Forty Thieves Nut Butter NZ

Peanut Butter Smooth, Almond Butter Smooth, Almond Butter Crunchy, Cashew Butter and Hazelnut Butter are nuts and nothing else. Peanut Butter Crunchy is 99.5% peanuts with 0.5% salt. Every other jar in the range starts at a minimum of 68% whole nuts, with no added oils, emulsifiers or preservatives.

The 1kg jars, not the pails. Peanut Butter works out at about $1.50 per 100g in the 1kg jar, $1.60 in the 500g, $1.86 in the 375g and $1.85 in the 2kg pail. The 4kg peanut pail sits at $1.62. Almond Butter is cheapest in the 500g jar at about $3.40 per 100g. Pails are worth buying for bulk and for less packaging, rather than because they are automatically cheaper.

It is built from nuts and seeds rather than sweetened, so the carbohydrate is naturally low: 6.9g of carbohydrate per 100g, of which 4.7g are the sugars that occur in the nuts themselves, with 24.3g of protein. The Original blend is peanuts, macadamias, almonds, pumpkin, sunflower, chia and flax seeds and coconut, with 1% coconut oil, 0.5% MCT oil and salt. It comes in Original, Caramel and Raspberry Macadamia.

Thin them and they become dinner. The Satay Peanut Paste is 74% peanuts with onion, coriander, cumin, ginger, garlic, lime and a little chilli: stir through coconut milk for a sauce. The Korma Cashew Paste is a mild cashew base that becomes a curry with coconut cream. Both are mild enough for a family table. The 2kg satay pail uses coconut oil and date syrup where the retail jar uses sunflower oil and sugar, so the recipes differ slightly.

Stir it back in, never pour it off. Forty Thieves add no emulsifiers, so the natural oil rises when a jar sits, and removing it leaves a dry, hard butter that will not spread. Stir for about 30 seconds with a knife, or store the jar upside down between uses. White streaks in the chocolate butters are cacao butter separating in cold weather, not mould, and they stir back in the same way.

All of them are vegan, dairy free and palm oil free, including the chocolate ones. They are made from gluten free ingredients with no added gluten in the facility, but they are not certified gluten free, so anyone with coeliac disease should check with their doctor first. Every jar contains nuts, and several carry may-contain warnings for other nuts and sesame.

In a cool, dry cupboard rather than the fridge, with a stir now and then. Shelf life is 12 to 14 months from production for the butters. The satay and korma pastes are different: refrigerate those once opened and use within three months. If you find a crater under the lid, that is the vacuum seal pulling butter upwards, not someone helping themselves.

On the Hibiscus Coast, north of Auckland, about 40 minutes down the motorway from the pharmacy. The family-run business started in 2016 making one box a day in a blender and now produces around 10,000 jars a week from its own factory. The nuts are sourced offshore where New Zealand cannot grow them, with macadamias from New Zealand and Australia, almonds from California and Australia, peanuts from Argentina and hazelnuts from Turkey.