Ranking 12 Crunchy Peanut Butter Brands from Worst to Best

Crunchy, creamy, mixed with jelly. In my book, there’s no bad way to enjoy peanut butter. You can stick with a classic peanut butter sandwich or whip up a batch of bakery-style peanut butter cookies for a sweet treat. A creamy spread works in a lot of cases, but there are certain times when you just want the extra texture and bold peanut flavor of a good crunchy mixture. 

Different brands have large or small pieces of peanut, but the extra texture is key. Starting with a smooth peanut butter base is also important for spreadability. This is especially true if you’re going to use the peanut butter to dip apples or spread on celery. But for a sandwich, the extra bit of crunch and a strong peanut taste are needed to balance out the other toppings, like a sweet fruit jelly or the savory bacon jam your PB&J deserves.

We tried the top peanut butter brands to see which had the crunch and flavor that worked the best. Many were household names that we’ve tried and even grew up with. Others were brands with fewer additives, which work especially well for those looking for a more natural option. We tried these brands side-by-side, comparing taste, texture, and general nuttiness to see which peanut butters gave us the crunch that we wanted.

For an all-natural peanut butter that’s easier on the budget, Teddie will work. But for taste and texture, this peanut butter was our least favorite when compared to the others. It didn’t have a strong peanut taste, which was surprising given that the only ingredients are peanuts and salt. The peanuts are dry roasted, which should give a deeper flavor, but the overall taste is pretty bland. It’s a bit easier to stir than some natural peanut butter options, but it doesn’t incorporate very well.

The pieces of peanuts in this version are a bit larger, adding extra crunch. The 16-ounce jar costs around $4.75, but the price can go down as low as $4 when you use a store loyalty card or find it on sale. If you really want to grab some Teddie’s, make sure to shop around because the price can vary from store to store. But this one ranked lowest on our list, and there are plenty of other all-natural choices that we’d recommend over this peanut butter.

At around $4.50 for a 16-ounce jar, Smucker’s is a little bit on the expensive side for a small container. But it’s made with just peanuts and salt, keeping any additives and stabilizers out of the recipe. 

This peanut butter jar has a plastic seal that is a bit tricky to get off, which is a small factor but still not a great start to trying your peanut butter. Once you get the jar open, it’ll need quite a bit of stirring as well. We expected this since the all-natural peanut butters don’t have stabilizers and oil separation is normal. But this was the most difficult to mix back together of the options that we ranked. The peanut butter was really thick and grainy, even after quite a bit of stirring. Once it was on the plate, the oil separated again. 

The best way to mix natural peanut butter and help with the consistency would be with a hand mixer, but that can turn a simple snack or sandwich into a bigger event with extra cleanup. In the end, this peanut butter moved further down in our rankings just because of how much of a pain it was to get it open and to a consistency that we liked.

MaraNatha has some of the most expensive peanut butter, but it’s high quality and made with organic ingredients. It’s also a no-stir option that contains peanuts, salt, sugar, and palm oil. This makes it easier to enjoy compared to some of the peanut butters that require a few minutes of mixing to even approach a good consistency. And even with that, MaraNatha peanut butter tastes a bit oily. It is smooth with plenty of crunch from peanut bits, but it leaves an oily residue in your mouth that isn’t so great.

When you also consider that a 16-ounce jar costs more than $7, this one ended up even lower on our list in the end. If you really want an organic option that doesn’t need stirring but is still made with top ingredients, MaraNatha is one of the few that hits all of those wickets. But for taste and texture, and not to mention value, it’s just not a standout in any area.

Crazy Richard’s peanut butter is named after the original peanut butter enthusiast who was “crazy” about making a spread without any additives or extras. Richard eventually teamed up with the CEO of Krema Nut Company (also named Richard), who had been making peanut butter since 1898. So this brand has been around for quite some time and has benefited from nut butter-making expertise.

With a long history, we expected more from Crazy Richard’s. It was pretty runny and needed a little bit of stirring because the peanut oil naturally separated. But even with that mixing, it was hard to get this peanut butter to a thick consistency. It was pretty easy to incorporate them back together, but this extra step was still required.

Crazy Richard’s costs just over $5 for a 16-ounce jar. While there are cheaper options out there, this is a good price for high-quality peanut butter that’s made with 100% peanuts and no extras. Even though it wasn’t our favorite for taste or texture, we still ended up happy with this peanut butter and put it in the middle of our rankings. 

Freshly ground peanut butter is a splurge, but you can customize your purchase and get just what you need. If you only want a small amount of peanut butter for a few sandwiches or to use in a recipe, you can fill the container with less. You’ll pay by the pound, which can help keep costs and waste down. It’s just over $6 per pound, which comes out to around 40 cents per ounce.

We expected to like it a lot more than we did. Given that it is made just with ground peanuts, we hoped that it would be strong in flavor. But the taste was pretty bland, and the texture was somewhere between crunchy and creamy. It doesn’t have any extra salt, oil, or any additives. You can grind it in a machine in the store or pick up one of the prepackaged options. While we didn’t love the taste or texture for a dip, it was good for sandwiches and would be excellent to use in a recipe that calls for peanut butter, such as PB overnight oats.

Good Good’s crunchy peanut butter doesn’t have any added sugar. It includes both peanut oil and grapeseed oil in the recipe, plus peanuts, salt, and fiber. It’s ideal for those who want the protein of PB but need to stick to a low-sugar diet. It still has a nice taste and texture, though the flavor isn’t super intense and the peanut pieces are on the small side.

The downside of this option is that it’s not available in many places, so you may need to do some searching. We mostly only found it in health food stores, where it costs as much as $9 for a 12-ounce jar. We ended up finding it on sale for less than $7, though, which made it comparable to some of the other natural and organic peanut butters. But it’s still a more expensive brand, and we’re not sure it’s worth the higher price tag.

If you want natural peanut butter with a strong, nutty flavor, head over to Trader Joe’s. There are only store brand options on the shelf, but the special trip is worth it if you want a wholesome spread without spending a ton of money. Trader Joe’s peanut butter doesn’t have any additives, so you’ll have to stir it before use. It comes in salted and unsalted options, both made with clean ingredients. They are both made with roasted peanuts for a deep, rich flavor that has a hint of sweetness as well.

A 16-ounce jar is around $2.50. This is great value when you compare it to other all-natural peanut butters, which can cost twice as much for the same amount. When you add in that this was one of the best-tasting peanut butters as well, it makes sense that it ended up higher on our list than any other stir-needed spreads.

Like something that’s slightly sweet? Peter Pan is the choice for you. When I was growing up, Peter Pan was my preferred peanut butter, and I was so insistent that my family arranged a taste test to see if I could really tell the difference between the different brands. Even at the age of 10, I was able to pick out the hint of sweetness in Peter Pan every time. The crunchy spread has a deeper flavor compared to the creamy version thanks to the prominent chunks of roasted nuts. If you want something even sweeter, go with the honey-roasted flavor, which comes in creamy and crunchy varieties.

A 16.3-ounce container is just over $3, making this a good value product with solid taste. This is a pretty standard peanut butter, both in flavor and texture. We ended up putting it just above the middle in our final rankings. We liked Peter Pan and would use it in just about any scenario that called for peanut butter, including as a dip, on a sandwich, or within a recipe. It just didn’t stand out from similar options that were also no-stir products.

You have to go to Giant to pick up this store brand, but it’s a good alternative to Skippy or Jif. The brand from Giant has a smooth base with extra crunchy peanut bits. It is a bit thicker than some of the other mainstream chunky peanut butters, which would work really well on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The peanut chunks are plentiful and big enough to really bring great texture to your sammie.

Giant peanut butter costs $3 for a 16.3-ounce jar. This is just under the price for the same option from Skippy, which is located right alongside it on the store shelf at Giant. The Giant store brand costs a little bit more than Signature Select, Safeway’s store brand, but the prices are close enough for us to put them side-by-side in our rankings. Depending on where we’re shopping for the day, we’d happily go with the more convenient of either one.

If you like Skippy or Jif, grab the store brand from Safeway for some extra savings. It’s very similar to some of the name brands, with a super smooth peanut butter mixture accentuated with bits of rich peanuts. Signature Select had just a bit of a sweet flavor thanks to some added sugar. It would be a fantastic option to use for cookies, especially to combat peanut butter blossoms that are falling apart. A great cookie cracks on the edges without completely crumbling, which works best with a standard peanut butter like Signature Select.

A 16-ounce jar costs just $2.50 if you’re a member. If you tend to like name-brand options and want something with an almost identical flavor and texture, then Signature Select is the way to go. You get more savings by using a store loyalty card or by going with a larger jar, which has a lower price per ounce in the end. The downside is that you have to designate a trip to Safeway for this one.

Skippy is a top brand with a lot of sizes and varieties. We can always count on Skippy to be consistently good in taste and texture, which is one reason that it ended up on our list of peanut butter brands you should buy. Even the chunky version has a smooth base, but with the tasty addition of bits of peanut throughout the spread. It has a nice balance of saltiness that highlights the peanut flavor rather than distracting from it. The texture was what really wowed us, especially when we tried it side-by-side with some other options. There wasn’t any graininess to the peanut butter — just a pleasant amount of crunch.

Skippy is also easy to find at most stores and won’t require a special trip. We saw it on the shelves of mainstream grocery chains, health food stores, and even convenience stores. It’s around $4 for a 16.3-ounce jar, which is a bit more than some other brands. But we think it’s worth the few extra cents for the spreadable consistency. Given that you likely don’t need to drive all around town to find Skippy, you may also be able to save a little on gas during your shopping trip.

Our top spot goes to Jif, a mainstream peanut butter brand. It narrowly beat out Skippy, Signature Select, and Giant for taste, which is what ultimately earned Jif top honors. This peanut butter had a slightly more prominent roasted peanut flavor, giving the spread a little bit more depth. It started with a nice, smooth peanut butter spread and then had added bits of peanuts mixed in.

You can find small and large jars in stores. The 16-ounce version costs around $4.50, which is a bit more than Skippy and considerably more than the store brands from Safeway, Giant, and even Trader Joe’s. The 28-ounce jar costs around $7, and the 40-ounce jar is around $9. But this is the only brand that we thought was worth a couple more dollars. If you’re not tasting these brands side-by-side, the difference probably wouldn’t be as noticeable. Pop this peanut butter in the freezer to use with special treats, and you’ll be extra happy to have the little extra boost of roasted rich flavor that comes with Jif.

We tried top brands and those with a focus on health to see which we liked the best. We started with a side-by-side comparison so that we could get a good sense of taste and texture. This was where the differences were the most apparent, especially when we looked at texture. Even on the plate, it was easy to see which ones were thicker and good for dipping and which required more stirring.

We also made some classic peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a practical test and to see how spreadable each brand was on bread. Some of the grainier peanut butters worked better when paired with jelly, while the smoother options were our choice to use for dipping fruit and vegetables.

Price was also a consideration, especially among those natural brands with fewer additives. These tended to be the most expensive, though they weren’t always the best in taste or texture. When we found one that was both good value and tasty, we paid close attention. In the end, peanut butter that had a robust peanut flavor and a thick texture that was easy to spread without requiring a lot of mixing rose to the top of the list. Runnier spreads or those that left a lot of oily residue behind didn’t meet the mark in our test.