Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 21, 1990 TAG: 9003202503
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAULA MONAREZ LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
And the spread is still getting rave reviews from people of all ages.
The nutty edible is one of America's favorite foods. It's consumed with everything from plain old grape jelly to a slathering of onions and mayonnaise.
You can eat it plain. Or if you favor a flavor, it can be mixed with almost everything imaginable. Peanut butter can be mixed with chocolate, honey, bananas and even raspberries.
It can be found in crunchy or smooth styles, with or without salt, natural. It can even be ground for customers at the grocery store.
"It might be 100 years old, but peanut butter is definitely a popular spread," said Mitch Head, executive director for the Peanut Advisory Board in Atlanta.
Since peanut butter is the staff of life for many kids, who 7 1 NUTS Nuts better to participate in a centennial taste test? Four young peanut-butter connoisseurs were asked to judge six brands of peanut butter on taste and that all-important quality stickiness.
The judges were David Genders, 10; Paul Lee, 9; Chandra Jackson, 6; and Mark Larson, 10.
They tasted two name brands, two stir-up kinds, a government issue and a generic spread.
The overall winner was Skippy. All four judges gave it a high grade. It received points for being chewy, not watery and, as David simply put it, "It's very good."
The 10-year-old's choice comes as no surprise. David has been eating that brand for most of his life.
"I have it every day," said the youngster. "My favorite way to eat it is with M&M's. My grandpa taught it to me. It's sort of like a reverse Reese's Pieces sandwich. It's really good."
David also has peanut butter with potato chips and, of course, jelly. He eats it for lunch and sometimes after school.
"I sneak into the kitchen and eat it from a spoon," he said. "But my mom doesn't like that."
Close behind Skippy in the taste test was a local store brand. "Tasty," "sweet" and "I like it" were some of the comments made by the judges.
Mark - who, according to his mother, was born eating peanut butter - picked that one.
"I'm surprised," said the youngster, who takes his peanut-butter eating very seriously. "We eat Laura Scudder's at home."
He gave the brand his mother usually buys an average score.
"It was a bit watery," he said of the Laura Scudder's brand. "The other kind held together better."
Mark consumes peanut butter at least four or five times a week. His favorite way to eat it is with a toasted English muffin and honey.
"I never get tired of it," he said.
Third in the peanut-butter competition was - gasp - the government's own endeavor. Chandra wrote on her grading sheet that the brand was her favorite. "I never had that kind before," she said. "But it was good."
Chandra began eating peanut butter at the age of 3.
"She won't eat anything else for lunch," said her mother, Debbie Jackson. "I've tried tuna fish, cheese and all kinds of luncheon meats. All she wants me to fix for her is peanut butter everyday. She just discovered the chunky kind."
Chandra has tried to encourage her 3-year-old sister to share her peanut-butter passion.
"She likes it only a little bit," Chandra said. "I think when she gets as big as me, she'll like it a whole lot."
Even though it got high marks, the government brand received some unusual comments from the judges - such as, "It was peanuty, thick and gluey." One youngster said it looked like an alien, it was ugly and made him sick.
Choosy mothers may choose Jif, but this panel of experts placed the brand in fourth place. Jif earned both negative and positive points for being a little salty, a little sweet, a little tasty and, as one judge described it, "very nice."
Paul gave the nod to the Jif brand because the spread "stuck in my mouth," he said.
"It wasn't too sweet or two watery," he said.
Paul, who loves peanut butter because it's creamy, eats it almost everyday. But on the favorite-food scale, he doesn't rank it above pizza, bagels or popcorn.
"It's pretty good stuff, though," he said. "I like to eat it with jelly or just from the jar."
Natural peanut butters that needed to be stirred didn't fare as well with the youngsters. The Laura Scudder's brand, which earned fifth place, received low marks for being too oily, watery and wet.
Another brand, from a local specialty store, was the last-place entry. The judges proclaimed it "too chunky," "too smooth," "not as sweet" and "not chewable."
"It's just not something I would buy," Mark said.
by CNB