Nutty about the new butters!

Forget peanut butter. From almond and cashew to coconut and hazelnut, we’re all ...

PeanuT butter aside, nut butters used to be for the serious health brigade only. i remember going to a smart spa a few years ago and being presented with a little pot of cashew nut butter as though it were from Mars.

now you can buy almond butter, cashew nut butter, and even almond and coconut butter in your local supermarket, and retailers say sales are soaring in 2015 as shoppers realise their health benefits.

High in protein, packed with vitamin e and magnesium, and usually free from sugar and gluten, nut butters are good for those on vegetarian, vegan and paleo caveman diets.

and you don’t just have them on toast — they’re a useful way to add protein to a smoothie, good stirred into porridge or even nice on a slice of apple.

Meridian foods is a speciality nut butter producer based in denbighshire in north Wales, and the company has seen sales increase by 117 per cent, year on year.

a spokesman says: ‘demand for unusual nut butters such as almond and cashew is at an all-time high, and we have had to expand to cope with demand, creating 30 new jobs in the past three years.’

Meanwhile, Pip & nut, a new all-natural food brand that makes a range of nut butters, has just launched at selfridges and a range of independent deli and health shops.

The brand was launched by keen marathon runner Pippa Murray, 26, who started selling her nut butters at a hip south London street market and then lived in a shed while she raised £120,000 through crowd-funding to launch the business.

online grocery store Mysupermarket. com reports that searches for ‘ almond butter’ were up nearly 60 per cent in the first four weeks of this year compared with last, while searches for ‘cashew butter’ were up by more than 125 per cent.

Here are some of the nicest varieties around:

MERIDIAN FOODS SMOOTH ALMOND BUTTER £2.40 for 170g, Sainsbury’s, Ocado, Tesco

Made from 100 per cent roasted almonds, this is good for those following a paleo caveman diet.

PIP & NUT ALMOND AND

COCONUT BUTTER £4.29 for 250g, Selfridges, Fenwick in Newcastle, various independent retailers or at pipandnut.com

THis nut butter, which has been made from roasted almonds and toasted coconut, has been slightly sweetened with natural agave syrup and spiked with a sprinkling of sea salt.

WHOLE EARTH THREE-NUT BUTTER

£2.80, 227g, Sainsbury’s

Made from cashews, peanuts and hazelnuts, this tastes rather like praline and is a really luxurious treat.

P28 HIGH PROTEIN ALMOND BUTTER Down from £7 to £5 until March 2, Tesco.

THIS smooth mixture of almonds and whey protein provides high levels of magnesium, Vitamin e and fibre, and is particularly good if you want to up your protein intake.

MERIDIAN CASHEW NUT BUTTER

£2.40 for 170g, Sainsbury’s.

Made from 100 per cent roasted cashew nuts, this is particularly good on crumpets.

THE WILD PEANUT CHILLI PEANUT BUTTER

£4.95 for 340g, harveynichols.com.

if your loyalties lie with peanut butter, but you’d like a modern twist, then this spiced version, which has some added chilli, is sure to do the trick.

BIONA MIXED NUT BUTTER £3.29 for 170g, Ocado, Amazon and independent health food shops

THIS organic nut butter is packed full of four different nuts: peanuts, hazelnuts, cashews and almonds, and nothing else.