Big Spoon Roasters nut butters including Pistachio Crunch, Carrot Cake and Lum Lum Thai Curry at The Ambrosian Pantry

Big Spoon Roasters Guide

Published 7 min read

Filed under Nut Butters Big Spoon Roasters South

Big Spoon Roasters handles nut butter the way a specialty coffee roaster handles beans: specific nuts from identified growers and regions, a roast done in-house and small-batch production. The company is based in Hillsborough, North Carolina, and the word Roasters in its name is there for a reason.

The peanut butter that started in Zimbabwe

Around the turn of the millennium, co-founder Mark Overbay was serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Zimbabwe, where he learned to make peanut butter by roasting the nuts and grinding them with stones. He added honey, sea salt and coconut oil.

A decade later, in 2010, Mark met Megan Lynam. They bonded over a shared belief that food should be good for the people who eat it, good for the people who grow it and good for the planet. As a pescatarian athlete with a dairy intolerance, she had started making her own nut-butter-based energy bars because she couldn't find what she wanted on the market.

After a few months of work on recipes and packaging, they sold their first Big Spoon Roasters jars and bars at a bicycle race in January 2011. The name is a tribute to Mark's father, Gary, who is known for eating big spoonfuls of peanut butter straight from the jar. In January 2026, Big Spoon announced that it had become a Certified B Corporation after fifteen years as an independent, founder-led company.

What the roast does

The company sources nuts and other ingredients, develops its own formulas, and roasts, grinds and blends small batches in-house in North Carolina. Big Spoon says even a nut butter with three ingredients can take months to get right, balancing roast, natural sweetness and salt.

Browning reactions during roasting produce the toasted, nutty flavors described in the browning explained guide, and in peanuts, pyrazines formed by that browning are among the compounds behind the roasted-peanut flavor. A 1996 study in the Journal of Food Science stored ground roasted peanuts at 65°C and found that their roasted-peanut flavor declined slightly before leveling off, which the authors attributed to aldehydes from fat oxidation masking those compounds.

The peanuts

Big Spoon's main peanut is a high-oleic Runner grown in North Carolina. "High-oleic" refers to its fatty-acid profile. Big Spoon says the peanuts are high in monounsaturated fats, like olive oil, which gives them better stability and natural resistance to rancidity. The company describes its Runners as naturally sweeter and more aromatic, with a rich roasted-peanut flavor.

The Crunchy Peanut Butter (shop Crunchy Peanut Butter) is built from two peanuts: the high-oleic Runner for the ground butter and Hubs Virginia XL peanuts for the crunch. Sorghum syrup from Tennessee and Jacobsen sea salt finish the recipe.

Sorghum syrup is a natural sweetener made from juice pressed from the stalks of sweet sorghum, and sorghum mills were once a common feature of Southern agriculture. Big Spoon's comes from Muddy Pond Sorghum Mill in Tennessee, and the company calls it the maple syrup of the South.

Mission almonds

The company buys its Mission almonds from a family-owned farm operation in California and labels them Certified Bee-Friendly. The Mission variety originated as a chance seedling in Texas around 1891. Its kernels are small, and Big Spoon favors it for what it calls a deep, bold almond flavor. The almonds are steam pasteurized rather than treated with propylene oxide, and Big Spoon leaves the skins on when milling.

The Vanilla Caramel Almond & Cashew Butter (shop Vanilla Caramel Almond & Cashew Butter) pairs those skin-on Mission almonds with organic cashews from Vietnam. Coconut nectar, maple syrup and vanilla build the caramel flavor, and Jacobsen sea salt finishes it. Big Spoon describes the jar as vegan and free of refined sugars.

Why the oil separates

Oil on top of a jar of natural nut butter means nothing has gone wrong. Big Spoon does not use palm oil or hydrogenated oil to lock the mixture into a permanently uniform texture. The Peanut Butter with Wildflower Honey includes a few drops of organic virgin coconut oil for texture, which is part of the recipe rather than a no-stir stabilization system.

Big Spoon recommends working a sturdy knife, spoon or fork down to the bottom, making a few channels through the dense portion, then gradually folding the oil back through the solids until the texture is even. The company recommends storing its jars in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight. Refrigeration is optional rather than required. For jars eaten slowly, storing them upside down or flipping them periodically can make the next stirring session easier.

The supporting ingredients

The company uses Jacobsen sea salt from Oregon, the maker covered in the Jacobsen Salt Co. producer guide. Organic pecans come from family orchards in Texas and Mexico, cashews from growers in Vietnam, maple syrup from Vermont and pistachios from California. The organic wildflower honey is sourced from the Sundarbans region of India.

Recipes with a backstory

The flagship Peanut Butter with Wildflower Honey (shop Peanut Butter with Wildflower Honey) is the closest descendant of the Zimbabwe jar. Big Spoon traces the recipe to Mark roasting peanuts over an open fire and pounding the ingredients together with stones. It is made from roasted high-oleic peanuts, raw organic wildflower honey, Jacobsen sea salt and a little organic virgin coconut oil.

Other recipes came from the founders' lives and from the company's test batches. Mark and Megan created a Chai Spice Peanut & Almond Butter for their 2012 wedding, combining his obsession with nuts with her love of masala chai. Limited Batch recipes run for three months at a time, R&D batches typically run 200 to 400 jars, and popular ones can join the permanent range. Pistachio Crunch Almond Butter took that route, and the Good Food Foundation gave it a Good Food Award in 2023. Lum Lum Thai Curry Peanut & Cashew Butter followed with a 2024 award, Big Spoon's second consecutive win in the Pantry category. Carrot Cake Almond & Walnut Butter, another graduate of the limited releases, was named a 2026 winner. The foundation chose its 2026 winners through blind tasting from more than 1,200 entries.

Lemon Coconut Cashew Butter (shop Lemon Coconut Cashew Butter) has since been renamed Lemon Cookie Cashew & Coconut Butter; the same recipe joined Big Spoon's permanent lineup under the new name in March 2024. Organic cashews form the base, with coconut nectar, house-toasted coconut, organic virgin coconut oil, lemon and Jacobsen sea salt. Big Spoon says the flavor is inspired by classic lemon shortbread cookies.

Four Big Spoon jars side by side

Jar Base nuts Sweetener Other ingredients Where it fits
Peanut Butter with Wildflower Honey High-oleic peanuts Raw organic wildflower honey Jacobsen sea salt, organic virgin coconut oil Apple slices, overnight oats, PB&J
Crunchy Peanut Butter High-oleic Runner peanuts, Hubs Virginia peanuts Muddy Pond sorghum syrup Jacobsen sea salt PB&J, toast, any job for classic crunchy
Vanilla Caramel Almond & Cashew Butter Heirloom Mission almonds, organic cashews Organic coconut nectar, organic maple syrup Vanilla, Jacobsen sea salt Apples, pears, toast, oatmeal, a chocolate dip
Lemon Coconut Cashew Butter Organic cashews Organic coconut nectar House-toasted coconut, organic virgin coconut oil, lemon, Jacobsen sea salt Yogurt, fruit, plain biscuits

Read across the rows and a pattern appears. All four finish with the same Oregon salt. Each is sweetened with honey, sorghum, coconut nectar or maple, never cane sugar. And each has no more than six ingredients, so the nut and its roast stay at the center of the jar.

Using the jars at home

Taste the Peanut Butter with Wildflower Honey plain from a spoon first, then on apple slices or stirred into overnight oats. The Crunchy Peanut Butter is the natural choice for a sandwich, and the peanut butter and jelly guide covers the bread and preserves. A tart jam such as raspberry or sour cherry gives a rich nut butter some friction. Vanilla Caramel belongs beside sliced pears or a square of dark chocolate. Lemon Coconut goes into plain yogurt with berries, or onto a plain biscuit when dessert needs to take no work at all.

For sauces, dressings and baking, the cooking with nut butter guide goes further.

Gary's habit still makes the best argument for the name: a big spoon, straight from the jar.

Sources & Further Reading

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