonds, cashews, walnuts, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts, pecans, and sea salt. I don't know what they put in here to make it so addicting (current guesses include fairy dust and pegasus tears), but this stuff is straight crack. It has the PERFECT consistency; thin and creamy, but not runny, making it perfect for just about anything, but in all honesty I only eat it by the spoonful straight from the jar because it's too good on its own to even bother adding it to anything else.
As I alluded to before, there are now a ton of specialty nut butter companies popping up and producing some really fun flavors that mimic those of classic treats like cinnamon rolls, apple pie, etcetera. It blows my mind that some of these companies have managed to successfully use only nuts and a few other ingredients to convert something like cinnamon rolls to butter form. Notice how I said SOME of these companies, because while some are successful, others have failed miserably, as I can attest to with brand number two below.
I figured I'd start with the good, so my number one go-to for specialty nut butters is a small company based in Pennsylvania called Blind Spot Nut Butters. The full list of flavors of theirs that I've tried is pumpkin pie, cinnamon roll, gingerbread cookie, coconut macaroon, sea salt peanut butter, super squirrelly, fit and nutty cake batter, and espresso. I love them enough to have tried almost every flavor they have and have filled and restocked an entire shelf of my pantry with them three times already in my first five months after discovering them.
These nut butters are a lot grainier than the other nut butters I use, and I know that describing them as grainy makes them seem unappealing, but that's actually not the case at all. I would say their grittiness makes them harder to spread and therefore less versatile, but their grittiness also makes them absolutely perfect for eating straight out of the jar or for oatmeal. Adding these to a bowl of plain oats provides more than enough flavor and sweetness, eliminating any need for additional sweeteners/toppings.
My absolute favorite flavors of theirs are the coconut macaroon and the sea salt peanut butter. The sea salt peanut butter tastes like Reese's peanut butter and literally all that's in there is peanuts, brown sugar, and sea salt. It's magic.
After falling in love with Blind Spot Nut Butters, I was excited to find another company, Laurel's Butters, that was offering flavors that Blind Spot didn't have. Unfortunately, Laurel's Butters did not meet my expectations. That's my polite way of saying that these nut butters were absolutely terrible.
First of all, their prices and shipping costs were exceedingly high. Strike one.
Second, when you open each jar, there is supposed to be an airtight seal keeping the products fresh. Instead, I was greeted by a round piece of paper that stuck to the inside of the lid when I unscrewed it. Strike two.
Third, and most importantly, when I tried these nut butters I actually had to spit them out because they were that bad. Strike three.
The four flavors I ordered were banana bread peanut butter, coconut cashew butter, white chocolate pumpkin pie, and espresso almond butter. I will say that the white chocolate pumpkin pie wasn't completely terrible, as that was the only one that didn't go straight into the garbage after I tried it. However, the rest of them were unfilled jars of runny liquid with chopped up nuts dispersed throughout. Super appetizing right?
I learned two things here. 1. Don't always trust people on the internet who say a product is good, and 2. Order new products anyway, or else you'll never know if it's fantastic (Blind Spot) or horrendous (Laurel's).
My comeback from Laurel's Butters was a pretty epic one. If you saw this photo and its accompanying enthusiastic caption on my Instagram, you know that I'm talking about the specialty peanut butters from OmMade, a small company based out of Virginia. I was instantly blown away by these peanut butters because not only did OmMade nail the flavors, but they also nailed the textures. I previously mentioned that the Blind Spot nut butters taste delicious, but are pretty thick and chalky rather than smooth and silky (which again, I actually enjoy for certain purposes, but not everything). OmMade, on the other hand, has managed to produce the silkiest specialty nut butters I've ever had.
Starting with my favorite flavor, coconut bliss, all I have to say is wow. If you love coconut, then you'll love this. The best part about this flavor, and all of the flavors for that matter, is that there is a perfect balance between the peanut butter and the add-ins. In other words, you taste delicious coconut without forgetting that you're eating peanut butter.
My second favorite is the mint magic, which is essentially a Thin Mint in peanut butter form; so chocolatey and satisfying when you have a sweets craving. This is followed by the chai nirvana, which contains all the flavors of fall and is pretty reminiscent of pumpkin spice. Finally, there's the vibrant turmeric, which puts a refreshing savory spin on peanut butter. This isn't one of those flavors that I would eat from the jar, but it was surprisingly delicious and I'm looking forward to using it in sauces.
I will continue to update this post as my nut butter exploration continues!