7 Peanut Butter Brands Made With High-Quality Ingredients

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Gone are the days when there were only a few brands of peanut butter to choose from. Sure, Skippy and Jif are still available, but why buy them when they are among the unhealthiest peanut butters on store shelves? Instead, look for nourishing and sustainable peanut butters free of palm oil, hydrogenated oils, natural and artificial flavors, excessive added sugar, and mono and diglycerides. All of this is possible, and you'll even find some delicious flavors to boot.

Taste a spoonful of peanut butter from the right jar, and you'll be impressed by what a difference even the type of salt can make. That goes for the type of sweetener, too. Instead of cane sugar, for instance, sorghum or maple syrup can lend complex flavors while also carrying the added benefit of being unrefined. Furthermore, you only need a hint of sweetness to complement the earthy flavor of the peanuts — not the 7 grams or so of added sugar per serving that some peanut butters contain.

As a certified nutrition coach and lover of all things peanut butter, I've examined and tasted most of the nut butters on the market. To save you the trouble of researching companies and meticulously reading nutrition labels, I've rounded up a handful of the brands that sell peanut butters with the highest quality ingredients and described a few of their offerings, taking time to note both nutritional aspects and sourcing practices. You can learn more about my methodology at the end of this article.

Hailing from Hillsborough, North Carolina, Big Spoon Roasters specializes in small-batch nut butters and bars that often contain surprising ingredients. The full nut butter range includes not only peanut butter, but also products featuring cashews, coconut, almonds, pecans, and walnuts. Alongside staples like the Chai Spice Peanut and Almond Butter (a personal favorite), there are always a few limited-edition batches available, too, such as the Bananas Foster Peanut and Cashew Butter.

But even if you don't want your peanut butter infused with bourbon whiskey and applewood smoked salt (as it is in the Bourbon Pecan Peanut Butter), you can still discover luxurious textures and flavors in a Big Spoon jar. The award-winning Crunchy Peanut Butter contains both high-oleic NC runner peanuts — which may be better for the heart and the metabolism than standard peanuts — and Hubs Peanuts' Virginia XL peanuts. This combination grants it a unique texture a league above most other crunchy nut butters. Sorghum syrup and Jacobsen sea salt are present, too, though only in small amounts for flavor enhancement. All these factors added up to this brand earning the number one spot in a fellow writer's ranking of high-end peanut butters.

Each jar of Big Spoon Roasters nut butter contains intentionally sourced ingredients. All flavors are free of palm oil, hydrogenated oils, natural and artificial flavors, preservatives, and artificial colors. Plus, as a Certified B-Corp, Big Spoon Roasters adheres to sustainable and ethical principles.

You might be surprised to see the word "naked" on jars of Spread the Love peanut butter, but there's no need to feel embarrassed. Rather, these products have earned that name for their mouthwatering simplicity; they contain nothing more than organic peanuts. That's right: Neither the Naked Smooth nor the Naked Crunchy Organic Peanut Butter contain even a milligram of sodium, which is great news for those who must keep their salt intake in check. Of course, you could always stir a few pinches of salt into a jar if that's not you.

For peanut butter fiends or commercial kitchens that find the 16-ounce jars too small, a 15-pound pail of Naked Peanut Butter might be in order. With so many unconventional ways to use peanut butter, you might appreciate having a larger supply of high-quality nut butter to experiment with. On the other hand, if you're packing a work lunch or heading out on a hike, the single-serving packets could be handy.

In addition to its naked peanut butters, Spread the Love sells single-ingredient almond butters, almond cashew butters, jams, and a chocolate-hazelnut dessert butter. All are vegan and gluten-free, and none contain palm oil.

The Wixárikas, an indigenous community in the state of Nayarit in western Mexico, grow the peanuts used to make Just About Foods' peanut butters. All of its peanut butters are organic, and some are even Regenerative Organic Certified, meaning extra steps are taken to ensure the land is healthy and fertile for years to come, while respecting both human and animal lives.

That's all great on the environmental front, but are these peanut butters healthy? Absolutely. There are creamy and crunchy versions of both the organic peanut butter and the ROC peanut butter, and each of them contains only two ingredients: organic roasted peanuts and sea salt. The creamy organic peanut butter even topped a fellow writer's ranking of peanut butter brands with no added sugar or oils.

If you prefer a touch of sweetness to your peanut butter, though, try Just About Foods' Cinnamon Peanut Butter. Cinnamon is naturally sweet, so it only uses a bit of agave syrup. This same sweetener is also used to lightly sweeten the Cacao Peanut Butter.

For a super smooth experience, grab a jar of the Organic Peanut Butter with Avocado Oil. Not only is avocado oil a great alternative to palm oil when it comes to creating a spreadable texture, but it may also help support heart health and boost nutrient absorption.

Picking my favorite flavor of Georgia Grinders nut butter is no easy task. If I really had to decide, the Cinnamon Vanilla Pecan-Peanut Butter blend would be in tight competition with the seasonal Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Butter. But if plain peanut butter is more your jam (and forgive me for the mixed metaphor), Georgia Grinders can certainly satisfy your needs.

This brand's Creamy Peanut Butter contains slow-roasted peanuts grown in Georgia and kosher sea salt. That's it. The crunchy version is the same, but is more textured. Both come in organic versions, too, though even the non-organic ones are reportedly made from sustainably grown peanuts. I appreciate that Georgia Grinders puts all its peanuts through rigorous testing to ensure that they don't contain aflatoxins, which are believed to contribute to liver cancer.

If you're a busy bee like me, you'll be glad to know that the classic creamy peanut butter is sold in convenient resealable pouches, somewhat of a rarity in this sector. Rather than containing a single 2-tablespoon serving per pouch — as most single-serving peanut butter packets do — each pouch contains 6 tablespoons (three servings total). I find this perfect for backpacking trips or weekends away from home.

As I hinted at earlier, the pecan-peanut butter blends are also excellent. In addition to the Cinnamon Vanilla version (which contains zero added sugar, but stars real vanilla bean), there's an unflavored variety that is delicious atop sliced bananas.

Ground Up has been one of my favorite nut butter brands for years, not only because of how it supports women and gender minorities, but also because its products often surprise me with their unorthodox flavors. The Snickerdoodle Almond, Cashew, and Coconut Butter is a customer favorite, but if you ask me, it's easily rivaled by the brand's peanut butters.

These peanut butters currently come in two flavors: Honey Sea Salt and Peanut Butter Cookie. There are only 3 grams of total sugar per serving in the Honey Sea Salt peanut butter, which is way less than other honey infused peanut butters on the market. Peter Pan's Honey Roast Creamy Peanut Butter Spread with Honey, in comparison, contains 8 grams of total sugar per serving. While honey is slightly healthier than refined cane sugar, it can still cause blood sugar spikes. Thankfully, Ground Up only uses enough honey to add flavor and a bit of sweetness to each spoonful.

Meanwhile, the Peanut Butter Cookie flavor contains peanuts, Jacobsen sea salt, vanilla bean, date syrup, and coconut oil. Again, there are only 3 grams of added sugar per serving in this nut butter, and I like that when Ground Up needed oil, it turned to coconuts rather than palm fruit, the latter of which is rooted in controversy.

If I ever visit New Zealand, I'm leaving extra space in my suitcase for a few jars of Fix & Fogg. In the land of the Kiwis, you can get special flavors like the Smoke & Fire Peanut Butter, which features cayenne chillies, Mānuka smoke, sweet smoked paprika, and New Zealand sea salt. It has also been to space, which is cool.

Alas, I'm American and firmly rooted on Planet Earth, so for now, I'll make do with the Fix & Fogg nut butters sold at stores like Whole Foods and Walmart. Still, what's available is nothing short of delicious. The Smooth Peanut Butter and the Crunchy Peanut Butter contain high-oleic peanuts and New Zealand sea salt. Meanwhile, the Protein Peanut Butter brings pea protein and hemp protein into the mix, though the protein boost is admittedly marginal (9 grams per 2-tablespoon serving, compared with 8 grams in the Smooth Peanut Butter).

The Everything Butter, though, has really captured my heart. It combines peanuts with seven other nuts and seeds, and it's a superbly crunchy topping for sprucing up a bowl of oatmeal. Plus, each spoonful is packed with nutrients. Thanks to its multifaceted textures and flavors, another writer found that this luxury ingredient can take s'mores to the next level.

No matter what flavor becomes your go-to, you can be sure Fix & Fogg's nut butters don't contain palm oil or GMOs. It's a certified B-Corp, leading the way in New Zealand for other food manufacturers aspiring to similar values.

Part of what makes the peanut butters from CB's Nuts stand out is the fact that the peanuts are barrel roasted in small batches instead of being processed on a conveyor roaster. That helps ensure each peanut reaches the perfect level of toastiness. Having prepared (and sometimes burned) countless batches of peanut butter in my own kitchen, I know how much of a difference a few extra minutes of heat can make to the final flavor of a peanut butter.

It's easy to discern the unique flavors of this brand's peanut butters because the standard line contains only one or two ingredients per jar — the first being peanuts and the second being sea salt. The latter ingredient is Redmond Real Salt, sourced in Utah.

CB's Nuts also carries several organic peanut butters. In fact, even the peanut butter designed for dogs is organic. The organic line only costs $1 more than the conventionally grown varieties on its website, which isn't an exorbitant premium. Plus, the one- and two-ingredient organic peanut butters are available in 8-pound tubs.

Finally, the specialty jars from this brand sometimes contain more than two ingredients. For instance, the Organic Spicy Peanut Butter contains jalapeño and garlic in addition to sea salt and peanuts. Many would agree that those are welcome additions to an otherwise simple spread.

"High-quality ingredients" can relate to factors like flavor, nutrition, and sustainability. Each of the brands on this list refrains from using palm oil and hydrogenated oils. In fact, most of them don't add any oil to their products at all. These brands have also eschewed ingredients and additives like excessive added sugar, artificial or natural flavors, or mono and diglycerides.

To make this list, these peanut butter brands had to be intentional about where they source their ingredients. It was not a requirement for a brand to be fully organic in order to make this list, but brands offering at least a few organic products were given priority. While I did include brands with some added sugars in their products, the amount used had to be relatively small. Often, such brands use unrefined sweeteners like honey, sorghum, or maple syrup instead of refined cane sugar. I also considered brand transparency and ingredients sourcing; brands with B Corp certifications, for example, won extra points for their sustainability efforts.