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Tasted: Butter
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We're happy to announce that butter is no longer a dietary villain. A poster ingredient for all of campaigns to eat real food that have been popping up around the US lately, butter is becoming increasingly accepted by the mainstream. Consumers note that they are returning to butter, shunning margarine spreads and using it alongside olive oil (always, as they say, in moderation). While many of these popular butters are super premium, even private-label sales have been growing in the last few years.
Real butter is gaining ground from the culinary community and, more interestingly, from a health and wellness perspective. Forward-leaning health and wellness consumers have been singing the praises of real butter for the last few years, particularly pasture or grass-fed butters that often provide higher levels of antioxidants, CLA (conjugated linoleic acid), and largely coveted Omega-3 fatty acids.
Health and wellness halos are great and all, but sometimes you've just got to conduct a blind taste test to see who comes out on top. We compared Kerry Gold Irish Butter, Plugrá and Vermont Butter & Cheese Co. to find a clear winner.
Grass fed and decently-distributed, consumers have been raving about Kerry Gold Irish Butter. We found the gently cultured butter less oily and much creamier than its competitors.
Plugrá is best for baking and is a chef favorite because of its high butterfat content. Being slightly cultured, it has a subtle tangy finish but we found it less distinctive than Vermont Butter & Cheese Co. An interesting note on Plugrá is that this French-style butter is made in Pennsylvania by Keller’s Creamery.
Cultured butter, forged from hand-churned cream, is a stunning quality achievement. It's no surprise then that Vermont Butter and Cheese has recently emerged as a premier artisan dairy brand. This delightful butter simply stole the show.
As butter is fast becoming a staple in the movement towards real food, there is potential for great pay off in creating a more distinctive food product in the eye of the consumer, particularly if the type of butter is called out, such as cultured European-style or pastured butter. Even a narrative about the dairy farmer or breed of cow that produced the butter is a quality cue. Consumers are increasingly looking to butter as an indulgent yet higher-quality fat that may even promote health in moderation.