The Natural Consumer

Some of you may remember my last almond butter post. You know, the one where I ranted about how I just love to stir my almond butter? In an effort to placate those who claim that stirring involves more exercise than their willing to devote to all-natural almondy goodness, I reviewed Mara Natha’s no-stir almond butter. My conclusion, of course, was that its anemic flavor and rather strange sweetness asked me to sacrifice too much to make the switch from my beloved all-natural.

The funny thing is that once I finished posting, and started pondering alternate uses for the nearly-full jar of Mara Natha in my refrigerator, I was contacted by Jennifer Barney, the founder of Barney Butter. Barney Butters are all-natural, peanut-free, no-stir almond butters, and I was promptly sent two jars of the stuff (crunchy and smooth) in the mail. Testing them out seemed like a good idea – I’d get to try a different rendition of no-stir that’s not available in my local grocery store.

I tried the Barney Butter expecting it to taste exactly like the Mara Natha. The ingredient lists are identical, after all. However, the Barney Butter was decidedly less sweet (a good thing), with a much stronger, nuttier flavor. Whereas the Mara Natha had far too little nutty flavor for my tastes, the Barney Butter was particularly toasty tasting.

After a few tastes, I decided that the Barney Butter was unique in the sense that it seems to be positioned as a substitute for peanut butter, not for all-natural almond butter. The strong nutty flavor was reminiscent of the strong flavor of peanut butter, and didn’t have the subtle floral quality that regular almond butter has. In fact, it wasn’t particularly almondy at all. This makes sense, given that Barney Butter is explicitly “peanut-free,” and was probably designed with the peanut-intolerant in mind.

In terms of texture, the Barney Butter was slightly more spreadable than the Mara Natha, but definitely stiffer than all-natural almond butter. It served me well as a snack spread on some crackers, though. Once again, I must say that I strongly prefer all-natural almond butter to this particular no-stir variety. It was, however, more palatable than the Mara Natha, and I would recommend it to those that simply cannot tolerate two minutes of stirring.

So now I have three jars of no-stir in my fridge, when all I really want is the regular stuff. Anybody want an almond butter and jelly sandwich?