Nut Butters and Tahini

When we moved to Germany, kids in school had no idea what peanut butter was, and thought combining it with jam was the weirdest thing. It took a while, but I got some friends enthusiastic for the small jars of MONKI Pindakaas, usually they added honey or jam. But at home, we slathered our toasts with almond butter and Zuckerrübensirup, or balanced on top as many sour currants as possible – only to lift the slice and have them roll off before the first bite. When friends brought crappy ice cream for movie night, we unpacked peanut butter to dilute the sweetness. Now, 12 years later, peanut butter is a known term, but the scope doesn’t go far beyond it. A while ago I had friends sample three different varieties of tahini, they had no clue what tahini was, and concluded that it tasted like peanut butter. Still, many think this is a sweet and unhealthy spread, others have no idea how to combine it. I couldn’t disagree more, so here I am, writing this.

Nut butters are my biggest craving. I top porridge with the liquid gold, slather Rye Bread with roasted almond butter, dip tempeh into miso-tahini, replace Nutella with a spoon of cocoa nibs and salted hazelnut butter, make pumpkin seed energy balls for strong bones … the list goes on. It works sweet and savory, at all times of day, and keeps sugar cravings out of the way. To me, nut butters are one of the most versatile foods, highly nutritious, and delicious.

What are Nut Butters?

I’m not talking about fluffy peanut butter with sugar and palm oil. If you like definitions, then nut butter is just 100% nuts that underwent too many pulses of a food processor, maybe with a pinch of salt. I prefer the German word -mus, Erdnussmus, Mandelmus, Haselnussmus etc., it eliminates the option for additives.

While we’re at definitions: In the botanical sense, a nut must be individually surrounded by a hard shell, that doesn’t break open by itself, and has nothing more around it – like a hazelnut. There are similar things, only that the hard shell is surrounded by a fleshy fruit. Those are called a drupe. So an almond is actually the kernel of its drupe. An apricot kernel is also the kernel of the apricot (which is a drupe fruit). A peanut is none of the above. Its seeds come in pairs, in a soft pod, which can break open by itself, so a peanut is the seed of a legume. But let’s factor out these kernels, to make the map simple, and refer to all the following as nut or seed butters.

Glossy, Sticky, Velvety

I’m fascinated by the chemistry going on in nut butters. Why will chewing an almond for an hour never taste the same as silky almond butter? How does grinding the nuts for twice as long make them so glossy? Why does sesame seed butter, or tahini, get an extra name? How come some peanut butters are sticky, and others only drizzly?

I haven’t done a formal analysis of all nut butters, but I have spent half my life looking up and down grocery store shelves, optimizing on which nut butter to buy. The maximal solution was to buy all, then I could taste them all. I went on reading about magnesium and Vitamin E levels, and ordering the most wasteful thing from California to Portland, to be carried via Hamburg to Berlin – raw walnut butter squeeze packs – because, well, that’s my priorities. So take the following with a grain of salt, it’s an introduction to some awesome nut butters.

Almond Butter

My queen of nut butters is almond butter. The standard I always have in stock is by MONKI, a dutch producer. This almond butter is thickly spreadable, perfect to smear on Albatross Danish Rye, where it won’t drain down onto the plate. It’s also great by the spoon, a satisfying snack.

A very different variant is the large Gebana glass, made with Pakistani almonds. A bit liquid, and unsweetened of course, but still, this almond butter tastes like Marzipan. I think that’s a Pakistani characteristic.

Some almond butters are silky, velvety, a bit sticky, like famous Pip & Nut from the UK. The Berlin equivalent, sticky and velvety, crunchy and salty, is by Twisted Nut. For drizzly versions, which work well on porridge or muesli, I take the chance to go to the Unverpackt shops. They all sell this same drizzly almond butter on bulk. Another fun variant is the apricot-kernel-almond blend by Rapunzel, drizzly, and a bit more delicate than the pure almond butter.

MONKI indeed, is my standard for all nut butters. They are coarsely ground, but the glasses bursts in nutty aroma, you can easily find them at any bio shop in town, and of big importance to me, they’re thick and don’t drip drip drip. Unfortunately, the big jars only come for peanut butter. Crunchy, or smooth, this keeps up with freshly ground PBs from Whole Foods. Yes, we did that taste test many years ago.

However, today, Berlin’s peanut butter game has gotten even better. I let my sister sample through them all, those in deposit jars, a stylish one, an old-fashioned organic blend, and the clear winner: Twisted Nut Peanut Butter.

Twisted Nut Peanut Butter

Corby started his peanut butter business in New Zealand, while he worked as a barista in his parents’ café. Peanuts are exciting, just as coffee is, so he had the idea to make two different peanut butters: a subtle, creamy light roast, and an earthy dark roast. Coming to Berlin, he continued his business on Kollwitzplatz Market (a gem for itself), where you can still find him every Saturday, cheerfully giving out samples.

Today he also makes a saltless silky smooth version, as well as other nut butters. But worry not, Twisted Nut is not only at Kollwitzmarkt, it has quite a few stockists (listed here), and ships (even bucket sized!) throughout Europe.

Hazelnut Butter

Third in the classic trio is hazelnut butter, my mom’s favorite. Again, our standard is MONKI. Thick, grainy, spreadable, and darkly roasted. Searching for the finest, lead to the pure Piemont Papa dei Boschi from Goldhahn und Sampson. However, we have local competitors. For example the little jar by PARS. Actually a sculptor of pralines, they search for ingredients in the forests of Germany, source their hazelnuts from Bavaria, and grind the roasted nuts for a full day, to complete this glowing hazelnut butter. Currently, they are still small-scale producing in Gräfekiez (just knock on the door and ask to buy a jar), but end of the year they will open a shop and restaurant at Savigny Platz in Charlottenburg. Similarly amazing, with crunches and salt, is the glass by Twisted Nut, made with Italian hazelnuts.

While we’re at hazelnut butter, yes you can melt chocolate and mix it inside, or top a hazelnut butter toast with cocoa nibs and salt – but if all you craved was Nutella, then don’t look further than Corby’s Chocolate-Hazelnut Butter. It tastes like an inverted crêpe.

Macadamia Nut Butter

A sustainable legend is the Kenyan Macadamia Nut Butter from Gebana (online or some Fridays at Arkonaplatz Market in Prenzlauer Berg). This is liquid gold.

Gebana “changes the rules” of global food markets. Just one example, the farmers that Gebana works with, peel their harvested nuts locally, instead of flying (much heavier) whole nuts around the world, as other organic and fair trade companies do, because processing them somewhere in Asia is cheaper. Gebana pays their local farmers more than minimum wage, works together with woman cooperatives, and teaches the communities how to farm more economically. They invest in the good, not the rich. Yes, one jar of gold costs 24€, but who starts comparing carbon soles to flip flops? Nobody. The macadamia nut butter is rich, intense, exploding with a nutty-sweetness. It’s a legitimate wedding present.

Mighty Seed Butters

The next varieties are similarly precious, and mighty in flavor, as is the macadamia nut butter. First, the Siberian cedar nut butter, by Taiga Naturkost, sold at some Bio Company’s around town. Cedar nuts are a lesser known relative of pine nuts. The process of harvesting the seeds from their cones keeps them naturally raw. Another seed butter, with an acquired taste and exciting color, but a powerhouse of nutrition is the hemp seed butter by hanf&natur. It contains all nine essential amino acids and the most protein amongst my mentioned nuts and seeds (32g protein/100g). Also, together with walnuts, hemp seeds are one of the best plant-sources for omega-3 fatty acids (which the body can’t produce itself). Walnut, such a well-known nut, but it’s buttered version isn’t easy to come by. I’ve found a yummy glass by Eisblümerl, sold at the community bio shop Robinhood, in Neukölln.

I’ve gone from squirrel food to bird food – the classic salad seeds work as butters too. Pumpkin seeds, dark green, melded into thick, strong tasting pumpkin butter. It’s one of the few I don’t need on porridge. Better saved as a base for bone-strengthening protein balls, or thinned with water and honey for a salad dressing. In contrast, sunflower seed butter, has a sweet hint to it, here I really like the sticky, glossy version, with a pinch of salt, by Terrasana. This one with honey on porridge – hmmm.

If you’ve come this far, you might have concluded for yourself: Each nut or seed butter exists in a few variants. Thickly spreadable, and darkly roasted by MONKI. Drizzly by the traditional organic brands. Velvety and sticky by millennial game changers. The flavor and consistency allow for different options of sweet or savory combinations, but close to every combination makes a set.

There’s one last player in the game, which belongs to the same pool, but somehow it’s different.

Tahini

Berlin’s favorite. It’s not called sesame seed butter, but Tahini. If you grew up in bio shops, you might actually prefer the dark, grainy, bitter versions, but hummus lovers reach for the plastic tub with the orange lid. It’s silky, sticky, with no hint of bitterness: Al Kanater Tahini. HARB trading and Goldhahn und Sampson sell it, Witz Hummus & Co use it.

Only one tub can beat the orange lid, it has some salt, comes straight from Israel, delivered to your door by the Hummus Dealer, or found at Kosher Daily Market in Wilmersdorf. Also served on the delicate hummus from Café Pilz. This is Har Bracha Tahini.

My most recent discovery is the small glass jar, from Jordan producer Arabica, sold at Goldhahn und Sampson. This tahini is so smooth, with 0% bitterness. I like it more than any other, but it’s also twice as expensive. Another pricey but awesome alternative is Yuval’s Tahini. Organic, small-scale and stone-ground in Bavaria. Sold at Von Beet und Baum in Markthalle Neun, or tasted in Volkan’s NOHUT Hummus (one of my favorite food products currently in Berlin).

But I approach tahini as just another variant of nut and seed butters and enjoy it in all sorts of ways. Miso-tahini (on sweet porridge or savory salad), tamari-tahini (for lunch bowls or as a dip), coconut oil-molasses-tahini-salt (to freeze into fudge), or just mix the tahini into granola, cookies, banana bread etc. Only one version doesn’t immediately work, that is the thick spread on seedy Rugbrød, but what does, is dipping little sticks of Rugbrød into a bowl of tahini, just like the Danish do with their soft boiled egg.

Now that I’ve finished the favorites of my favorites, how do they fare for the world? Almonds gulp water like my sister. But almonds are almonds. If I want to eat them, I’m not going to search a fake replacement. I want to spend time on more detailed research, but for now I believe that the price paid for Gebana is well invested, Twisted Nut and PARS are small Berlin-based businesses, and MONKI jars are, well, at least they are reusable.

Zero-Waste Nut Butters

Great, would be finding a favorite variety of nut butters in one of the Unverpackt shops in Berlin. Most have an own nut butter grinder, and vary through different nuts, but the result is often coarse and crumbly. Many also sell these drizzly almond butters (dark, and raw-white) and an earthy tahini. All good. Another wasteless and fair alternative is by Fairfood, darkly roasted, but with deposit jars.

Despite wishing to support locals and minimize trash, my curiosity can’t resist exceptions.

My favorite Nut Butters from the US

The reasons for flying to the US decrease year by year, but still left is the lure to get nerdy nut butters, raw and sprouted, in funky flavors, with cute design, humorous jokes, and wasteful convenient squeeze packs. That is:

• Justin’s from Boulder, for tradition and cuteness
• Big Spoon Roasters for funky combos like espresso AB or Fiji ginger AB
• Artisiana Organics or Wilderness Poets for raw walnut, pecan & more
• sprouted almond butter from that community bio shop in Portland
• Wild Friends, cause I like squirrels and the sunflower honey butter
• Trail Butters for hilly hikes through Berlin
• any locker-proof squeeze packs, from Artisiana, Justin’s, or Wild Friends

Take it with a kernel of salt.

Where to buy which nut butters?

• MONKI nut butters, at almost all bio shops // peanut, almond, hazelnut, cashew, almond-hazelnut, pumpkin, sunflower, tahini
• Twisted Nut Butter, locations here // peanut, hazelnut, almond, hazelnut-chocolate, limited editions
• PARS hazelnut butter: knock on their shop/production space on Schönleinstr. 6 in Graefekiez, or soon at their restaurant in Charlottenburg
• Gebana: online or sometimes on Friday at Arkonaplatz Market in Prenzlauer Berg // macadamia, almond, cashew
• Eisblümerl Walnut Butter: Robinhood community bio shop in Neukölln
• Al Kanater Tahini: HARB Trading (Schöneberg/Tiergarten), Goldhahn & Sampson (three locations in Charlottenburg, Prenzlauer Berg, Kreuzberg)
• Har Bracha Tahini: order via Instagram from the Hummus Dealer , at Kosher daily Market (Wilmersdorf) or travel to Israel
• Arabica Tahini: Goldhahn und Sampson // 6.95€ for 200g
• Yuval’s Tahini: Von Beet und Baum in Markthalle Neun or Plattform2020 // 5,99€ for 200g, 9,99€ for 420g