The Hands Down Best Store-Bought Butter Comes From This Underrated Brand

Homemade butter may be easy with a food processor, but the store-bought stuff is a household staple for its superior convenience and consistent quality. However, not all butter brands are the same. Flavors and textures vary enough that some are better than others, sometimes noticeably so. And based on our taste test, the very best comes from a brand you may not associate with real butter: Country Crock.

When we tested and ranked 12 store-bought butters, Country Crock Red Barn Creamery Salted Butter took top honors. It has an exceptionally flavorful creaminess that comes from its 84% butterfat content. With an ideal salt balance, hints of florals, and a mild but noteworthy tang, this simply tastes like butter should taste. As a brand, Country Crock is perhaps best known for its many oil- and plant-based butter-like spreads. But the exceptional quality of Red Barn Creamery butter, a new product that only debuted in June 2026, could change that.

It's true from a quality perspective that not all butters are made equal, and that's also true of their cooking purposes. There are actually 13 types of butter, each with different uses. According to its packaging, this Country Crock product is American Butter, so named because of its ubiquity in the United States, but also known as sweet cream butter. Its mild flavor makes it useful for most kitchen purposes, with the caveat of a low smoke point of 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Keeping that in mind, this butter is excellent for any purpose short of extended cooking over high heat. Although, given its delicate floral notes, this particular brand might be better suited off heat altogether. The harshness of a hot pan could obliterate the butter's gentler flavors, wasting part of what makes it so good.  

Red Barn Creamery's overall mild flavor with floral hints makes it a good candidate for a compound butter, which is essentially seasoned butter. Saffron's own grassy, floral flavors would make for a luxurious pairing with this Country Crock butter. Steep a few strands of this elegant spice in a small amount of hot water until it turns orange, and work the liquid into room temperature Red Barn Creamery.