The Butter Debate

What is the best butter? Or is the best butter not a true butter afterall? For some time the issue of which brand/style of butter is the best has been rumbling around the nerve centre of magic that is my brain and now I feel it is an appropriate time to start the debate.



For as long as I can remember, the brand of butter that has been used in my house up until recently has been Dairygold. I don’t think many can deny that Dairygold has a superb taste. Indeed, Dairygold is the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of “butter”. However, I was not privy to a flaw in Dairygold until a few years ago. As you can imagine, for a period in my life my mother buttered my bread for me. But when I began to butter bread for myself, it became quite clear to me that Dairygold does not spread all that well. It has a tendency to rip the bread it is buttered on. Of course this isn’t an issue on toast, where the butter is melted, but on a perfectly fresh slice of bread, perfection becomes catastrophe. I found that the only way to truly spread Dairygold properly was to leave it out to “warm up” or only use it exclusively on toast. Even the solid brown bread doesn’t hold up well to the un-spreadable Dairygold. I realise of course that this is entirely from my experience, but that is the angle I’m discussing this issue on.

In my grandparents house in Palmerstown, they have been a fan of Kerrymaid. Like all butters, the advertisements on TV would have you believe that their butter is the best. From my experience, Kerrymaid spreads easier than Dairygold, but is still what I would regard as a “solid” butter. Its taste was also quite unique in the sense that I found it to be – what I can only describe as – sweeter. Ultimately Kerrymaid never took off with me, and it was an experience I could only examine when in Palmerstown.

In my grandmothers’ house in Walkinstown, she was a fan of Utterly Butterly. Whether this was a decision on her part I cannot say, as she wasn’t physically able to go to the shops herself, so the choice of Utterly Butterly may well have been the decision of the person that regularly went to the shops for her. The only times I can recall using the butter in that house were for crackers or for potatoes and each time I was reasonably satisfied. However there was something about it that I just couldn’t see myself wanting to have it at home.

Then, the butter of butters and myself collided in what only could be an act of fate. Low Low. I can’t remember exactly why I bought Low Low, or for that matter where I bought it, all I can remember nowadays is that it was just there, in the fridge. Popping the lid open and bealing back the aluminium cover, I can remember the sense of amazement at how easily the knife glided through the butter and then delicately spread an even layer of the golden yellow substance on my fresh slice of bread. Not only did it spread well, but it tasted just as good. A worthy rival to the superb taste of Dairygold! Toast, toasted sandwiches, you name it, it was superb. It was so superb that I even managed to convince my parents – the very people who had been buying Dairygold for the last 16 odd years – to start buying it.

In conclusion, I recommend Low Low as the champion of butters. Obviously none of these types of butters have anything on REAL butter, which I would only use exclusively for cooking.

Oh, and one final thing. No butter and I mean NO butter spreads in that curly shape with ripples like the TV ads would lead you to believe. I’m looking at you Kerrymaid, especially you!

~The Damo