Friday, October 12, 2012

MoFo 12: Powdered Peanut Butter Test

I think the first time I ever heard about powdered peanut butter was in the pages of VegNews... quite a while ago. I was curious, but not curious enough to order it online. Then it showed up in my local health food store, and I picked it up a few times... only to put it back. Well, the other day, I finally decided to pick up a jar of PB2. Right next to it was another brand of powdered peanut butter - so I decided to do a taste test!

The facts: Just Great Stuff and PB2

JGS ingredients: organic peanuts, organic coconut sugar, sea salt
PB2 ingredients: roasted peanuts, sugar, and salt

So, other than the organics issue, the ingredients look similar. Both varieties are made with a process of defatting the peanuts, so the end result has 85% fewer fat calories than regular peanut butter. Each brand has 45 calories per serving (2 tablespoons) - but PB2 has 5 grams of protein and JGS has only 4.

(compare that to the real peanut butter in my fridge, which is 180 calories for 2 tablespoons!)

The serving method for both brands is the same. Add two tablespoons of the powdered peanut butter into a dish, add 1 tablespoon of water and mix. They look pretty similar so far...

Once mixed up, they did definitely seem a little different. The PB2 was a bit pastier, and oranger in color... while the Just Great Stuff brand was darker and smoother.


We tasted both brands independently, on a bagel, and on apple slices (from our apple tree!). In general, the PB2 was pretty salty, and the JGS was quite sweet. I like salty peanut butter, so the PB2 was okay with me. I felt like the JGS was too sweet - I tasted the sweetness more than the peanuts. This kinda bummed me out, because I really wanted to prefer the all-organic, no GMO brand. Mixing the two together was pretty good (that's the 3rd apple in the way back!) If I could only pick one, I think I'd stick with PB2. However, there are probably times when the sweeter one would be better (like in smoothies - which I haven't tried yet).

I'd be really stoked if they'd come out with unsweetened and unsalted versions in the future. After all, it's always easy to add a little salt or sweetener. Also - it seems like these products have really fun potential for adding to cookies or breads or muffins... Hmmm.

Even though I preferred the saltier PB2 over the sweeter JGS, I'm happy to have both of these in my cupboard, and this is definitely a product I'll enjoy and buy again. I really love peanut butter and these brands are not about to 100% replace my dearly beloved Maranatha Crunchy Salted Organic Peanut Butter - but they'll surely make a dent! These are both a much lower-calorie way to ingest a generous portion of peanutty goodness!

helpful hint: I learned the hard way that this stuff really hardens on your little dish. Better to wash the dish right away! :)





14 comments:

  1. oh cool! i've been wanting to buy a peanut butter powder for a while now--mostly for smoothies and salad roll dippin'. i sorta kind have regular peanut butter in the house, because i will eat it out of the jar in about three days. pb is one of my favorite things to eat of all time.

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  2. Great post! I haven't tried these yet but have seen them at the store.

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  3. OK. I've never heard of p-nut butter powder so this was interesting to me. I'd probably end up not buying either because I don't like sweetened or too salty p-nut butter, but I wonder if sweetening it is necessary for production or just to make it sell better. Does it keep better in powdered form?

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  4. I have been purchasing the JGS brand for a while...it is absolutely delish in smoothies....especially smoothies that include chocolate protein powder! Yumms!

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  5. Interesting! I never knew there was such a thing. I bet it would be good in baking. Put the powder in with the dry stuff and a little extra water in the wet stuff. I think it would be easier than mixing goopy pnut butter.

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  6. Oh, how funny. I've seen the PB2 at the store a billion times but had no idea it was a powder!

    I don't really like PB much-- except as a single tbsp in my morning oatmeal. I'm happy to stick with the plain ol full fat stuff for that!

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  7. I love that drawing Amey! So cute! I've never heard of powdered peanut butter, I bet it'd be awesome for baking and brilliant on a camping trip.

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  8. I've never heard of this stuff either, but peanut butter is my major weakness so I would love to try a low-calorie option. I might have to find some and bring it home when I'm in the US next year!

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  9. I use PB2 in my smoothies. I've never actually de-powdered it! Makes me want some now!

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  10. wow ive never seen powdered PB! i love peanut butter so this looks really awesome

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  11. Very interesting stuff. I've heard of it but never really seen it out anywhere. I love side by side tests!

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  12. Yum! Trader Joe's used to carry peanut flour and I was pretty bummed when they discontinued it. I liked to coat tofu slices in it and then pan-fry them.

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  13. You can get the non-organic powder Trader Joe's used to have, just search for "defatted peanut flour". Here is one brand I found on Amazon.com "Protein Plus" ASIN# B0052OOYO2

    Ingredients should just be "peanuts" or "defatted peanuts", then add the sugar/salt to your liking.

    Laura - coating tofu slices sounds great!

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  14. I also like the fact that you can add more water and make it thinner so it's easier to dip apples in.

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