peanut butter

The comparison between two spreads...

There aren’t many people I know who share my affinity of peanut butter.

I got it from my mother and father. A gal I used to work with was also a massive fan — and she made the most divine peanut butter cookies. I’ve known a few others here and there, but to love peanut butter to my level, I haven’t seen often.

Peanut butter, you see, is a nectar of the Gods.

It’s up there with beer. Yes, I said it. In fact, you can eat it with a beer. That makes it even better.

(Note: Peanut butter with beer is only recommended if you drink a good beer, not something crappy).

To say I’m a fan or passionate about peanut butter would be a total understatement. In fact, I would likely call it a little more obsessive.

The undisputed winner!

Recently, I have been searching for some new blogs to read. Ones with a personal touch. Ones that would be fun to read and to go back to on a regular basis.

I first stumbled upon Rusty’s blog post about his love fest with Nutella.

Now, allow me to tell you that I have tried Nutella. I don’t hate it. But I don’t love it, either. I didn’t really like it on toast because the hazelnut/chocolate flavor is so overpowering.

And because it’s chocolate-like, I’m sure it would go with beer, even a cheap can of Pabst Blue Ribbon. But who wants to have to choke down a PBR to enjoy Nutella.

Basically, in a sports analogy, Nutella can’t hold peanut butter’s jock.

(Second note: One reason why peanut butter is better — you don’t have to capitalize the p and the b because it’s not an actual brand, like Nutella. Thus, this makes peanut butter less stuck up and more of a “people’s snack.” Though, to be fair, Nutella isn’t capitalized on its containers, but that’s a branding thing, not a grammar thing.)

I didn’t get through Rusty’s post all the way (the first time) because he mentioned his post came based off another blogger — Michael — talking about the glory that is peanut butter.

That, apparently, opened this battle.

Then, Rusty shot back with his Nutella post.

Finally, Michael responded in kind.

They both make valid points, including talking about things like nutritional value. I won’t get into all of that as they have done the work on all of that, so if you want to see that — check out their posts.

Instead, I’ll just discuss why peanut butter is so freakin’ awesome.

You see, peanut butter can go with just about anything. And when I say anything, I mean it. Sure, there are things peanut butter wouldn’t be good on. But there are far more things peanut butter is good on rather than Nutella.

Allow me to count a few things that I would gladly spread peanut butter on:

• Fruit
• Bread
• Veggies
• Pretzels
• Cookies
• Ice cream

I’m sure Nutella could be decent on these things as well, but is it better? Heck no.

Let’s look beyond what peanut butter is good with, too. Let’s look at the overall picture. Peanut butter comes in several different types — such as crunchy, smooth etc.

Then there’s peanut butter-and-jelly. Or peanut butter and honey sandwiches. Oh my. Hello — peanut butter and fluff?

I have even had — more than once — peanut butter and cheddar cheese sandwiches. It’s well worth trying and it’s excellent.

Nutella... it's just not peanut butter.

Nutella is, well, Nutella. It’s boring. It’s the same. Chocolate/hazelnut flavor.

Peanut butter seems to help bring out the taste in other things and stands out well on its own. Nutella? It overpowers other things and doesn’t help bring out other flavors.

I look beyond this, though. I wonder if those who might think Nutella is better than peanut butter suffer from arachibutyrophobia? For those of you who don’t want to Google it, that means the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth.

Fun fact, too: November is “Peanut Butter Lover’s Month.” Last time I checked, there isn’t a “Nutella Lover’s Month.”

And, for those who truly love peanut butter, there is a website set aside just peanut butter lovers set up by Souther Peanut Growers!

The battle

I am a fair guy. At least I like to think I am.

With that in mind, I decided to put peanut butter to the test with Nutella.

I took two slices of bread, spread peanut butter on one and Nutella on the other (see the photo at the top of this post). I first ate the Nutella, figuring a clean palate would be beneficial. The hazelnut taste is strong and Nutella, as I’ve always thought, has an odd after taste.

After some milk, it was time for the peanut butter.

No contest.

The peanut butter was infinitely better. And oh how I loved that it helped rid my mouth of the Nutella taste.

For the record, too, the final quarter of each, I put together. It’s actually not too bad when in a sandwich. But, I think it would need a smaller amount of Nutella to go with it, because it still found a way to overpower the peanut butter.

How about all of you? Peanut butter or Nutella? Better yet, what things do you like to put peanut butter on?

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!