Trader Joe's Roasted Garlic and Herb Butter Spread

The pros: Trader Joe's Roasted Garlic and Herb Butter Spread is one of two new butter spreads available at Trader Joe's.

The cons: While this container isn't expensive, this works out to over $11 a pound. I think you can do better in terms of price.

The verdict:  

I've tried my share of butters on this blog. Of all of them, hands down the best is Trader Joe's Cultured Salted Butter. Bar none that will remind you of a very well made European style butter.

My husband refers to it as the magical butter. It's that good.

This past holiday season Trader Joe's got fancy and offered Black Truffle butter. If you love truffle flavor, then it was affordable and delicious. I can only hope they bring it back at some point.

But here are two new butters to hit shelves: Roasted Garlic & Herb and Cinnamon and Brown Sugar. In other words, they've added a savory butter and a sweet one.

But this I'm not quite as excited over.

It's not that this isn't good. But when you do the math, this is smaller than a stick of butter. You get a measly 3.5 ounces. And then there is the cost: $2.49. On the surface it seems affordable. That means that this is over $11 a pound.

A price point well past most other butters. In fact, the seasonal black truffle butter was only $0.50 cents more for the same sized container or $16 a pound. But black truffle doesn't usually end up in most people's kitchens.

So beyond price, there isn't much to complain about in this package. This is a savory spread that will pair well with chicken, fish, and beef as well as veggies and most starches.

The flavor of garlic is pronounced but followed by the other herbs that are found in this package. It could use a touch more salt, but that is a matter of personal preference.

At the end of the day, this is really just a compound butter. Easy to make at home with the right ingredients. Just a stick of softened butter and some supplementary ingredients mixed in is all it takes to make a compound butter.

You can easily grab Trader Joe's Cultured Salted Butter and make that into something truly special with a bit of time and a handful of simple ingredients. The combinations are limitless. But if you are pressed for time and won't spend the time (or the dirty dish) on this, then yes, this is a good one to reach for.

If you want to see how easy it is to make your own, you can check out this Garlic and Herb Compound Butter recipe from Spend With Pennies.

Here is the visual run down of what you get if you buy this product:

The package of Trader Joe's Roasted Garlic and Herb Butter Spread:

The nutritional information and the ingredients:

Out of the package you get:

Would I buy this again? I liked what came in Trader Joe's Roasted Garlic and Herb Butter Spread, but wasn't crazy about the price. I might buy this again, but not until my herb garden quits for the season.

Want to see more items I've reviewed from Trader Joe's? Click on Thoughts & Reviews of Trader Joe’s for a searchable list.

Did you try it? Let me know what you think in the comments section!