What's the Best Creamy Peanut Butter in America?

It was a sticky competition, but we found out.
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Photo by Chelsea Kyle

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Walk down the peanut butter aisle of a modern grocery store.

Go ahead, we'll wait.

Overwhelming, right? What was once a simple spread for sandwiches or ants-on-a-log has turned into a industry responsible for $1.18 billion (no, that's not a typo) in annual sales across dozens of brands.

But the confusion doesn't stop with the sheer volume of choices. These days, some of the information presented on some peanut butter jars is virtually incomprehensible. All-natural or palm oil-added? Creamy or crunchy? Creamunchy? (Yes, that’s a thing).

What's a peanut butter lover to do? Eat massive amounts of peanut butter until he figures the whole thing out, obviously.

Don't worry, we did that work for you. We collected 14 varieties of creamy peanut butter—everything from the most natural, small batch stuff to the mass market varieties you probably had as a kid—to find the one that tastes the creamiest, sweetest and nuttiest. And out of all the jars we dipped our spoons into, there were 3 that stood out.

Our spread of creamy spreads.

Photo by Chelsea Kyle

text in callout

THE CREAMY ONE: Once Again Natural's American Classic Creamy No-Stir

So you want the creamiest peanut butter there is? This Nunda, NY-sourced peanut butter is USDA Organic, Non-GMO Project-verified, and comes in a glass jar, so it seems fancy. And with a price that's almost double that of Jif, it sure is. But it’s not just putting on a show—the team loved this variety for its creaminess and taste. "I like that it’s creamy with just a little texture,” said Assistant Food Editor Katherine Sacks.

It's surprising that our creamiest pick was a natural peanut butter—most of our natural contenders weren't as lucky. Once Again’s (yes, the brand we just spent time praising) Old Fashioned unsweetened and unsalted version was universally panned, with Editor David Tamarkin accusing the thin, "natural" texture of being “peanut water." With an adorable label of a lounging cartoon bear, Teddie’s Smooth All Natural Peanut Butter had a moderate flavor that wasn't as nut-forward as Smucker's or as balanced as Once Again's American Classic. Sweet Ella’s Organic suffered from a similar case of multiple peanut butter personalities, with a texture that was “a little too chunky to be called creamy,” according to Food Editor Rhoda Boone.

BUY IT: American Classic Creamy No-Stir Peanut Butter, $13.34 on Amazon

THE SWEET ONE: Peanut Butter & Company’s Smooth Operator

Maybe you want a creamy peanut butter that's a bit more sweet than salty? This sweet-leaning natural variety used to only be available at a brick and mortar store in NYC. Luckily for everyone else, it's now distributed nationally. It's a great choice for when you’re feeling nostalgic but don’t want the hydrogenated oils that are in mass-market peanut butters. Using palm fruit oil (instead of saturated fat-bloated palm kernel oil), the final product is as smooth as the name says. “It has a good balance of salty and sweet,” said David.

BUY IT: Smooth Operator Peanut Butter, $6.44 for a pack of two on Amazon

THE NUTTY ONE: Big Spoon Roasters's Peanut

Big Spoon’s founder Mark Overbay lived with peanut farmers in Zimbabwe; he turned that experience into a natural peanut butter blended with raw wildflower honey and coconut oil. This small-batch peanut butter from Durham, NC was easily the fanciest one we tried, with a “signature coarsely milled texture,” meaning it’s neither crunchy nor creamy—it’s both. A paradoxical peanut butter? Most of us dug it, except for one editor who said it suffered from “an identity crisis.”

Looking for a bicep workout? You’ll have to stir like crazy to incorporate the top layer of peanut oil, but after that crucial step, you’ll be ready for Smucker's Natural Creamy, the nuttiest contender on our list. The team zeroed in on the saltiness and toasted flavor—it reminded one editor of the peanut butter found in Reese's—but ultimately found it less balanced than Big Spoon.

Santa Cruz, an organic line from Smucker’s, also consistently ranked high for nuttiness and balance, with a subtle flavor and a creamy texture. It's a balance other nut-forward butters failed to achieve—Justin’s was too soupy, while Maranatha Smooth was “wall paste-thick,” according to the writer of this story.

BUY IT: Big Spoon Roaster's Peanut Butter, $9.95 at Big Spoon Roasters

Some peanut butters dripped.

Photo by Chelsea Kyle

But what about supermarket peanut butters?

We tested those, too. Heck, most of us grew up eating these thick nut butters—no wonder the pastier natural versions ranked low in texture. Editor David Tamarkin thought that the super sweet Fresh Direct Just Fresh Creamy “tasted just like childhood.” Delivery service nut butters are great, but what about the two childhood stalwarts, Jif and Skippy? Between the two, Sacks spoke for everyone, believing Jif was the best of the commercial creamy versions. Feedback on Skippy ranged from “sugar + oil” to “Woah. So. Much. Butter.”

We even tried a Whole Foods version, which doesn’t contain anything other than dry roasted peanuts and salt. The verdict was unanimous: no stabilizer=too loose. Junior Designer Christina Doo said it’d “fall out of a sandwich.” And what'd be the point of a peanut butter that does that?

BUY IT: Jif Creamy Peanut Butter, $5.79 on Amazon


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