Kerrygold Butter Just Got Some Serious Competition

It's no secret that we're a little bit obsessive about butter here at Allrecipes. From breaking down the differences between butter styles to researching when to use which type to finding out what our favorite cooks are smearing on their toast, we're certified butter-heads. And for many of our editors— myself included—Kerrygold is typically the gold standard for butter (our Allstars, Martha Stewart, and even Stanley Tucci agree). But I tried a recently-reformulated butter that has thrown my butter rankings for a total loop. Kerrygold: You have some serious competition and it's called Vital Farms.

Why Vital Farms' Updated Grass-Fed Butter Is My New Favorite

Before I dive into Vital Farms, let's break down some butter basics. Kerrygold and Vital Farms are both technically European-style butters, meaning they have higher butterfat content than an American-style butter. Kerrygold has around 82% to 83% and Vital Farms has 83% to 85% butterfat content, compared to a typical 80% in American-style butter.

Both Kerrygold and Vital Farms also rely on grass-fed cows for their dairy. This means that their dairy cows are eating a diet of mostly grass, with some grains to supplement their diet. And, like Kerrygold, Vital Farms works with dairy farms in Ireland, where those cows are grazing on gorgeous green hillsides (or so I like to picture in my head).

With Vital Farms newly refreshed butters, the cows are grazing on open pastures for an average of 200 days per year resulting in 90% grass-fed dairy for their butter. But what does that amount to? Better tasting cream that results in richer, earthier flavored butter with a beautiful pale yellow color. But can you taste the difference? I tried the new butters to find out.

My Honest Review of Vital Farms New 90% Grass-Fed Butter

Like Kerrygold, Vital Farms butters come in salted and unsalted. Both have a pale yellow color, especially on the outside of the bars. Immediately, I noticed that Vital Farms butter had a noticeable sweet cream smell, almost like buttercream frosting.

I enjoyed a nice slathering of the salted butter on some toast alongside Kerrygold for comparison. Both were super creamy and lightly salty with a richness that coats your mouth in a nice way. Vital Farms taste reflected its scent—it really had a pleasant sweetness and true butter flavor. They were toe-to-toe, but the Vital Farms salted butter was just slightly richer—85% butterfat compared to Kerrygold's 82% to 83% (they don't disclose the exact percentage on the packaging)—with so much body and flavor, I could almost eat it like cheese.

One note: Vital Farms butter is a bit pricier, even than Kerrygold—those higher standards come with a higher price tag. So yes, it is a bit of a splurge product, but if you're featuring the butter on a bread board, or using it for something where you will really taste the butter (like shortbread cookies or buttery soft-scrambled eggs), it's 100% worth the splurge.