The one peanut butter to rule them all
My daughter, Emmalyn, was found to be allergic to peanuts, pistachios and cashews by the time we started solids. Four years later, in a lucky unlucky event where she was exposed to a whole serving of peanuts (another blogpost for #parentoftheyearfails), we discovered her reaction to be far less severe than before. We challenged her peanuts shortly after and she passed. Unfortunately, she had already developed a hate and fear of peanuts after years of abstinence.
Two months ago, I discovered utopian kitchen peanut butter at a fair at my workplace supporting local small businesses. I was floored at how tasty and “real” the peanut butter tasted. It was like God himself took a bunch of peanuts, squeezed it in His almighty hand, sprinkled some forbidden dust and declared, “And let there be peanut butter”. Nothing has come close since. And there is no other nut butter that Emmy will eat.
Thanks to the generosity of Chris, readers of this blog will get 15% off their next order with the code WORKLIFEKIDS. This offer expires at the end of the month. He makes these in small batches, so quantities are limited. I seriously like them all but my gun-to-my-head favorite are honey roasted peanut butter and Emmy’s is Chocolate Toffee Crunch. I have a tablespoon every morning with my overnight oats or western bagel.
My recent order, I mean obsession.
For those that geek out on nut butters, I did a quick email q&a to find out more about this cool little company that I’ve gone nuts about.
Q: What do the nutrition/macros look like?
Chris: It rates pretty equal with standard/major peanut butter brands. The "purist series" flavors are made with very simple ingredients and like traditional nut butters. The different flavors of honey roasted peanut butters are a little higher sugar due to the ingredients - honey roasted peanuts, raisins, milk or white chocolate, toffee, etc, but I still feel like per serving they are not too high.
(For honey-roasted peanut butter, it looks like this: Nutrition Facts: Servings - 12; Serving size - 1 oz (28g) Amount per serving - Calories 160, Total Fat 13g, Total Carb. 7g, Protein 7g
Q: How is it made?
Chris: I make these products in small batches and more regularly. My products are made each week so they are very fresh. They are also not made in mass production which I think also helps increase quality.
Q: How does the taste compare to other butters? What do your customers say?
Chris: The purist series actually taste like peanuts and almonds. It's actually amazing to go back and taste products like Skippy that I grew up on thinking that was what PB should taste like - and then having my Roasted Salted and it actually tastes like peanuts! As for the different flavors, I think they expand the boundaries of regular peanut butter. Not many people think peanut butters can be flavored, so the reactions I see from customers are amazing. I have lots of repeat customers who tell me they can't go back to their old peanut butter because mine is their new favorite. That is the most satisfying feeling!
Q: What has been most challenging or surprising about starting and running your own business?
Staying organized. There are so many different aspects to the business to stay on top of, and without any other employees, it gets overwhelming sometimes. Along that line, there are so many different systems to keep different information about the business that don't or can't talk to each other, so making sure everything is up to date, correctly input and tracked, etc takes a lot of work.
