This is Highly Recommend, a column dedicated to our very opinionated editors’ favorite things to eat, drink, and buy.
If I’m reaching into my jar collection for a vessel for cold brew or leftover pesto, there’s a 99.999 percent chance it’s an old MaraNatha peanut butter jar (specifically, their organic creamy peanut butter). I’ve gone through so much MaraNatha—real talk: two jars a month—that I have a small fleet of the empty canisters in my kitchen, just waiting for their second life.
So believe me when I tell you that MaraNatha peanut butter will ruin you for all others (yes, even your friends Jif and Skippy).
MaraNatha doesn’t have any of the added sugars or oils of mass-produced peanut butter—but you wouldn’t know it from tasting it. Even though it’s made with only two ingredients—peanuts and salt—it bypasses the pitfalls of all other “natural” peanut butters (as in, it’s not crumbly, dry, oily, gritty, or pasty). Instead, MaraNatha PB is all silky, velvety smoothness. It’s as creamy as Nutella—soft, spreadable, and all too easy to eat with a spoon. When I asked Joe LaPierre, MaraNatha’s master roaster, what made their peanut butter so...is superior the word? Yes, superior!...he explained that the nuts are roasted in small batches, then double-ground (for extra creaminess!) within 30 days.
Some recipes, particularly sensitive baking recipes and light dressings and sauces, will advise you against natural peanut butter. But MaraNatha is so lush I use it everywhere: Of course I spread it generously—on rice crackers, toast, halved steamed sweet potatoes, split Medjool dates—but it’s also versatile enough to bake and cook with. That doesn’t mean I’m above eating this PB straight from the jar (normally, I sprinkle a little salt on each spoonful). If you choose to refrigerate it (there’s no need, but I keep it in the fridge for proximity to the jam), it becomes downright fudgy.
One thing to note when buying, either online or at your local Whole Foods: Look carefully at the ingredients listed on the jar. MaraNatha makes many varieties of peanut butter and all of them have similar packaging, which means it’s easy to confuse them. As long as the ingredient list is short and sweet—just organic dry roasted peanuts and sea salt—you know you've got the right one.
Sure, MaraNatha is a bit pricier than your average peanut butter. But that’s why I use a budgeting app! And did I mention that you, uh, get a free jar?
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