My Peanut Butter Taste Test: What 8 Choosy Mothers Really Chose

Before the average American kid gets his high school diploma he or she will supposedly eat 1500 peanut butter sandwiches. That being said, most Americans’ passion for peanut butter doesn’t stop after childhood.

And in case you’re wondering, a recent study found that 49% of consumers prefer smooth peanut butter, while just 29% prefer the crunchy stuff; the rest like their peanut butter both ways.

Frankly, I don’t see how anybody can eat crunchy peanut butter; when I bite into a peanut butter and jelly sandwich I don’t want to be feeling chunks of anything in my mouth.

Yes, the odds are good that those chunks are nothing more than chopped peanuts. But what if they aren’t?

How the Test Was Conducted

As with most of my other product taste tests, I recruited a bunch of family members as an expert panel. For this experiment I managed to round up eight fearless volunteers (plus the dog, of course).

With the panel in place, I placed five jars of smooth peanut butter on the table. To ensure the taste test was a blind comparison, the original labels were removed and replaced with generic markings “A” through “E.”

As with my recent ketchup taste test, the experts were asked to taste and then rank each peanut butter for taste and texture , from best to worst, with five points for the top performer and one point for the worst. The panel was also free to note any accompanying comments they had regarding each sample.

Using the Dog to Evaluate Peanut Butter Creaminess

In another completely unscientific bonus test, I also utilized the dog to evaluate peanut butter smoothness. To do that I gave our pampered pooch a teaspoon of the peanut butter and then counted how many licks he took to completely swallow the sample. My hypothesis: more licks suggests a creamier peanut butter.

The Expert Panel

As always, before we get to the results, let’s once again meet our distinguished — not to mention choosy — panel of expert, um, mothers:

Aunt Doris

Birthplace: London, England
Age: Old enough to know better, Bucko!
Birth Sign: Scorpio

Tony

Birthplace: New Haven, Connecticut
Age: 67
Birth Sign: Gemini

Mom

Birthplace: Youngstown, Ohio
Age: 70
Birth Sign: Libra

Kevin

Birthplace: Youngstown, Ohio
Age: 58
Birth Sign: Male

Chris

Birthplace: Hemet, California
Age: Classified (Hint: It rhymes with “orange.”)
Birth Sign: Libra.

The Honeybee

Birthplace: Whittier, California
Age: 43
Birth Sign: Aquarius

Evan

Birthplace: Escondido, California
Age: 32
Birth Sign: Libra.

Nina

Birthplace: Fontana, California
Age: 11
Birth Sign: Virgo

Major

Birthplace: Julian, California
Age: 7 (By the way, Major’s vet tells me 7 is the new 6.)
Birth Sign: Gemini.

Introducing The Peanut Butter Competitors

I ran down to my local Albertsons supermarket and bought four brands of smooth peanut butter that they were offering for sale; I also stopped by my local WalMart and picked up their store brand. To keep things as close to a peanuts-to-peanuts comparison as possible, I purposely avoided organic and other “natural” peanut butters.

Here now, in reverse order, is a summary of the peanut butter taste test results, based upon the inputs of my expert panel:

5. Peter Pan Peanut Butter

Price per ounce: $0.22
Panel Scoring: 25 points
Average Score (5-point scale): 2.5
Human Judges Who Deemed It the Best: 2
Creaminess Meter: 78 licks

Although it did manage to score two blue ribbons from the panelists, Peter Pan didn’t fare so well with the remaining experts. Aunt Doris lauded the Peter Pan for its fresh peanut flavor. On the other hand, Nina wasn’t impressed. She wrote down this one-word evaluation: “Crappy.” (Along with a smiley-face.) As for the dog, it only took him 78 licks to finish his sample, making Peter Pan the least creamy of the five surveyed peanut butter brands.

4. WalMart’s Great Value Peanut Butter

Price per ounce: $0.10 (the least expensive brand sampled)
Panel Scoring: 28 points
Average Score (5-point scale): 2.9
Human Judges Who Deemed It the Best: 2
Creaminess Meter: 80 licks

The least expensive brand in our survey – by far – did pick up two votes for the best-tasting peanut butter. In fact, my father-in-law Tony declared Great Value to be the best-tasting peanut butter hands down! However, the rave reviews stopped there. In fact, the Honeybee gave Great Value low marks because it was “too oily” – considering Tony is a mechanic, maybe that’s why he liked it so much.

3. Skippy Peanut Butter

Price per ounce: $0.24 (the most expensive brand sampled)
Panel Scoring: 28 points
Average Score (5-point scale): 2.9
Human Judges Who Deemed It the Best: 2
Creaminess Meter: 103 licks

Despite being the most expensive peanut butter sampled, only one other brand garnered as many last-place marks as Skippy. On the other hand, it also got two blue ribbons for the best tasting peanut butter. Both Nina and the Honeybee gave Skippy high marks for smoothness. If the dog is any indication, their assessment is spot on; at 103 licks, Skippy gave Major’s tongue its biggest workout.

2. Jif Peanut Butter

Price per ounce: $0.22
Panel Scoring: 30 points
Average Score (5-point scale): 3.1
Human Judges Who Deemed It the Best: 1
Creaminess Meter: 89 licks

Chris was the only choosy mother from the panel to give Jif a blue ribbon for best peanut butter. Three other panelists, however, gave Jif runner-up ribbons.

1. Albertson’s Signature Peanut Butter

Price per ounce: $0.16
Panel Scoring: 34 points
Average Score (5-point scale): 3.6
Human Judges Who Deemed It the Best: 1
Creaminess Meter: 95 licks

The panel’s passion was patently obvious; all eight experts ranked this store-brand no worse than third-best. It received its sole blue ribbon from my mom, Judy, who said it had the best combination of taste and smoothness.

(click to enlarge)

The Bottom Line

The first lesson to be learned from this test is to always be careful when comparing the prices of different peanut butters because some manufacturers — notably Peter Pan and Skippy — have subtly reduced package sizes by three tablespoons, from 18 ounces to 16.3 ounces.

As for the second lesson, it’s the same old story: Never blindly assume a name-brand product is always superior. In this case, two of the three national labels ended up with more blue ribbons than both of the store brands. However, those same national brands lacked the broad-based appeal required to come out on top in the eyes of the entire panel.

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(This is an updated version of an article that was originally published on April 4th, 2011.)

Photo Credit: Listener42