Top Pick Of The Week

July 5, 2005
Updated April 2009

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Peanut Butter
This gourmet peanut butter has earned its stripes:
P.B. Loco in Jungle Banana and Raspberry Dark Chocolate.

P.B. Loco
Loco For Great Peanut Butter

EDITOR’S NOTE: We are sorry to report that this fine company closed its doors in early 2010. Thanks for the memories of great P.B. We’ll be loco without you.


CAPSULE REPORT: P.B. Loco does a great job with flavored peanut butters. They’re not just bread spreads: They become ingredients for sauces, dessert toppings and more. If you can’t imagine Raspberry White Chocolate peanut butter, you won’t be able to imagine life without it—it’s a candy fix or dessert unto itself. And the Sumatra Cinnamon and Raisin is a must-have: You’ll want to buy two jars because the first one will disappear quickly. Alas, since we first wrote this review, our two favorite flavors, Apricot and Sun-Dried Tomato Peanut Butter, have been taken off the menu due to slower sales. The flavors that replaced them (such as Chocolate-Chip Cookie Dough) may have more name appeal to the majority, but have not tickled our palate. But, there’s great PB here: Read about it below.

INDEX OF REVIEW

This is Page 1 of a two-page review. Click on the black links to visit other pages.

MORE TO DISCOVER

Overview

We feel especially sorry for people with peanut allergies, for they will never know the joys of P.B. Loco.

We have tasted, enjoyed, and written about some fine peanut butters; but we were looking to fall in love anew when, earlier this year, we met this wonderfully flavored line of PBs. P.B. Loco is a line notable not just for a vivid variety of flavors, but for a silky smooth texture and a melt-on-the-tongue body: no “stick to the roof of your mouth” peanut butter here.

Sweet Peanut Butter Flavors

The line leans to sweet PBs, with one savory plus Dreamy Creamy and Munchy Crunchy, the plain creamy and crunchy varieties. They’re all good, and of course we have favorites:

  • Raspberry White Chocolate tastes exactly as it sounds: spread it on sliced chocolate pound cake for a memorable peanut butter sandwich.
  • Jungle Banana tastes exactly like someone mashed a ripe banana into creamy smooth peanut butter. It rivals Chunky Monkey ice cream as our favorite banana-based food. There is also CoCoBanana—chocolate banana. That’s chocolate banana, not coconut banana—and a lesson to all about naming things with clarity if you don’t want to confuse customers.
  • Sumatra Cinnamon & Raisin, simple as it sounds, is not the sweet stuff a commercial manufacturer might produce, but a complex mix of dark flavors from cinnamon so deep it radiates chocolate notes, and large plump raisins.

Sure, you can spread these PBs on white bread, raisin bread, semolina, raisin bagels, anything you choose. But you also can:

  • Make sandwiches using pound cake, carrot cake, banana bread or zucchini bread; or use the P.B. to top brownies, plain cakes and cookies.
  • Make ice cream sandwiches with cookies, ice cream, and a layer of one of the chocolate PBs (we loved vanilla ice cream with Raspberry White Chocolate or Jungle Banana).
  • Top ice cream—hold the cookies and use the sweet PB instead of fudge sauce. If it sounds sticky, remember: These PBs are not your run-of-the-mill stuff.

We regret that one of our favorite flavors  was discontinued. In its memory, we’ll tell you that for dessert we made angel hair pasta with Sun-Ripened Apricot Peanut butter. Here’s the recipe:

Sumatra Cinnamon

P.B. Loco: This most elegant of peanut butters could use a logo and label makeover. In this case, we promise you: while the graphics lean to the homemade, the goods are inside the jar are the height of sophistication.

  • Gently heat the PB into a sauce and sauce the plated angel hair. Topped with some diced stone fruits and a bit of optional shaved white chocolate “Parmesan” for fun.

The ripe aroma of apricots leaped out of that jar of Sun-Ripened Apricot, which contained large chunks of the dried fruit. It was like eating apricots with a side of PB; now it’s a fond memory. You can try mixing up your own with dried apricots and Creamy Dreamy or other artisan brand. Supermarket PB is emulsified to death.

Continue To Page 2: Savory Peanut Butter Flavors

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