Move over, jelly. Peanut butter's got a new BFF. Skippy peanut butter has just released a salted caramel flavor, which is both wowing and alarming PB&J fans everywhere. It's a limited edition flavor, available now through the end of the year in supermarkets and convenience stores nationwide.
Peanut butter already has a lot of friends: honey, bananas and Nutella, for starters. Some even consider pickles a pal. It has just invited salted caramel to the party. But was it the right move?
A Huffington Post taste test of the new flavor resulted in mixed opinions. Some people loved it, while others thought it was awful.
"It shattered my dreams," one HuffPost editor said. "I love it," said another.
"At first it tasted mostly like peanut butter with extra salt -- there wasn't an obvious caramel flavor in it -- but then I got a really bitter, coffee-like aftertaste. I think I'd rather just eat plain peanut butter," an editor on HuffPost Taste concluded.
Everyone was disappointed that the caramel didn't come in swirls. Texture is one of caramel's best assets, and it's completely lost in the Skippy. Instead of luscious ribbons of gooey caramel swirled through the peanut butter like we imagined, the peanut butter simply had a sub-par fake caramel flavor. It wasn't even that strong, anyway. The smell of the caramel was more overwhelming than the taste, raising expectations even more, and subsequently leading to even further disappointment.
To make matters worse, or at least more confusing, the new flavor has its very own Tumblr. On it you'll find recipes made with the caramel peanut butter, in addition to silly fake movie posters featuring cartoon peanut butter jars. It's pretty weird, like the spread itself.
Skippy peanut butter has been around since 1933 and is America's No. 2-selling peanut butter brand, after JIF. It's a classic that needs no improvement. While it may not be everyone's favorite, it holds a special place in the canon of peanut butter. Salted caramel, we love you, but we don't need you in our Skippy.
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