Flavored peanut butter is ubiquitous nowadays and I get embarrassingly excited each time a new variety crosses my path. When I heard about these fun flavors that PB Crave has been whipping up I knew that they needed a place of honor in my (rather large) collection of nut butters. I mean, just look at those beauties. Cookie Nookie? Razzle Dazzle? Coco Bananas? I was so pumped to try these. out.
I started with arguably the most popular flavor in PB Crave's line - Cookie Nookie. Cookie dough is one of those flavors that makes pretty much everyone sit up and pay attention. It's everywhere. You've got cookie dough protein bars, shakes, yogurt, ice cream, etc. Everyone loves it. But a cookie dough peanut butter? Sign me up. At first I was expecting this butter to have literal chunks of cookie dough in it, but when I actually took the time to read the label I realized that the butter itself is cookie dough flavored and is mixed with wild honey and mini chocolate chips. Whoops, my fault. When I cracked open the jar I found that I needed to give it a good stir to blend the separated oil but the overall texture of the butter is fairly soft and mixing it wasn't a problem.
I swirled a bit into a little bowl and found a smooth peanut butter dotted with teeny chocolate chips. Taking a whif I detected the peanuts right up front with a vague brown sugar and vanilla-y aroma (which I associate with cookie dough) mixed in there as well.
Here's a peek at the label so you can see all the nutrition facts and ingredients that you'll get in this stuff. I was surprised that the calories and fat were on par with most butters in my collection, and I was also surprised that the sugar content isn't higher - sweet flavored butters typically have a higher sugar content, but I can live with 5g per serving.
I found this little message on the back of the jar and after doing some research I discovered that a portion of the profits from ever jar of PB Crave peanut butter gets donated to Project Peanut Butter - an organization founded to fight global malnutrition in children through providing fortified peanut butter pastes to areas in need. Pretty nifty.
Now for the taste test! I tried Cookie Nookie two ways - right from the spoon (the best way, in my opinion) - and using one of my favorite nut butter delivery vehicles, the good ole pretzel. I gave it a try and got the same brown sugar and vanilla notes that I detected during the smell test, but the peanut flavor was still the major player, as it should be. The chocolate chips seemed to melt away in my mouth and the honey offered a super sweet finish to the whole thing. The hint of cookie dough flavor is certainly present and both Matt and I liked this one for a sweeter peanut butter option. I don't see eating this one in a sandwich but there are so many other fun things you can do with it. Matt's been enjoying it on graham crackers!
Next up we tried Razzle Dazzle. The label describes this flavor as, "Peanut butter with wild honey, dark chocolate, white cocoa butter drops, and natural raspberry flavor." I'm no stranger to the combination of raspberry with white and dark chocolate, but I've never had raspberry with peanut butter, so I was intrigued. This one also had some mild oil separation and as I stirred it together I noticed the strong raspberry scent, as in smack-you-in-the-face strong. It made me even more excited to take a taste.
Here's the nutrition facts and ingredients list for your viewing and scrutinizing pleasure.
As before, I tasted Razzle Dazzle on a spoon and on a pretzel. The butter itself has the same smooth, semi-thin texture and is dotted with white chocolate chips. The dark chocolate doesn't contribute any change of color to the peanut butter but the flavor is definitely there. The raspberry, though, takes center stage and even overpowers the peanut butter base. I loved this one! It's pretty uncommon to find a fruity flavor in a jarred peanut butter Though I also don't see this one as something I would put into a sandwich, I would drizzle it over any kind of breakfast bread (pancakes, waffles, bagels, French toast, mmm...) in half a second.
Heck, who am I kidding, I would put pretty much any variety of peanut butter on breakfast breads.
Next up we have Coco Bananas, a totally smooth peanut butter with wild honey, chocolate, and natural banana flavor. *sigh* Okay, you guys know me and my rocky relationship with bananas. I'm working on it, really I am. It's not that I hate banana flavor as much as I can't stand the texture. A frozen banana gets thrown into most of my protein shake varieties and I love it. But if I have to chew any chunks of banana in anything - raw, in puddings, ice creams, etc... no. Just no. So yeah, I was worried about Coco Bananas, but when I scooped some out and found it completely smooth, I was hopeful.
I need not have worried. This one rocks. Peanut butter and banana is a historically-loved combination of flavors, especially in sandwiches, and this one delivers on all points. The roasted peanut flavor combined with the banana and the small contributions from the honey and chocolate just works. Now this one I would totally smear between two slices of bread. And yeah, I know some of you would question why you just wouldn't use actual fresh fruit. Well, if you're like me and hate the texture of bananas but not the flavor, this might help you mend that broken marriage.
Oh and here's the nutrition and ingredients label for Coco Bananas. So far this one has the lowest sugar content at 3 grams per serving.
Last but not least we have Choco Choco, a classic no-fail pairing of peanut butter with sweet and dark chocolate, as well as the wild honey which is present in all PB Crave flavors. From the photo you've probably already noticed that this one has a totally different texture than the other three flavors. Instead of being smooth and thin, this one is very thick and chunky and reminds me of peanut butter after it has been chilled. I initially thought this one would be like a crunchy peanut butter but with chocolate chips in place of the peanut chunks - the dots of chocolate chips were clearly visible through the jar. However, when scooping it out, I found that the chocolate chips seem to melt on contact and create smooth ribbons of dark chocolate instead. I thought that was fun.
Here be the nutrition facts, ingredients ,etc etc.
The thicker texture makes for a stickier peanut butter and the bitterness of the semi-sweet and dark chocolates meld nicely with the peanut butter base. I love a good bitter chocolate taste when paired with something sweeter, so the honey-sweetened peanut butter was a tasty combination indeed. There's a lot of bold flavor going on here so I can see eating these on something bland, like a rice cake or plain crackers, or just right out of the jar which is how Matt and I have been working our way through this container.
For More Information:
To find PB Crave locally, it is now available at Walmart or in Cost Plus World Markets as well as other retailers. Enter your zip code on the main website to find out where it is available near you.
PB Crave can be found on social media through Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram
GIVEAWAY: Win All 4 Flavors of PB Crave!
The folks at PB Crave were kind enough to offer to send one of our readers their own variety pack of all four flavors of peanut butter talked about in this post. The contest runs from now until 11:59pm EST on Monday, March 2nd. This giveaway is run through social media and there are several ways to enter. You can enter using any or all of these options and you can enter once per day for more chances to win! One winner will be chosen at random from a pool of all of the entries.
Contest is open to our U.S. readers age 13+
Ways to enter:
On Instagram: Visit my instagram feed @ebrowniebites. You will see the giveaway image on my feed (just look for the peanut butter!) The directions are on the photo, but basically you just need to follow @ebrowniebites AND @pbcrave, and then repost the image on your own Instagram feed and tag it #BBitesPBcrave so we can track your entry! You can repost the photo once a day for extra entries.
On Facebook: Make sure that you like both Brownie Bites and PB Crave. Then all you have to do is click here to pull up the giveaway image on our Facebook feed and SHARE it! That's it! Share the image once per day for extra chances to win!
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