Butter is one of life’s simplest joys. From sandwiches to beans on toast, many everyday meals feel unfinished without it. Once labelled a “bad fat” and often replaced with margarine due to its saturated fat content and links to higher cholesterol, butter is now seen in a more balanced light: it can be enjoyed as part of a varied, healthy diet. And we couldn’t be happier about it.
In fact, butter has made a strong comeback, earning a place once again in shopping baskets and fridges. Waitrose notes that sales of its Essentials salted butter are up 16 per cent compared with last year, while flavoured butter have also grown in popularity, with Worldpanel trend data showing a 24 per cent increase in UK sales over the past 12 months.
And, like the queen of cooking Nigella Lawson loves to do, it’s best slathered on toast. I’d always opt for salted butter for toast. But Nigella has her own way of doing it – she uses unsalted butter, and has two ‘layers’, ensuring the second leaves un-melted blobs of butter on the slice. The final step is to sprinkle sea salt flakes on top. So, if salted butter is good enough for Nigella (albeit a more deconstructed approach), it’s good enough for us. (For a quicker and simpler approach, I’ve only tested salted butter here.)
Like many essential ingredients, the cost of butter has risen around 19 per cent in the past year alone, so as it’s something that you’re always going to be buying, it’s worth knowing which brands are worth their salt. These days, it’s rare to find a block of butter (not counting the spreadable tub varieties) for under £2, with most hovering just a few pence shy of £3.
From simple own-brand options to more indulgent varieties, I’ve been testing supermarket butters. After plenty of tasting and many slices of toast, here are my top picks.
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The best supermarket butters for 2026 are:
- Best overall – Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference West Country farmhouse butter: Sainsburys.co.uk
- Best cheap supermarket butter – M&S British salted butter: Ocado.com
- Best creamy supermarket butter – Kerrygold pure Irish salted butter: Morrisons.com
How I tested
I tested 16 salted butters, first by slathering a decent amount on toast, and then tasting them on their own over a couple of days. I used the same bread (my favourite non-sourdough loaf, the Sainsbury’s multiseeded loaf) throughout the test.
I tested supermarket’s basic own-brand butter, where it was available (as not all supermarkets do it), the more luxurious own-brand butters and well-known brands available at supermarkets. I considered taste and creaminess, texture, and value – but I’ve detailed my full testing methodology at the end of the review. You can trust that these butters are worth adding to your weekly shop.
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