What is the Banner Butter x Pop-Tarts Limited Edition Kit?
Apparently, slathering butter on your freshly-toasted Pop-Tarts is a thing? I had no idea. As the person who believed for 20+ years that I had invented dipping Wendy’s fries into Frostys, I really should have known.
Atlanta-based Banner Butter teamed up with Kellogg’s to make a combo kit of Pop-Tarts’ most iconic flavors and two small pats each of six Banner’s flavored butters. The packaging had suggested pairings, which is what I tried (with a couple of additional twists).
How are they?
First up – Strawberry Pop-Tart with Sea Salt Butter. This was the basic proof-of-concept. And yeah, it was delicious. The butter gave the commercially-bland Pop-Tarts’ pastry the flavor of real, laminated pastry dough. (But did we need that?)
Next, Strawberry Pop-Tart with Balsamic Fig and Caramelized Onion Butter. This was my favorite of all the butters – a nice sweet/savory combo. It gave the Pop-Tart a flavor complexity it usually lacks.
Then, Chocolate Fudge PTs with Cinnamon, Cardamom & Ginger butter and Honey Habanero butter. The Cinnamon/Cardamom/Ginger butter was great, but the chocolate overwhelmed it a bit. The Honey Habanero butter gave the chocolate a dark intensity and a little heat – similar to a chili-tinged Mexican hot chocolate.
Lastly, the Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts with Strawberry butter and Dark Chocolate butter. These were both meh. The strawberry got lost in the cinnamon, and the dark chocolate just tasted like added cocoa powder.
Brown Sugar Cinnamon PTs are one of my favorites, so I also tried them with the Balsamic Fig & Caramelized Onion butter and the Cinnamon, Cardamom & Ginger butter. They both worked way better than the suggested pairing. Balsamic Fig brought the same complexity as it did to the strawberry PTs. The Cinnamon, Cardamom & Ginger butter added an “adult” feeling. Both great butters.
Overall, I really liked some of the flavors here, but wasn’t sure about the “upgrading” of PTs. I love Pop-Tarts in all their naked, untoasted glory. If I wanted something that tasted like a fine French pastry, I’d just go buy the real thing. Give me my pasty pastry in a foil bag. That being said, Kellogg’s, why aren’t you just doing this yourselves? Cinnamon Cardamom & Ginger Pop-Tarts? Spicy Chocolate Pop-Tarts for winter? C’mon.
Anything else you need to know?
This kit sold out a while ago, but you can get the same experience ordering Banner Butter and purchasing Pop-Tarts at the store. Or buy other butters. Or make your own compound butter – just soften some butter, mix in the good stuff, and let it sit in the fridge.
Conclusion:
If you’re a Buttered-Pop-Tarts stan, this fancy-butter-combo is definitely for you. If you’re just hearing about it, give it a whirl with whatever you have on hand. If you like your Pop-Tarts lowbrow like I do, try it for fun, but don’t expect it to become your regular thing.
Purchased Price: $25.00
Size: (3) 13.5oz / 8-pastry boxes of Pop-Tarts, (12) 2 tbsp. pats of butter
Purchased at: bannerbutter.com
Rating: 7 out of 10 (although the Balsamic Fig and Cinnamon Butters alone are 9 out of 10!)
Nutrition Facts: (For butters – 2 tbsp or ½ of a pat) Sea Salt – 100 calories, 11 grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 30 milligrams of cholesterol, 90 milligrams of sodium, 0 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of dietary fiber, 0 grams of sugar, including 0 grams of added sugars, and 0 grams of protein. Balsamic Fig & Caramelized Onion – 110 calories, 11 grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 35 milligrams of cholesterol, 75 milligrams of sodium, 2 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of dietary fiber, 2 grams of sugar, including less than 1 gram of added sugars, and 1 gram of protein. Cinnamon, Cardamom & Ginger – 110 calories, 11 grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 35 milligrams of cholesterol, 15 milligrams of sodium, 2 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of dietary fiber, 2 grams of sugar, including less than 1 gram of added sugars, and 1 gram of protein. Honey Habanero – 110 calories, 11 grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 35 milligrams of cholesterol, 50 milligrams of sodium, less than 1 gram of carbohydrates, 0 grams of dietary fiber, less than 1 gram of sugar, including 0 grams of added sugars, and 1 gram of protein. Strawberry – 110 calories, 11 grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 35 milligrams of cholesterol, 15 milligrams of sodium, 2 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of dietary fiber, 2 grams of sugar, including 0 grams of added sugars, and 1 gram of protein. Dark Chocolate – 110 calories, 12 grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 35 milligrams of cholesterol, 15 milligrams of sodium, 2 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of dietary fiber, 2 grams of sugar, including less than 1 gram of added sugars, and 1 gram of protein.
my mum has always enjoyed the butter on her strawberry, unfrosted Pop Tarts, never would have occurred to me to put it on the frosted ones.
I’ve been placing butter on warm pop tarts since college (several decades ago, ahem) BUT don’t put the butter on top of the frosting where it easily slides off! Pro tip: Flip the pop tart to its plain pastry side where you place the butter so it will soak in; especially if you tip and swirl the melting pool to cover all of the plain pastry. Yum.
As someone who accidentally got butter on my pop-tarts when I was a kid, I thought I was the only one that did this. (I don’t remember what I was eating with pop-tarts that had butter) Of course I haven’t had pop-tarts in years but I went through a phase of soaking the crust of the frosted chocolate fudges ones in butter. The other week my mom made unfrosted pop-tarts as a snack and said “I like a little butter on mine” and I was blown away and just now I learn a lot of people do too. Not sure I’d go out of my way for fancy butter though; a little squeeze of Parkay in the bottle and I’m good.
Oh wow, just had a flashback. Squeeze Parkay! Do they still make that? I don’t visit that section of the grocery very often and haven’t noticed.
Ah! I bought this because I love Banner Butter (I’m in the greater ATL area) and I wanted access to these flavors (some were limited to this box). I still have some in the freezer. I let my kid eat the Pop Tarts, can’t bring myself to throw the toaster-design box away….
Same – hanging onto the box for no reason. I’m hoping my cats decide to sleep in it.
I had never heard or thought of butter on poptarts until the “family guy” episode where quagmire and Peter sang about it. Nice to see it actually is a marketed thing. I may try it
…I thought this was some sort of farcical promotion when I read about it a few months ago…
I put butter on unfrosted pop tarts, not frosted.
Flip over the frosted ones. I went into more detail in my earlier comment. It’s yummy.