Manilife are one of my personal favourite peanut butters. Their deep roast is especially revered in our house.

After trying it my wife said; “it makes all other peanut butters taste like cigarette ash.” Strong.

Taste

Saltiness – mid range. Not too salty, but you know there’s salt in there.

Nuttiness – the deep roast element of the peanut butter adds a level of nuttiness that you just don’t get in any other peanut butter (that I’ve tried!). Not even the other offerings from Manilife. It’s hard to describe without having tried it. It’s the nuttiest peanut butter I’ve eaten.

Texture

Crunch – this is not the crunchiest of crunchy peanut butters. But the balance of crunch to smoothness is good. While there are fewer whole bits of peanut than you might find in other butters, the pieces that are present are far more substantial than in many other brand’s offerings. I personally prefer the smooth version of this peanut butter, but would take the crunchy version over most other brand’s smooth any day.

Spreadability

The crunchy version of this peanut butter does not mix as well as the smooth version. I found it separated more in the tub and that effected the stickiness and spreadability of the butter. Manilife peanut butters tend to be slightly thicker and stickier than some other brands (in my experience). This crunchy version started out well, but required much more remixing than others I’ve tried from the brand and resulted in the last few portions being fairly dry (very possibly due to poor initial mixing by me!!!). Not too bad if you’re adding your peanut butter to another dish (porridge, for example) or if you like it on toast with lashings of butter. But not ideal if you’re a “spoon in the tub, straight to mouth” type or are trying to spread conservative amounts onto toast.

Ingredients

99.1% Hi-Oleic peanuts, 0.9% sea salt.

Overall verdict

Definitely a good choice for the aforementioned porridge. Would also be very good in a peanut butter cookie recipe. I’d not suggest using it in anything where peanut butter isn’t the main ingredient simply because the intensity of the flavour would be wasted if it’s not the star of the show.

Up there with the best of the best.

Peanut Butter is Life score:

9.5 out of 10.