This $3.99 Butter Was Just Named the Best In the World—It Beat Out a Popular French Brand

You can find it at Walmart.

If I had to pick a favorite food group, it'd be dairy. I eat yogurt and cheese every day, and a cheeseboard is probably my favorite meal. And butter... that's my ride-or-die. Give me good bread and butter and I'm happy for days on end.

That's why I always pay attention to the World Championship Cheese Contest results. The biennial competition, held in Wisconsin since 1957, rates the best cheese, butter, and yogurt according to a myriad of criteria. The expert judging team evaluates over 3,000 dairy products—I hope they have LACTAID on hand—to select the best of the best. There are over 100 categories of cheese alone! Oh, what a dream to be a judge.

While there are plenty of cheese categories, butter is more exclusive, with just salted, unsalted, and flavored categories available.

When I saw what won the coveted salted butter prize for 2024 (the crème de la crème of dairy awards, if you ask me), I was pleasantly surprised. I was expecting a fancy French butter that I'd have to seek out and spend a pretty penny to try. Instead, the winning butter is one I've spotted at my very own supermarket: Cabot Extra Creamy Premium Salted Butter.

Why Cabot Creamy Won Best Butter

At the World Championship, all entries are evaluated by a panel of skilled experts from around the world. They examine the taste, look, texture, saltiness, and more before awarding a score out of a possible 100 total points.

Cabot Creamery's salted butter won the top prize in its category with 99.65 points, a near-perfect score. The Vermont company narrowly beat out a French butter that costs two to three times the price.

Cabot Creamery is a New England farmer cooperative, making the brand easy to love. They make a variety of cheeses, specializing in cheddar, as well as butter and yogurt. I've had their sharp cheddar cheese and it is indeed delicious, but now I have a new product to try: their salted butter. Found at various markets like Walmart and Star Market, it is typically priced around $3.99 for eight ounces.

Now that Cabot Creamery's premium butter is award-winning, you're likely to see it pop up in more places.

Other Notable Winners

Cabot Creamery had a good year at the World Championship Cheese Contest. In addition to winning top honors in the salted butter category, they took home third place in Mild Cheddar (zero to three months), Medium Cheddar (three to six months), and Sharp Cheddar (six months to one year).

If you're a sharp cheddar fan like me, it's worth noting that another American farmer cooperative took the top two spots in the category, Tillamook. You'll find Tillamook's cheese at most major grocery stores, including Target. I keep a bag of their extra-sharp cheddar cheese squares in my fridge at all times.

Read the original article on Simply Recipes.