At the same time that I tasted WOWBUTTER (have you read my review yet?), the boyfriend returned home looking pleased as punch because he had found a jar of peanut butter on sale. It was the Meridian Crunchy Peanut Butter. He looked a little confused as he added it to the NutShot Crunchy Peanut Butter, the WOWBUTTER, the Almond Butter and the Cashew Butter jars already on the shelf. “We’ve got a lot of nut butters,” he said.
For several days after WOWBUTTER landed on my doorstep, I picked as many people’s brains as possible. ‘Would you eat fake peanut butter?’, ‘Would you want to eat peanut butter, even if you had a nut allergy?’, ‘What do you think 100% no peanut butter is made from?’ Answers ranged from ‘That sounds rank,’ to ‘ewwww’ to blank stares.
So I decided to do a peanut butter taste test – it wasn’t as though I didn’t have enough different ones to compare. I decanted the 3 peanut butters: WOWBUTTER, Meridian Crunch Peanut Butter and NutShot Chunky into a tub and I took it into Arnold KLP, where I’ve been working recently.
Admittedly, the peanut butters looked slightly worse for wear after travelling on the tube, but nevertheless, it didn’t deter my excited tasters. It’s strange that people are willing to eat peanut butter at 10am yet still remark that you’re weird for eating olives at that time. Perhaps we’re all weird, we just don’t know it.
Anyway, I had 6 volunteers over the course of a day. They ranged from ‘casual eaters’ (those that enjoyed it now and again and didn’t really know what peanut butter they had in their fridge) and ‘hardcore lover’ (those who LOVED peanut butter with a passion that was rather alarming). I asked them to try each of the peanut butters, commenting on the look, the smell, the consistency and finally, the taste. After, they marked each out of 10. I took each of the scores and found the average.
And here are the results of the peanut butter taste test:
I was actually rather surprised by the results. I really didn’t expect WOWBUTTER to come out as the winner, no offence, WOWBUTTER. Nor for people to be fooled by it. There’s no peanuts in it at all, yet it was the one most people asked me where they could buy it from. It’s also interesting how seriously people took the testing. There was a lot of smacking of lips, marginal outrage when they discovered they’d been ‘tricked’ by the WOWBUTTER and a lot of arguments over which was best.
What I really struggled to get my head around was how Meridian and NutShot, both 100% peanut butters, could look and taste so different. Yes, Meridian kept the skins on, but still…! Can anyone answer that for me?
Personally, my favourite is the NutShot chunky. It’s gooey, falls off the spoon if you’re not quick enough and is so good that I eat it by itself.
Marcus
Hi Eliza – thanks so much for reviewing our PB! Just to let you know we are launching with Booths on January 26th 2014 and that our 400g jars will be £2.85 on shelf. We can also be found through around 40 independent retailers in London so keep your eyes peeled! Have a great Christmas and New Year and keep up the good work 🙂