"Americans have a passion for peanut butter. It's clear when you consider the sizable number of peanut butter options at your local supermarket, big-box stores, and online retailers. Sitting alongside the peanut butters of yesteryear, you'll find an expansive selection of natural peanut butters, meaning those made without sugar, oils, and unnecessary additives. But is this category any good? Since I've been writing about food for 25+ years, I decided to find out."
"Natural peanut butter is traditionally made with peanuts that are roasted, blanched (to remove the skin), and ground. Though there are no official FDA regulations on what makes natural peanut butter, some brands add salt, but all natural brands are free of sugar, hydrogenated oils, and palm oil. Truly delicious peanuts need no sugar for sweetness. And if you don't mind stirring your peanut butter if it separates, it doesn't need stabilizers like hydrogenated vegetable oil or palm oil either."
"Crazy Richard's came in last in this ranking for one reason: It's too runny. As mentioned, natural peanut butter is made without stabilizers (like hydrogenated vegetable oils) so it can be much runnier than the peanut butter of yesteryear. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with that, and in fact, I'd rather have runny peanut butter than a bunch of additives. That said, this brand was much runnier than others."
Eight nationally available natural peanut butters were sampled and ranked based on overall flavor and texture. Natural peanut butter is made with roasted, blanched, and ground peanuts and often contains only salt in addition to peanuts. No official FDA definition exists for natural peanut butter, but natural brands exclude sugar, hydrogenated oils, and palm oil. Runny consistency is common without stabilizers and was factored into evaluations. Products that delivered strong peanut flavor and pleasing consistency scored higher. All eight brands were described as good, with variation in runniness affecting rankings. Crazy Richard’s ranked lowest because it was markedly runnier than others.
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