Bonne Maman Pâte à Tartiner Cacahuètes Creamy

a.k.a. Bonne Maman Peanut Spread (Creamy)

Rating: 8/10

• 🥜 Category: Peanut [Spread], Smooth, Sweetened/Dessert
• Country of origin: France

Okay, I've truthfully been umm-ing and ahh-ing about these next couple of reviews because the spreads are not straight peanut butter and salt, but also don't quite fall into the novelty category, which has baffled me a little bit and opened up Pandora's box (am I going to start going back and reviewing Bega? Regular Skippy? Jif??? 🤔😩).

So I have tried my best: please bear with my ever-evolving taxonomy!

Bonne Maman Peanut Spread tastes more like peanut fudge than peanut butter, so that's how I'm going to review it - it's not the jar I would reach for when I want a salty peanut moment, or to use in my cooking. But if the occasion calls for spreading dessert on toast and branding it 'breakfast' (I have free will!) (this is a normal adult decision!) (toast for breakfast is S-tier!!!) then she is invited.

The texture is very spreadable: glossy, smooth, soft, and very much in the Bonne Maman universe. (Do we know that video where a drywaller spreads peanut butter onto bread? I could do that with this, easily, with a butter knife.)

It reads more like the jams and sweet spreads they are known for than a peanut butter. (The chokehold the Bonne Maman caramel spread had on me during one period of my life...) The sweetness is at a lovely level, though it does not pass the Asian "not too sweet" check. It is sweet! We have to be honest with ourselves!

This is the peanut obsessive's answer to the current pistachio spread trope / obsession. A dessert spread, a lil toast toppin' treat, if you will. And yes, I am also a sucker for the gorgeous glass jar and gingham lid combination, because marketing the dream of being a cottage witch absolutely works on me, and one day I will deem myself worthy enough to buy the Bonne Maman advent calendar ❤️

Pic's Peanut & Chocolate Butter

Rating: 8/10

• 🥜 Category: Peanut, Crunchy, Flavoured
• Country of origin: New Zealand

Happy 2026!

New year, new review, and some very fun life admin. I was kindly gifted a sourdough starter at the end of last year (its name is Doughy), so I have been regularly baking beautiful boules and doing what feels morally correct: generously slathering my favourite spreads on still-warm homemade bread. Bliss. I also start marathon training on Monday (for my first international marathon!!!), which means PB4PB will soon be fully back in action. I am a runner fuelled by peanut butter and groovy jams (it says so on my Strava).

I was also blessed last year when I went into the office and two colleagues absolutely nailed it with gifts: Pics Peanut & Chocolate Butter (little treat from Aotearoa), and an echidna plushie (little treat from Japan) to add to my cute anteater collection.

This jar originally launched back in 2021 and quickly sold out, then made a welcome, but only occasional, return thanks to fan demand. It is a solid 8/10!!! It's not as dark as I like my chocolate/peanut butter usually, but it's a pleasant milk/dark choccy combo that is not too sweet. And I do love Whittaker's chocolate, the Kiwis do have that going for them. Plus the crunch of peanuts is very satisfying - would take this over Nutella any day.

If you can get your grubby mitts on a jar, I think it's worth your time.

🥜🍫

Fuyuan Peanut Butter (Fine)

Rating: 8/10

• 🥜 Category: Peanut, Smooth, Plain
• Country of origin: Taiwan
• Serving suggestion: Sweet breakfasts (the best kind) - pancakes, toast, overnight oats, Greek yogurt bowls

Finally catching up on the Taiwanese peanut butter reviews after months of tasting notes marinating in my Notes app (a chaotic but sacred space). This one in two words: pure nostalgia.

Fuyuan claims to be the the most well-known peanut butter brand in Taiwan and is known for its handmade approach. This peanut butter is sweet, creamy, and mellow - basically, a childhood best friend in a jar. If you grew up on super-sweet-and-salty spreads like Kraft/Bega or Smucker;s, it's like she's come back to visit, but now she's grown-up, a lot more refined, but still the same charmer you remember. It's especially dreamy on overnight oats with seasonal fruit (berries in summer, pears in autumn, bananas year-round) and spice of choice, or swirled into/onto a thick Greek yogurt bowl to brighten up a regular degular morning. Now imagine it drizzled over blueberry pancakes. Yeah, I’m drooling too.

Simple, comforting, and just sweet enough: a quiet winner.

Darryl's Fresh Roasted Peanut Butter

Rating: 8/10

• 🥜 Category: Peanut, Smooth/Crunchy, Plain
• Country of origin: Australia
• Serving suggestion: As a huge dollop in the centre of a bowl of overnight oats with juicy juicy sliced ripe peaches, thick yoghurt and a generous sprinkle of cinnamon

Happy new year (it's still January - better late than never)!!! Since I last wrote I have been busy travelling, working (to afford peanut butter), adding to my peanut butter rotation, and eating through delicious (including some peanut butter-y) holiday treats. Now I have a backlog of tasting notes to sift through, reviews to come, and peanut-related travel photos/notes to share. I hope the short hiatus will have been worth it!

To start off, I have this jar, which I realise I did not photograph when it was shiny and beautiful and new. More proof that I do actually eat my peanut butters??? (Did you need it though???) There's a little associated story - I have a friend (A!!!) who is very judgemental of my Mayver's dark roasted obsession and instead swears by Darryl's. Despite my valiant efforts (ok, medium-willed at best) over a couple of years, I couldn't find it at my local specialty stores, and ordering online seemed unnecessarily annoying. So when one fine summer's day, I spotted a container of this extremely hard-to-source nut butter at the cafe where my friend's birthday was held, I bought it immediately. (And used it as a prop in all event photos I proceeded to be in. What are you meant to do with your hands, anyway?)

It's very yummy - caramelly, chocolatey and sweet, with slightly bitter coffee / dark chocolate notes at the end despite it not being as dark roasted. Salt level is perfect. I've been hooked on summer stone fruit lately and find that a dollop of this salty crunchy peanut product is a lovely complement to, and brings out, the natural sweetness of peaches and Greek yoghurt.

Texture is somehow verging on too dry though, and the peanuts aren't as chunky as in the Pic’s crunchy, but still not the best on toast (the other very important-to-me use case). I'd put it as pretty smack bang even with the regular Mayver's, but, sorry A, my beloved Mayver's dark roasted has not yet been dethroned.

Bazzini Old Fashioned Roasted Peanut Butter

Rating: 8/10

• 🥜 Category: Peanut, Smooth/Crunchy, Plain
• Country of origin: USA
• Serving suggestion: Delicious on toasted sourdough with raspberry compote for an adult PB&J; pictured here with some vanilla, sliced banana and a dusting of cinnamon for extra oomph

Oh, I like this one a lot!

A very classic (old fashioned as it says on the jar) dependable peanut butter and it doesn’t claim to  do more than that. Beautifully balanced flavour and on-point salt level. Nutty nutty nutty, rich, and naturally sweet with a pleasant texture and aftertaste.

Timeless, tasty, and pantry-staple worthy.

Noya ABC Butter

Rating: 8/10

• 🥜 Category: Almond/Brazil/Cashew, Smooth, Plain
• Country of origin: Australia
• Serving suggestion: Delicious as a toast topper with cinnamon and sliced fruit (any kind), or spooned generously over the top of overnight oats made with Greek yoghurt and a quick berry/banana compote

You know I'm a peanut butter girl through and through, but lately I have been experimenting with different kids of nut butters (in addition to the staple - not a replacement!!!). Ya gal cannot walk past a good deal, so when I saw Noya was on sale I thought I'd pick out the ABC because 1) I thought the acronym was cute and 2) I remember liking the Noya pistachio spread when I bought it a millennium ago.

And boy is my life better for it - this spread is lovely, spreadable and light with a subtle roasty toasty flavour. I can snack on whole almonds endlessly, but I am not the biggest fan of them if they are by their lonesome in nut butter form. The cashews in this add the creaminess and sweetness that balance the grittiness and musty note of almonds. And I can't quite pick out the specific note that the brazil nut brings to the party, but it doesn't detract from the vibe, and I am glad to know that I am getting my selenium in.

Bega Simply Nuts Smooth Natural Peanut Butter

 Rating: 8/10

• 🥜 Category: Peanut, Smooth, Plain
• Country of origin: Australia
• Serving suggestion: Mixed into overnight oats with vanilla yoghurt and stewed pears in chai spice

I have amassed a mishmash of peanut butter tasting notes on my phone, meaning to transfer them into actual, full-blown reviews, but then one whole jar was finished, and then another, and then another... Excuses aside - here we are, ready to dive back in to the delicious world that is peanut butter.

Boy have we got a dark horse here. I didn't expect much from this jar, which is Bega's entry into the natural peanut butter race (I may have outgrown their Never Oily, Never Dry product, but I think a proper review is only fair). But honestly - I don't have any faults with this! As evidenced by the fact that it took half the jar for me to take a photo because I just kept going back and using it.

The texture is great (for a natural peanut butter - we are grown and know the tricks by now, flip ya jar upside down on occasion, give it a solid mix it around, yadda yadda). It's peanutty and the salt level is ideal, meaning it's versatile enough to be used in a weeknight stir fry but tasty enough to hold its own as an oat topper or toast spread.

Nothing about it is mindblowing, but at the same time, this guy is your reliable, dependable, all around good bloke. Doesn't seem to add heaps to the conversation but you'd invite them to your dinner party anyway, trust them to be punctual, and appreciate their presence.

Clif Bar Crunchy Peanut Butter

Rating: 8/10

• Served with: N/A
• 🥜 Category: Not nut butter, Snack, Sports nutrition
• Country of origin: USA

For those of you who aren't familiar with them, Clif bars are flavoured, oat-based energy bars, generally with some added soy protein, that are held together and sweetened with some kind(s) of syrup.

They have been getting some flack recently for their macros, because some individuals seem to think they are comparable to a regular whey protein bar. Spoiler alert: yes, they advertise that they contain protein - but they also all have some kind of endurance sport depicted on the packaging (hiking! biking! running! tennis!). There's a time and place for high-carb, high-energy snacks!!! Prime example: me today before my tempo run (200m repeats) (gross). Another example: me on Saturday at a water fountain, mid-18k and overheating because I'm not a summer runner, absolutely needing to smash a chocolate GU Energy Gel (basically chocolate syrup in a sachet), shortly before a brown snake sighting got me fired up and raring to run home very fast anyway (nothing like adrenaline to get you through a long run!) (just kidding - I do not recommend).

With that out of the way, I love a Clif bar. When they are half-price at the supermarket you bet I'll pick up a couple, if there are any left. They are dense and chewy, and I highly recommend you be within reach of some water to guzzle down with it as they are not easy to eat mid-run/cycle. Though that sounds like a drawback, it's also the selling point: it means a Clif bar is really satisfying when I need a more significant pre-workout snack, and I always feel well-prepared to smash a workout.

As far as energy bars go, this one is yummy and very easy to understand. It does what it says on the tin. Like all Clif bars I've tried, it tastes like real food, which I cannot say about many sports supplements. It's got a sweet, peanut butter-y combo going on, and doesn't leave a bad aftertaste. From the ingredients list, it looks like it's sweetened with brown rice and cane sugar syrups as well as date paste, which means that the sweetness is noticeable but doesn't overwhelm you. It decidedly tastes like peanut butter, but isn't as peanutty as personally I would like - I am known to also enjoy a nut bar as a pre-workout snack - but in this context I feel that's understandable.

As far as Clif bars go, this is one of my favourites, my one gripe being the naming of the bar: don't expect crunchy peanut butter. No Clif bar I've ever had has been crunchy. If you want crunchy, just go for a nut bar, but if you want a peanut butter flavoured oat bar, go for this one.

(Bonus: most flavours of Clif bar are vegan/plant-based. No upset tum for me from dairy. Win!)