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Big Spoon Roasters - Crunchy Peanut Butter
Regular price $15.00 USDRegular price -
Big Spoon Roasters - Lemon Coconut Cashew Butter
Regular price $18.00 USDRegular price -
Big Spoon Roasters - Vanilla Caramel Almond & Cashew Butter
Regular price $18.00 USDRegular price
About Big Spoon Roasters
- Based in
- Hillsborough, North Carolina
- Founded
- 2011
- Known for
- small-batch nut butters and snack bars
Mark Overbay first made peanut butter around 2000 as a Peace Corps volunteer in Zimbabwe, roasting local peanuts, grinding them with stones and adding honey, sea salt and coconut oil. He met Megan, an endurance athlete, in 2010. In January 2011 the couple sold their first jars and bars as Big Spoon Roasters at a bicycle race, and that year they launched at the Carrboro Farmers Market, working out of a rented commercial kitchen in downtown Durham.
The company now runs from a larger facility in Hillsborough and still makes its nut butters and snack bars from scratch. The Overbays took no outside investors. The name comes from Mark's father, nicknamed Big Spoon for the way he eats peanut butter.
The range runs from peanut butter to almond and mixed nut butters, some made with honey or spices. Stir them into oatmeal, spread them on toast, or use a spoon.
Big Spoon Roasters questions
Why is there oil on top of my Big Spoon Roasters nut butter?
Nut butter is ground nuts, and the natural oil in the nuts slowly rises to the top of the jar. Palm oil, hydrogenated oil and other stabilizers are what keep some nut butters from separating, and Big Spoon Roasters uses none of them, so separation is normal. Stir all the way to the bottom before spreading. Storing the jar upside down makes stirring easier. It does not need refrigeration for food safety, though the refrigerator makes it last longer.
How does Big Spoon Roasters make its nut butters?
Big Spoon Roasters roasts its own nuts, hence the Roasters in its name. Roasting browns the nuts for flavor and kills microbes such as salmonella and listeria. The company grinds them on custom steel milling plates rather than stones, because moisture held in grinding stones raises the risk of food-borne germs. Each batch is made by a small team at its Hillsborough headquarters and taste tested, and its 3 ounce and 13 ounce jars are filled and weighed by hand.
