Natural Peanut Butter

It's a matter of budget, taste

Because processed peanut butters like Skippy and Jif have such a stranglehold over the taste buds of America's kids (not to mention many of their parents), some manufacturers eager for market share have chosen a different point of entry: natural peanut butter. Natural peanut butters don't contain hydrogenated fats, the "emulsifiers" that prolong a peanut butter's shelf life and keep its oils from separating away from the ground peanuts. More healthful than processed peanut butters, natural peanut butters are also more expensive, have a shorter shelf life and need to be mixed before serving, which can get a bit sloppy. Most important, from a kid's point of view, they're less sweet than processed supermarket brands.

Interestingly, the top-rated natural peanut butter, Smucker's Natural (*Est. $3.20 for a 16-ounce jar), goes to great lengths to conceal its mass-market origins -- it's manufactured by the same company that makes Jif. In its test of creamy peanut butters, The Washington Post singles out Smucker's Natural as a good choice for adults, with "none of the sweetness associated with childhood favorites," while Real Simple magazine raves about Smucker's Natural Chunky's "intense peanut flavor and nutty texture." Oddly, even though Smucker's Natural finishes last in the taste test by Cook's Illustrated (whose editors seem put off by its grainy texture and the need to mix in the oil before serving), it finishes first in the baking category, producing cookies with "huge peanut flavor" and "a nice balance between crunch and chew."

Not inclined to yield any market share to its competitors, Skippy's also has a natural brand, Skippy Natural (*Est. $2.40 for an 16-ounce jar), for creamy or chunky). Both varieties score highly among kids in Newsday's roundup -- which raises some concerns about how "blind" this taste test actually was, since Skippy takes the top four spots, and kids aren't generally inclined toward natural peanut butters. The only other sources to top-rate this peanut butter are a blog, The Watery Gourmet, and Food & Wine magazine, which describes it in a terse blurb as "unusually thick," with oil that "barely separates." Since these two picks are from shorter and less credible reviews, especially compared to the raves about Smucker's, we chose not to include Skippy Natural in ConsumerSearch Fast Answers.

Once you get past the brands from Jif and Skippy, the best natural peanut butter becomes a matter of budget and taste. One brand that has garnered some attention is Santa Cruz Organic Dark Roasted Creamy (*Est. $5 for a 16-ounce jar). This brand finishes tops among natural peanut butters in the peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich test by Serious Eats, where writer Ed Levine says it tastes like "very lightly salted, fresh-roasted peanuts." Santa Cruz is also featured in Food & Wine's brief review, in which the writer describes it as "deeply flavored." However, Santa Cruz is also significantly more expensive than other organic peanut butters.

It's difficult to find a consensus about other natural peanut butters, as enthusiasts' preferences vary so much. Some sources we found rave about Maranatha Organic (*Est. $5 for a 16-ounce jar) , which takes first place in an impromptu taste test of natural peanut butters by KABC in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, the Washington Post's panel "swears we could have tasted powdered vitamins," even though the only ingredients listed are organic dry-roasted peanuts and sea salt.

Reviews of the Whole Foods house peanut-butter brand, 365 Organic (*est. $4.50 for a 16-ounce jar) are even more paradoxical. It's the top choice of Serious Eats, beating out Skippy, Jif and Reese's in the smooth peanut butter category. Writer Ed Levine says it has the "freshest peanut taste" and "seemed to us as if had less sugar and more salt than the others" (which may explain its appeal to his adult palate). However, 365 Organic, here called Whole Foods Creamy or Chunky, ranks dead last in The Washington Post's taste tests of creamy and chunky peanut butters, described as both "worst looking" and "worst tasting." (To be fair, though, the formulation may have improved since these tests were conducted in 2001.)