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Food · The peanut butter line · Take No. 026

Crunchy or creamy?

Smooth and spreadable or full of actual peanuts. Americans buy more of one, but the other side is louder and will fight you about it at breakfast.

The case for each side, then the verdict. Then the floor is yours.
The case for

Creamy

Smooth, spreads clean, melts in

  • MostOf the peanut butter sold in the US is creamy. The majority has chosen.
  • 0Torn slices. Creamy spreads on soft bread without wrecking it, which is the whole job.
  • KidsOverwhelmingly prefer it, and so does every sandwich, sauce and cookie recipe ever written.
vs
The case for

Crunchy

With the peanuts left in

  • 2Textures in one bite. Creamy is one note; crunchy is a chord.
  • Grown-upsPreference for crunchy rises with age in every survey. It's the taste you graduate into.
  • ToastOn hot toast, crunchy wins outright: the pieces warm, the butter melts around them, and creamy just slides off.

Cast your take

——
The verdict

It's Crunchy. Creamy is for sandwiches; crunchy is for people.

Creamy has the numbers and the sandwich, and if you're making lunch for a six-year-old, it's correct. It also wins on toast with jam, where a smooth layer lets the fruit do the work.

But eaten for its own sake, on toast, on a spoon, on a banana, crunchy is the better food: more peanut, more texture, more to it. The majority buys creamy because it's easier. We're not grading on easy. Crunchy.

Disagree? That's what the buttons are for.

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