After 40 years, Canadian peanut butter just got a makeover and 4-year-old Charlotte Beveridge isn’t happy with the “after.”
The Etobicoke kindergarten student dips a plastic spoon into a jar of Kraft’s Cranberry Peanut spread. It’s one of four flavours the peanut-butter giant introduced in Canada on April 8, along with honey, banana-granola and cinnamon-raisin granola.
Charlotte licks the spoon. Her face registers satisfaction at first — all the new variations start with Kraft’s market-dominant smooth formula, with granola and dried fruit added — then switches to confusion. She’s bitten into a tiny dried cranberry, one of hundreds peppering the jar. As the tartness floods her mouth, she spits it out.
“I don’t really like it,” she says.
She’s not the only one. In a series of tastings the Star conducted with children and adults, the cranberry version consistently rated lowest, honey the highest.
It’s always been about the peanuts. Whether it’s chunky, whipped, organic, low-fat or low-salt, or ground at a health-food store, peanut butter has been reliably plain. There’s a jar in 91 per cent of Canadian homes.
Yet Kraft, which first brought its peanut butter to the Canadian market in 1960, is now following the lead of cereal, yogurt and cream-cheese makers and tempting us with flavours.
“It’s a natural behaviour to mix peanut butter with honey and banana,” says Kraft brand manager Jori Lichtman, “but it’s different when it’s already in the jars.”
The flavours were two years in the making. Kraft considered such dried fruits as blueberries, mango and pineapple before winnowing down to the four variations now selling for $3 a 500-mL jar.
The innovations, coming about 10 years after school boards started banning peanut butter due to allergy concerns, aren’t meant to fill a gap created by nut-free lunches.
Loyalty, says Kraft, isn’t a problem: the company’s Canadian peanut-butter Facebook page has more than 116,000 followers.
“Kraft Peanut Butter is a solid, growing business,” says Lichtman, citing a 45 per cent rise in volume since 2004.
“Even though my 6-year-old son has a peanut allergy, I buy it and keep it in the house. I’m not trying to keep him in a bubble. We just eat it when he’s not around,” says Jennifer Studholme of Oakville, a self-described “peanut butter connoisseur” who has tried soy-based spreads without success.
Studholme bought the honey-flavoured Kraft product and “just love(s) the convenience of it” spread on a toasted English muffin.
Lichtman says adults use peanut butter “on toast for breakfast, on crackers as a snack, with fruits or veggies, in smoothies and more.” Some bake with it, others keep a jar at their desk for snacking.
“Peanut butter will be around until the earth stops spinning. It’s cheap, a great source of protein and it’s easy to eat — too easy for me,” says Scott Robinson, the Toronto star of “extreme cycling” reality show Offbeat Roads .
“Eighty per cent of my consumption is spoon-fed,” says Robinson, who goes through three jars of chunky a week.
It’s not the first time manufacturers have tried to liven up peanut butter. Since 1968, Americans have been buying jars of jelly-swirled Goober peanut butter.
In 1971, Kraft introduced the short-lived Koogle line of chocolate- and banana-flavoured spreads and their jive-talking mascot. More recently, the New York-based Peanut Butter & Co. Peanut Butter & Co. has been adding maple, cayenne or white chocolate to its spreads.
Lichtman concedes the cranberry version “may be less appealing” to children. Three of the four new flavours are labeled with choking hazards for kids under 4 but all are “meant to appeal to everyone over age 5,” she says.
After Charlotte and two friends, all dressed in princess costumes for a school event, finish sampling the new products, their mothers scan the labels for sugar content.
Meaghan Stevens, mother of 4-year-old twins Audrey and Sofia Kouri, decides the 2 to 4 grams a tablespoon — vs. 1 gram for smooth peanut butter — is too high. She’ll continue buying Kraft’s all-natural brand.
“For a treat I’d do it,” says Stevens.
When a beloved product reinvents itself, the potential remains for a New Coke-type failure.
“We’re not replacing the smooth. The classics will remain,” promises Lichtman.
TASTING NOTES
New flavours attract, repel
The Star sampled four new Kraft peanut butter flavours with our panel of adults and children aged 4 to 10. They described the taste variously as “weird” and “comforting,” commenting on the audible crunch from the granola. Honey was the universal top choice but not everyone welcomed the innovations.
“Regular peanut butter is the best. Why can’t they just stick with plain?” asked Jack O’Connell, 8.
Here are some other comments:
Banana Granola Peanut
“I don’t want it any more,” said Maya Khatibi-Nia, 8, adding her spoon to a quickly growing discard pile.
“Could do with more banana. I like the crunch, but I’m a crunchy peanut butter lover,” said Karen McGibbon.
Cinnamon Granola Raisin
“Unusual combo but good, on occasion. Hot toast would bring the flavours right out,” said Toronto cyclist Scott Robinson.
“Mmm. Smells like apple pie,” said James Livingston, 8.
“Like putting peanut butter on a hot-cross bun,” said British-born hat designer Abigail Beveridge.
Cranberry Peanut
“I’m unimpressed,” said Scott Robinson.
“It has stuff in it. It’s not appealing,” said Caroline Cote, 10.
“Not for me,” said Audrey Kouri, 4.
Honey
“I wish they had used darker, stronger honey,” said Scott Robinson.
“Amazing. I could eat a whole jar,” said James Livingston, 8.
“I like them all,” said Sofia Kouri, 4.
Correction - May 10, 2013: This article was edited from a previous version that misspelled Meghan Steven’s given name.
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