Pic’s Peanut Butter have taken peanut butter back to the essentials. Using only Australian hi-oleic super peanuts, “fresh roasted in Nelson, New Zealand and lovingly squished within an hour of roasting” and optional sea salt, Pic’s products aim to recreate the simple deliciousness of peanut butter, just how mother used to make it. Using only a sackful of peanuts and an aversion to added sugar, Pic’s was founded in 2007 with the aim of stripping peanut butter of sugar, oil, and any other unnecessary additives. Now supposedly you can enjoy peanut butter in its rawest form as nature intended but is it really as good as all that? Read on to find out!
Ingredients:
Peanuts (99.5%), salt
Nutrition:
Pic’s main selling point is their use of Australian hi-oleic peanuts, meaning they are naturally oilier than regular peanuts. This means that there’s no need for added oils such as palm oil and also that the nuts themselves are tasty enough to do away with the use of added sugar, or salt. The ingredients are literally a higher species of peanuts and added sea salt which, when you think about it, is what peanut butter should be!
Taste:
Pic’s comes in two varieties – salted and unsalted, crunchy or smooth. Unsalted is fine as a standalone product, but the salted is definitely superior. Something about adding salt brings out the sweetness of the peanuts, weirdly enough giving a very natural, creamy taste. Choosing between salted and unsalted comes down to whether you prefer a taste more akin to regular peanut butter, or whether the earthy taste of nut butters is more your game. Both are delicious in their own way!
Texture:
Pic’s variations of crunchy and smooth differ slightly from what you might expect. The smooth version initially seems oily, but once the separated oil is mixed in it creates a very silky texture. This is likely to appeal if you prefer the looser texture of nut butters.
The crunchy version is however superior to your standard crunchy spread. The peanut pieces come in a variety of sizes so there’s a satisfying naturalness and crunch as well as a smoother grainy texture. Something about the peanuts used makes them a pleasure to munch down on; they’re crumbly, almost chalky, so there’s less of that brittle snap you might normally expect.
Benefits:
The use of hi-oleic peanuts means that Pic’s contains 20% more oleic acid, which can lower cholesterol and lower fatty triglycerides in the blood. It also contains more protein to help aid muscle repair and control hunger pangs as well as more fibre, which makes you feel fuller for longer so you won’t feel the urge to snack! We found out that, increasingly, high level (Olympic) athletes seeking the cutting edge in ‘Peanut-rition’™ where every last gram of protein and fat counts, use this stuff regularly, so if it’s good enough for them, we’re not about to complain!
Value:
At £4.50 per 380g jar, Pic’s is very competitively priced for a good quality peanut butter and a very reasonable stretch to replace your regular supermarket brand peanut butter. This is a great quality product for the price and the jars are a decent size so you can rest easy knowing you’re getting your money’s worth.
Summary:
This is a valuable addition to your diet (allergies notwithstanding) with a reasonable price tag and a very unique selling point (hi-oleic nuts) that puts it a head above the rest. In the grand scheme of things an insignificant downside would probably be the runny texture of the smooth variety, but some people might prefer that anyway. Salted in our opinion is definitely better than unsalted, but it’s good that there is an unsalted option for those concerned about their salt intake. This is undoubtedly a superior peanut butter that flies in the face of many (well established) products on the market today as not many can boast an almost 100% peanut content. So if you’re looking for a more wholesome spread and wish to steer clear of that cheap army of ‘nasties’ then definitely give this a shot!
Product Rating: 8/10
For more info and to place orders for Pic’s quality, back to basics, highly nutritious and nutty product range check out their fun-loving yet very informative website and Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages!
