An average of 800 million dollars is spent on peanut butter a year, so it’s no wonder companies are trying to come up with tasty alternatives to this everyday snack. When peanut butter can accompany anything from pb&j sandwiches to apples, the uses increase ten-fold. As more creative ways to spread your peanut butter come out, new “flavors” and brands of the spread come out too. The popular Nutella spread may have started this new flavored spread craze, but it certainly won’t be the one to end it. With brands such as Justin’s, that include peanut butter, almond butter, maple butter, and chocolate butter, just to name a few, buyers are faced with a difficult decision— to buy the good old fashioned peanut butter or to try the new sparkly brands.

Almond butter and their Justin’s brand’s counterparts are turning heads thanks to their increased health benefits over peanut butter. With a favorable fat content and an excellent source or protein, these new spreads are giving a good argument. The versatility of peanut butter and the health benefits of coconut oils are making almond butter all the rage.

However, will the comfort of peanut butter be worth giving up? A few students seem to think that while these seem like good alternatives, they wouldn’t consider buying them. Student of Air Academy, Brady Becco, went as far as saying, “If it’s not peanut butter, it’s not for me.” However, most, including senior Maddie May, concluded that she’d “rather have peanut butter but wouldn’t mind trying the alternatives.” On the flip side, freshman Mackenzie Moss argued that, “The taste of almond butter and sun-butter, which comes from sunflower seeds, has a superior taste and doesn’t stick to the roof of my mouth like peanut butter sometimes does.”

With this being said, many thought the Nutella craze wouldn’t last, but the brand is alive and thriving. If companies can provide spreads similar to the taste of Nutella, with the health benefits of almond butter, this fad may keep on spreading. So what does this mean for the future of peanut butter? Most rational people don’t see it going away any time soon. But the growing popularity of alternative spreads will only continue to evolve over the next few years.

As the apple cinnamon butter and cookie butter catch your eye next time you go to grab some peanut butter, consider giving the new brands a try.