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Consumer Test: Which Butter Tastes Best?
Susan Edmunds, Money Correspondent
When it comes to butter, paying more doesn't necessarily pay off, a new taste test shows.
Consumer NZ ran a blind taste test of 11 types of butter available to New Zealand shoppers.
It said the worst rated was a Market Kitchen block of butter, for sale at The Warehouse for $5.99 per 400g block. The butter was made in New Zealand, but only had a two-out-of-five-star rating on The Warehouse website too.
It was the second-cheapest of the blocks tested, but samplers noted a "strange aftertaste".
The controversial US butter Burtfields & Co was second-worst. It was the cheapest butter tested at $6.99 per 500g.
"People were able to tell it was the American butter just based off the colour," said Consumer NZ spokesperson Vanessa Pratley. "I tried it myself and a couple of other tasters also said it's just butter."
Even pricier butter options did not fare as well as you might expect.
Lewis Road butter, which cost $8.99 per 250g at Woolworths this week, was third from the bottom.
The best was Westgold, selling for $9.29 for 400g at New World this week, but second was Alpine, which was $8.49 for 500g at Woolworths, and Pam's butter, which was $8.29 for 500g at Pak'n Save.
"The winner was Westgold," Pratley said. "That is quite an expensive butter.
"We worked out, based on the price we paid, that it was about $2.32 per 100 grams, but the most expensive premium butters came towards the bottom-middle of the pack.
"Lewis Road Creamery was third from the bottom. Then we've got an organic butter by Macro, which is actually a Woolworths brand, sort of middle of the pack, and the same with Lurpak - they scored the same.
"Tasters weren't really here nor there or them. They didn't score in a premium way that you would expect."
She said Alpine and Pam's butter were good budget picks for people looking for decent butter.
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