Elsewhere in the grocery store, shoppers are on the hunt for bargains. But sales of high-priced premium butter are growing.
By Kristina Peterson
Many butter aficionados in the US first encountered higher-fat butters during vacations in Europe and would load up before their flights home.
In the 1990s, Straus Family Creamery in Northern California started making a butter with 85% butterfat at the request of Chez Panisse founder Alice Waters, who wanted a product comparable to what she’d tasted in France, said Meryl Marr, Straus’ vice president of marketing. In the US, most butter was made with 80% butterfat.
“We’ve raised prices and people are still demanding it,” she said. To this day, the organic butter is still made with an antique butter churn, limiting production.
