Especially at barbecues and picnics you will find herb butter to spread on a baguette. That does not alter the fact that there are many suppliers of this product: we came up with no fewer than nine brands.
You can also find garlic butter on supermarket shelves. The difference? Herb butter is usually butter that is flavored with garden herbs such as parsley, chives and garlic, but also pepper and salt. Garlic butter may also contain garden herbs, but a much higher proportion of garlic.
Then there is also the cheaper herbal cream, with less butter and added oil to make it smoother/spreadable.
The most famous herb butter is Café de Paris butter which is melted on fried steaks and is made with a dizzying array of herbs and spices: mustard, marjoram, dill, rosemary, tarragon, paprika, capers, chives, curry powder, parsley, shallot, garlic, worcestershire sauce and anchovies! It was invented by restaurant Café de Paris – Chez Boubier in Geneva, Switzerland, where you can still buy the butter.
Then the test. The La Viré herb butter (including at Jumbo) did not appeal to colleagues. “Do I taste anise?” Milbona from Lidl (“Not special, but not bad either”) and Melkan, available at Dirk/Dekamarkt/Vomar either (“One herb predominates”).
The taste toppers this week came from Jumbo’s own brand, Campina, Beurre trèfle (Dirk/Dekamarkt), Albert Heijn and Milsani from Aldi.
1. Herb butter was sometimes confused with garlic butter, whereby garlic was – wrongly – missed. It can hardly be a coincidence that Jumbo’s herb butter is number 1 and contains a relatively large amount of garlic. “A little sour, a lot of garlic. This makes me happy.” €1.29 per 100g
2. Also happy faces after tasting Campina. “Perfect ratio of spices, one you can eat all night.” “Fine structure.” A few thought the butter was ‘a little too sour’. €1.67 per 100g
3. Dan Beurre Trèfle, for sale at Dirk/Dekamarkt, among others. “Nice spicy and airy.” “Light, but tasty.” Another said: “Tasteless.” €0.95 per 100g
4. We find Albert Heijn in fourth place. “Mostly buttery, little garlic,” wrote a colleague who probably had garlic butter in mind. “Tasty, but could use less salt”, thought another. €1.29 per 100g
5. Aldi’s own dairy brand Milsani completes the top 5. “Good balance between sweet and salty, lots of spices.” “A lot of flavour.” €1.29 per 100g