The Aldi Peanut Butter Roundup

Last Updated on December 28, 2019

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I’m a bit old school when it comes to packing lunches. While I like lunch meat, I’ve become more aware of nitrates and other additives in many deli meats. (Preservative-free lunch meats are better.) For me, then, lunch meats are usually something I only make once in a while.

Most of the time, it’s a sandwich that includes peanut butter, along with either jelly or, more commonly, honey. Toss in an apple and one of Aldi’s famed string cheese sticks, and I’m good to go.

At the time of this post, Aldi sells a few different kinds of peanut butter as everyday Regular Buys. They include Peanut Delight Creamy Peanut Butter, Peanut Delight Natural Creamy Peanut Butter Spread, and Simply Nature Organic Creamy Peanut Butter.

Peanut Delight Creamy Peanut Butter

This is the standard Aldi peanut butter. In our area, it comes in both 18-ounce and 40-ounce jars. The 18-ounce version currently costs $1.15 (6.4 cents an ounce), while the 40-ounce version is $2.19 (5.5 cents an ounce). Aldi also sells a crunchy peanut butter in a 40-ounce jar for the same price as the creamy.

The 40-ounce Aldi peanut butter is among the cheapest I’ve seen, costing even less than the 40-ounce Great Value Creamy Peanut Butter at Walmart (7.1 cents an ounce), and certainly less than the 40-ounce name-brand Jif Creamy Peanut Butter (13.7 cents an ounce). Even the smaller 18-ounce version is cheaper than the larger Great Value version.

This peanut butter contains five ingredients: dry roasted peanuts, sugar, hydrogenated vegetable oil (rapeseed, cottonseed, soybean), salt, and molasses. In terms of nutrition, it’s pretty high in fat (15 grams per serving), but most of that fat is either polyunsaturated (3 grams) or monounsaturated (8 grams) fat, which are considered to be “healthy” fats, as they can help lower cholesterol, among other benefits.

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Click to enlarge.

I think this peanut butter tastes and works fine. It has a smooth, salty taste and spreads easily. I don’t have a problem with the oil and peanut butter separating, so in terms of convenience it’s got that going for it, too.

Peanut Delight Natural Creamy Peanut Butter Spread

This natural peanut butter is an obvious imitation, both in packaging and ingredients, of Jiff Natural Creamy Peanut Butter. The Aldi version is $1.29 for a 16-ounce jar, which comes out to 8 cents an ounce. The Jiff, by contrast, is 13.7 cents an ounce. On the other hand, Great Value Natural Creamy Peanut Butter is currently about 5.6 cents an ounce, which makes it less expensive than the Aldi version.

The Aldi natural peanut butter has five ingredients: peanuts, cane sugar, palm oil, salt, and molasses. Because it is processed differently than the standard Aldi peanut butter, the packaging cautions that minimal oil separation is natural, so this is a peanut butter you might have to stir a bit.

Nutritionally, it’s pretty similar to the regular Aldi peanut butter, with the same amount of fat and carbohydrates. It’s a little lower in sodium, though.

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Click to enlarge.

Despite the fact that this peanut butter has the same amount of sugar as Aldi’s regular peanut butter, I found this peanut butter to be a little bit sweeter than the regular stuff. It might have to do with the fact that cane sugar is a major ingredient, which can give products a distinct flavor over other sugars. It’s good, though, and it spreads easily on bread.

Simply Nature Organic Creamy Peanut Butter

This is the Aldi take on a minimally processed peanut butter. It runs $3.39 for 16 ounces, or about 21.1 cents an ounce. That’s a few cents cheaper per ounce than Walmart’s Great Value Organic Creamy Stir Peanut Butter. It boasts that it is certified organic by QAI.

This peanut butter contains just two ingredients: peanuts and sea salt. That makes it a more natural peanut butter even than the natural peanut butter listed abover. It also means the oil from the peanuts separates from the peanut butter; the first time I opened it, I was treated to a sloppy mess of liquid and peanut. Stirring it is a chore, too, taking some time to whip it up to a consistency that goes well on bread. I found a knife works a little better than a spoon, at least when the jar is full, but I’m not sure how this peanut butter would hold up on bread being packed with a sandwich in a lunch bag for several hours.

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Click to enlarge.

In terms of taste, it tastes exactly like what the ingredients say. It’s peanuts and sea salt. It’s basic, but that’s what you expect, too.

The Verdict:

If you’re looking for peanut butter, Aldi keeps a pretty good selection, especially for a low-inventory store. All of the different varieties of Aldi peanut butter are good at what they do, whether you want a budget standard peanut butter or a minimally processed organic spread. The organic peanut butter is a bigger chore to prepare and use than the others, but that’s to be expected. And they’re all competitively priced compared to other stores.