With grocery bills creeping up, you may be contemplating making some changes to your shopping habits to keep costs down. But it's hard to contemplate switching from your favourite products, especially for comfort foods such as peanut butter.
If you're feeling unenthused about making changes to your favourite spread, we have some good news for you: some of the best tasting peanut butters in our latest test were supermarket own-brand products – so you can save on money, and still savour the flavour.
Whether you're team smooth or team crunchy, these are the best peanut butters for your budget and your tastebuds.
Best supermarket-brand smooth peanut butter
Coles Peanut Butter Smooth.
Coles Peanut Butter Smooth
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 83% (Recommended)
- Price per 100g: $0.70
This is a pretty big deal, people. Not only is Coles' smooth peanut butter the best supermarket-brand smooth variety, but it's also the top scoring smooth peanut butter overall!
It came in well ahead of the heavy hitters of the peanut butter kingdom such as Bega and Sanitarium, and even cult/boutique brands including Pic's, Byron Bay and Ridiculously Delicious.
Best supermarket-brand crunchy peanut butter
Aldi Oh So Natural.
Aldi Oh So Natural
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 85% (Recommended)
- Price per 100g: $0.88
Not only did Aldi's Oh So Natural top the class of supermarket own brands, but it very nearly took out the top spot of all the brands we tested.
The top scoring product, Bega Simply Nuts Crunchy, scored 87%, while Aldi tied for second place with Sanitarium Natural Crunchy with a score of 85%.
That's a big deal for a supermarket own-brand product – although Aldi does tend to punch above its weight in many of our tests.
Not only did Aldi's Oh So Natural top the class of supermarket brands, it very nearly took out the top spot of all the brands we tested
At 88 cents per 100g, it's not the cheapest supermarket peanut butter – but it is the cheapest 100% peanut product we tested.
Its lack of added sugar and salt means its Health Star Rating is 5 and it's super low in sugars and sodium too.
Many peanut butters rely on the addition of sugar, salt, vegetable oil and other additives to make them taste 'better', so for a 100% peanut product to taste better than products with added sugar and salt is an impressive feat.
It's not the cheapest supermarket peanut butter – but it is the cheapest 100% peanut product we tested
Although the Oh So Natural crunchy wowed our experts, the smooth version was deemed underwhelming: it scored just 50% for taste. It was redeemed somewhat by its nutrition score (a Health Star Rating of 5), but even that couldn't save it from a lacklustre overall score of 60%.
Woolworths Peanut Butter Smooth.
What about Woolworths?
Unfortunately, Woolworths' peanut butter products couldn't hold a candle to those from Aldi and Coles.
Woolworths Peanut Butter Smooth came in at 77%, a fair way behind Coles' winning product, but just ahead of Aldi's other smooth peanut butter, Bramwells. And Woolworths' crunchy peanut butter sits quite a way down the food chain, scoring just 65%.
Is Woolies' organic any better?
In a word – no. If you're planning to go organic, don't go to Woolies for its house-brand organic peanut butter: our expert taste testers gave it a taste score of just 27%!
It was second last only to Bega's Light Peanut Spread, a low-fat peanut butter pretender that's full of maltodextrin and light on actual peanuts – a very poor reflection on Woolies' peanut butter, which is 100% peanuts with nothing else added. How did they manage to get it so very wrong?
Unfortunately, Woolworths' peanut butter products couldn't hold a candle to those from Aldi and Coles
Our expert testers' reactions to the Woolies peanut butter were brutal: "This was terrible", "Smells like plastic", "Would not be happy with this purchase".
If you shop at Woolworths and you're a smooth peanut butter household, switching from a brand-name peanut butter to Woolworths' house brand isn't a bad way to go. But you might want to switch supermarket allegiances if you're a household that prefers the crunchy kind.
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Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.
