Product Review: Peanut Butter
How good is nut butter! There has been a welcomed explosion on the shelves for a massive variety to select – but which one to choose? We had the tough job of blind tasting them all in an effort to clear the confusion and make the selection simple.
Just like the yoghurt review, we take this seriously and didn’t want any preconceived ideas getting in the way – so hubby was in charge of blinding the tastings (well obviously not the cacao one haha!). We rated them based on flavour, mouthfeel, creaminess, simplicity of the ingredient list and of course their overall nutrition value.
This little infographic shows our top contenders and we couldn’t resist adding a BS Award for one of them! Keep scrolling for more delicious details!
99% Peanuts & Salt e.g Mayver’s OR Pics Peanut Butter
Flavour: Nicely salted
Texture/Mouthfeel: Great mouthfeel
Creaminess: Awesome creaminess factor!
Price: ~ $1.40 per 100g
Nutrition Rating: 9/10
Ingredients List: Roasted peanuts (99.3%) & salt
- Energy: 486kJ/serve or 2430kJ/100g
- Protein: 5g/serve or 25g/100g
- Fat: 9.8g/serve or 49.3g/100g
- Carbs: 2.7g/serve or 13.4g/100g
- Sugars: 0.8g/serve or 4.1g/100g
The ‘Original’ e.g Bega OR Sanitarium Crunchy Peanut Butter
Flavour: Salty and sweet
Texture/Mouthfeel: Quite sticky and tacky
Creaminess: Very creamy
Price: ~ $0.95 per 100g
Nutrition Rating: 6/10
Ingredients List: Roasted peanuts (85%), vegetable oil (contains antioxidant (320)), sugar, salt
- Energy: 568kJ/serve or 2580kJ/100g
- Protein: 5.2g/serve or 23.7g/100g
- Fat: 11.3g/serve or 51.3g/100g
- Carbs: 3.0g/serve or 13.4g/100g
- Sugars: 1.9g/serve or 8.4g/100g
Peanuts 100% e.g Bega 100% nuts natural peanut butter
Flavour: Mild and a little boring
Texture/Mouthfeel: Claggy and sticky
Creaminess: Not very creamy, dry but also quite oily.
Price: ~ $1.50 per 100g
Nutrition Rating: 10/10
Ingredients List: Roasted peanuts (100%)
- Energy: 561kJ/serve or 2550kJ/100g
- Protein: 6.1g/serve or 27.6g/100g
- Fat: 10.8g/serve or 49.3g/100g
- Carbs: 2.5g/serve or 11.3g/100g
- Sugars: 1.3g/serve or 5.8g/100g
Protein Boosted e.g Mayver’s Protein Peanut Butter
Flavour: Bit bland
Texture/Mouthfeel: Sticks to mouth & is a bit claggy
Creaminess: Not creamy at all, quite dry
Price: $1.60 per 100g
Nutrition Rating: 9/10
Ingredients List: Roasted peanuts, peanut flour, salt, no added oil, dairy or sugar.
- Energy: 470kJ/serve or 2350kJ/100g
- Protein: 6.4g/serve or 32.0g/100g
- Fat: 8.4g/serve or 42.1g/100g
- Carbs: 2.6g/serve or 13.0g/100g
- Sugars: 1.4g/serve or 6.9g/100g
Note: Protein content is only really an additional 0.5-1g per serve higher.
‘Light’ Peanut Butter (e.g. Bega, Sanitarium)
Flavour: Very salty and sweet
Texture/Mouthfeel: Grainy & thick (similar to a paste)
Creaminess: Not very creamy, quite dry
Price: ~ $0.95 per 100g
Nutrition Rating: 4/10 (only 60% nuts?!)
Ingredients List: Roasted peanuts (62%), maltodextrin, sugar, vegetable oil (contains antioxidant (320)), sugar, salt, emulsifier (471).
- Energy: 511kJ/serve or 2320kJ/100g
- Protein: 3.8g/serve or 17.4g/100g
- Fat: 8.2g/serve or 37.4g/100g
- Carbs: 7.8g/serve or 35.4g/100g
- Sugars: 3.4g/serve or 15.4g/100g
Cacao Peanut Spread e.g Mayver’s
Flavour: Bitter chocolate flavour
Texture/Mouthfeel: Grainy/sticky
Creaminess: Some creaminess but a bit grainier
Price: $2.55 per 100g
Nutrition Rating: 9/10
Ingredients List: Peanuts, almonds, cashews, brazil nuts, dates, cacao powder (2.7%), chia seeds, sesame seeds, natural vanilla flavour
- Energy: 481kJ/serve or 2410kJ/100g
- Protein: 3.5g/serve or 17.6g/100g
- Fat: 9.4g/serve or 47.1g/100g
- Carbs: 4.9g/serve or 24.5g/100g
- Sugars: 1.9g/serve or 9.6g/100g
Powdered Peanut Butter e.g PB2
Note: this was made into a nut butter paste as per directions
Flavour: Mild
Texture/Mouthfeel: Quite good and smooth (and this can be changed just by changing the powder to water ratio which is pretty neat!)
Creaminess: Creamy
Price: $2.10 per 100g
Nutrition Rating: 7/10
Ingredients List: Roasted peanuts, sugar, salt.
- Energy: 210kJ/serve
- Protein: 5g/serve
- Fat: 1.5g/serve
- Carbs: 5g/serve
- Sugars: 2g/serve
Comment: Although this product had good reviews, it had some points knocked off it’s overall rating due to all the healthy fats being removed from the product in the dehydration process and some added sugar.
Our Verdict
What we found?
Nut butters are definitely not all made equal, nut butter is not simply just nut butter it seems!
How to choose:
Head to the ingredients list before anything else. If what you see is simply nuts (and possibly seeds) plus a little salt, you can be pretty well assured that you are good to go! However, if you are choosing the original or a light version, you need to be aware of the extra additives and large spikes in added sugar, fat and salt that come with it.
Our Pick
Our personal pick across all categories was Mayver’s Crunchy Peanut Butter. For us, we are lovers of nut butter with some saltiness. However, if you are happy with just nuts, the 100% version in any brand is hard to beat!
The surprise taste contender for us was PB2. It’s mouthfeel was actually pretty good, but it is a shame to lose all those beautiful healthy fats. With this, PB2 would be unreal if you are on a strict energy budget at times or as a lower energy addition to smoothies or to make a lower energy satay chicken.
ALICIA EDGE HEAD SPORTS DIETITIAN
Alicia is the head Advanced Sports Dietitian at Compeat Nutrition. She is also a mum and triathlete, so advice extends beyond the basics and is instead focused on providing effective and achievable nutrition for both training and racing.