20 Fancy Butter Brands, Ranked From Worst To Best

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Correction 3/14/22: A previous version of this article named Iceland as a Scandinavian country. Iceland is not part of Scandinavia.

An ancient food, butter remains a fascination and obsession for home bakers and Michelin-starred chefs alike today. Julia Child famously said that "with enough butter, anything is good," and she is partially responsible for bringing the ingredient back in fashion for American home cooks who, according to Mental Floss, had been misled to eschew butter for margarine in the name of health in the early 1900s and then later found margarine an acceptable butter replacement during World War II when butter became a scarce commodity.

Thankfully, though, butter is back en vogue in the American kitchen and, per Statista, consumption continues to trend upward. Not only are fabulously imported butters from Europe and Australasia becoming easier to find in America, several revered butter brands have emerged in the U.S. as well. Some of these newer American brands are using traditional European techniques and small-batch production to produce star-quality butter that sells out in minutes, leaving us with a wealth of options in supermarkets and specialty stores alike.

We've ranked 20 fancy butter brands to help you discover which products are worth the money — and, for some, the effort to track down — for your at-home culinary ventures. Some of these names sit on grocery store shelves nationwide while others have long been secrets of professional kitchens and bakeries. Those who earned the highest rankings found the sweet spot of being easy enough to purchase without being too widely available to where purchasing the product doesn't feel as special. These brands also featured a deep, memorable flavor without being too funky for swapping in your favorite recipes.

One of two Scandinavian brands on this list, Lurpak is based in Denmark and seeks to combine the best of traditional methods and modern technology. They must be doing something right because the brand's Salted Butter variety earned the "Best of Class" award at the 2020 World Champion Cheese Contest. 

Lurpak's products are modeled after the European fashion, with a culturing process and lots of butterfat — the traditional varieties boast 84%. However, the brand doesn't get a high standing in the fancy category as it's missing out on a depth of flavor coming from other brands that use smaller-batch production and time-consuming methods. The brand has become pretty easy to find in grocery stores across the U.S. and is offered in a range of options like Slightly Salted, Unsalted, Crushed Garlic, among others. Lurpak's butter typically retails around $8 per 8 ounces, but it can also be found in bulk through Amazon.

Dedicated home cooks and frozen dinner enthusiasts alike seem to know about Kerrygold. The Irish butter brand has been an explosive hit since it first arrived in the U.S. more than 20 years ago and has become the gold standard for supermarket butter brands.

While Kerrygold has something of a cult following and is more expensive than your average butter stick, we ranked the now-iconic yellow European-style butter here at No. 17 because of its vast accessibility; according to Bloomberg, Kerrygold is America's second-most popular butter brand after Land O'Lakes. The fact that Kerrygold is more commonly found than other butters on our list keeps it from feeling like a true fancy option these days.

Kerrygold can be found in Unsalted and Salted stick and tub varieties, and the brand also features a range of specialty flavors (including a choice of olive or canola oil) in tubs. Kerrygold typically retails around $4 per 8 ounces.

Plugrá is one of many European-style butters on this list. According to the French-American Cultural Foundation, European-style butter differs from your average American brand as it features at least 82% butterfat — 2% more than most butters found in North America and often in the UK as well.

Many European-style butters (particularly the French ones) are also cultured, which means a fermentation process occurs before churning. This is why these products have a distinct tang, similar to yogurt or sour cream. Plugrá is particularly good for baking, as it has a high percentage of butterfat but the flavor isn't as overpowering as many cultured butters can be.

Though Plugrá is modeled after European traditions and standards, it's actually produced in Kansas City, Missouri. Plugrà has a nutty, grassy flavor, and it's offered in Salted and Unsalted varieties at the grocery store, plus, the brand offers a 1-pound Unsalted variety for professional kitchens. However, we placed it low on the list for its wide accessibility that keeps it from feeling fancy and the lack of transparency in the production process in comparison to the others on this list. Plugrà typically retails around $2.50 per 8 ounces.

Payson Breton is made in Brittany, France, which is famous for its star-quality dairy products. Though the brand's butter is only 80% butterfat (more similar to American than other European companies), it has received wide acclaim for its salty-sweetness, beautifully fluted border, and pretty packaging.

The cows that make Payson Breton's butter are part of a cooperative of family farms and the company prides itself in an entirely local production. Their products go through a fermentation process to get the traditional, French-style tang. Payson Breton offers a wide range of butters depending on your salt preference with Sea Salt, Guérande Salt Crystals, La Pointe de Sel, Semi-Salted, and Unsalted.

However, it hits a bit lower than the other French butters on this list, as other contenders seemed to have more acclaim and more complex flavors one might expect from a fancy product. Depending on where you shop, Payson Breton's butter can be found for as low as $5 per 8.82 ounces, or just over a half-pound.

Founded in 1984, Vermont Creamery is one of the most widely adored American butter brands in the food world for its French-style tanginess and high fat content. The cream for the brand's butter comes from a local Vermont co-op (first established in 1919) that includes cow's milk from 350 family farms that produce antibiotic- and growth hormone-free milk.

Vermont Creamery's cultured butter offering is an excellent grocery store pick that will enhance the flavor of your favorite baked goods, dinner dishes, and even your morning toast. However, we placed the brand here at No. 11 for its wide availability that may make it seem more like an everyday butter instead of a special ingredient that's worth the extra bucks. It can be found in Cultured Butter with Sea Salt and Cultured Unsalted sticks, as well as Sea Salt Cultured butter in tubs. Vermont Creamery butter typically retails around $3 per 8 ounces.

The French take their butter as seriously as their wine, and the country has a special Appellation d'Origine Protégée (AOP) designation that highlights a brand's dedication to certain traditional methods (via La Cuisine Paris) as well as the specific, prestigious regions they source milk and cream from. Isigny Ste. Mère is of the AOP d'Isigny Beurre, where Normandy's finest cows have been producing famed dairy products for four centuries.

It's available to purchase on Amazon, as well as through some high-end specialty food stores and online retailers. It's available in Salted, Unsalted, and Pastry Sheet varieties, as well as in "butter baskets." However, this ingredient comes at a high price and compared to some of the other butters on this list, it's not the best value for the flavor. Depending on where you shop, Isigny Ste. Mère can be found for as low as $7 per 8.82 ounces.

Lescure is another fabulous French option that's full of history and deep complexity of flavor. The brand's products are part of the AOP Charentes-Poitou (one of the country's Protected Designation of Origin certifications) and features a range of butter products offered in 80-84% butterfat.

The cream and milk come from cows that graze across a rich, nutrient-dense terroir (a French word for soil, or natural environment), which accounts for Lescure's unique flavor. Lescure has a seven-step production process that includes 16-hour fermentation and hand-kneading stages. It's pretty easy to find the brand nowadays via online specialty food retailers and some upscale specialty food stores.

Lescure offers a nice range of options for every type of home cook and culinary project with Salted and Unsalted varieties across various fat percentages, sizes, and shapes, which helped to secure its high standing. Lescure typically retails around $10 per 8.8 ounces, or just over a half-pound.

One of the biggest names in butter, France's Échiré is a favorite of chefs and savvy home cooks alike. It's also among the oldest brands on this list and has been around for more than 120 years. While pricey, Échiré has become more widely accessible for the home kitchen and can sometimes be found at neighborhood grocery stores (including some Trader Joe's locations), but it's also available for purchase on Amazon and via select specialty food retailers.

Échiré prides itself on using the ancient practice of churning butter in wooden churns, and it is one of the last remaining dairies to continue this tradition. Like Lescure, it's also part of the AOP Charentes-Poitou and received the Prix d'Excellence Française in 2015. Though it's an excellent all-purpose butter that works especially well for baking, Échiré is one of the most expensive on this list, and we think there are a few other options that offer more to home cooks in terms of flavor and price.

The brand offers Doux (unsalted) and Demi-Sel ("lightly salted") varieties in sticks, rolls, pastry sheets, baskets, and recharges, or single-serve portions. Échiré typically retails around $10.50 per 8.8 ounces.

Beloved by names such as David Leibowitz and Gwyneth Paltrow, Pascal Beillevaire is not only a prestigious French butter brand, but it also a top fromagerie to visit in Paris, according to Goop. The brand is named after its founder, a native of Vendée Breton, where the milk is sourced and butter produced, and Pascal is passionate about bringing his sublime dairy products to consumers, whether that be by bike or by hand in his shop.

These products are made with raw milk and abide by all of the steps of a traditional French dairy from centuries ago. The salt is even meticulously harvested. The only problem for those of us in the U.S. is that you can only purchase Pascal Beillevaire products from specialty food retailers, which is why it doesn't earn the tip-top spot. The brand's butters are offered in unique varieties, just like its cheeses and other dairy products. There's a seaweed butter; Beurre Cru, which comes unsalted or with crunchy sea salt; and Beurre Espelette, which features the Espelette pepper that's native to Southwest France, make for a unique collection of products to try. Depending on where you source it from, Pascal Beillevaire's butter can be found for as low as $9.60 per 125g, or 4.4 ounces.

One of many on this list that have been thought of as the best butter in the world, Rodolphe Le Meunier is one of the most highly regarded brands out there and is adored by the one-and-only Nancy Silverton (via Saveur).

Named after the famed fifth-generation affineur (a French word for a cheese ager and purveyor) Rodolphe Le Menuier, who produces the butter in the Loire Valley, the process is as traditional as it gets. His team sources ingredients from local French farms, makes the butter in a wooden churn, and molds it by hand.

Between rave reviews from experts and home cooks alike, the middle of the pack price point, and level of accessibility, this one earns top marks. The brand offers its butter in Unsalted and Salted varieties, and it can mostly be found online via high-end food retailers. Rodolphe Le Meunier can be found for as low as $8.99 per 250 grams, or 9 ounces.