Miyoko’s & Earth Balance European Style Butters – Are They Worth the Price?

Our Trader Joe’s finally got Miyoko’s cultured vegan butter, so my mom and I were excited to be able to try it! Then, we saw that Earth Balance also has a new European-style version, so we got it as well! Both the Miyoko’s and the European style Earth Balance cost a lot more than regular Earth Balance, and we wanted to know if they are really worth the extra money. We compared both of them to regular Earth Balance in baking, tasted them plain and melted, and really put them to the test. I also came up with a hack to give regular Earth Balance a cultured flavor, and then we compared the flavor of all four butters on toast and baked potatoes.

The Miyoko’s comes in a box instead of a tub, and it looks a lot like dairy butter. It was $5.99 at Whole Foods and $5.29 at Trader Joe’s for 8 oz. We got ours at Trader Joe’s, so it was $0.66 per ounce.

The European style Earth Balance comes in a 10 oz tub and was $5.49 at Giant Eagle. They were also charging the same for a 15 oz tub of regular Earth Balance, however, which is outrageous. So, it may be that this is an inflated price and it might be less expensive elsewhere. In any case, we paid $0.55 per ounce.

Regular Earth Balance comes in a 15 oz tub at most stores, and it is $3.48 at our Walmart. I nearly always buy a big tub at Whole Foods, though, and it is $9.99 for 45 oz. That makes this one only $0.22 to $0.23 per oz!

So, before I was willing to pay up to three times that price for Miyoko’s, or double the price for the European style Earth Balance, I decided to put them to the test.

First, I made biscuits which required melting the butters. The Miyoko’s is not very pretty melted, but it tied with the European style Earth Balance for flavor melted. The regular Earth Balance came in last, but they really were not all that different from each other in taste. If we hadn’t been comparing them side by side, the regular Earth Balance was just fine.

The Miyoko’s biscuits were too crumbly and the two with Earth Balance had a much better rise and a fluffier texture. Flavor-wise, we liked the European style Earth Balance best, then the Miyoko’s, and then the regular Earth Balance. Again, though, the flavor differences were subtle and not very significant.

Next, I made muffins. There was no difference in flavor this time, but texture-wise, the Miyoko’s came in a definite last place again. The regular Earth Balance was first, and the European style Earth Balance came in a close second. The Miyoko’s muffins looked ok, but were not as good when eating them.

In oatmeal cookies, we got identical results to the muffins. We couldn’t tell any difference in flavor. For texture, the regular Earth Balance was first, the European style Earth Balance a close second, and the Miyoko’s a definite third. The Miyoko’s cookies were too soft and didn’t get as crispy on the edges.

I only compared regular Earth Balance (left) and Miyoko’s (right) in pie crust. There was no difference in the flavor, but the Miyoko’s crust was way too soft and didn’t get crispy on the edges.

So, what did we think overall? For baking, I would not use the Miyoko’s again. It does not add much (if anything) to the flavor and did not perform adequately in biscuits, muffins, cookies, or pie crust. The European style Earth Balance does have a little better flavor than the regular version in biscuits, but not enough to justify double the cost. For baking, I will stick with regular Earth Balance and be happy knowing I am not wasting money.

Butter on toast, muffins, biscuits, or baked potatoes, though, is another question altogether. I’ll give a final review on this in a minute, but we already knew we preferred the European style butters enough to make me want to try a hack before voting. The main difference between the regular and the European style Earth Balance is a bit of tartness to give it a cultured flavor. I use vegan lactic acid in several recipes to accomplish the same thing, so I did a little experimenting.

Click the link to see exactly how I made my own Euro style butter. It takes five minutes and $0.07 of lactic acid to turn regular Earth Balance into a pretty close copy of the much more expensive European style version!

Finally, we compared all four butters on toast and a baked potato. On toast (or muffins, scones, etc), the Miyoko’s is the clear winner in terms of being the closest to dairy butter. I would buy it for holidays and for non-vegan guests that I wanted to impress. It is not sufficiently superior, however, to justify three times the cost for everyday use in our opinion. If you can easily afford it, though, it may be worth it to you. The European style Earth Balance was second, with my hacked butter being a very close third. So, I will use my version rather than paying double the cost. Finally, regular Earth Balance was last, but still very acceptable.

Surprisingly, we didn’t get the same results with the baked potato. In this case, my hack came in first, followed by the European style Earth Balance, Miyoko’s, and regular Earth Balance. Again, though, all were acceptable and the differences were not all that significant.

So, to conclude, the Miyoko’s is not suitable for baking in our opinion, but is really wonderful on toast, muffins, and biscuits. The European style Earth Balance is less expensive than the Miyoko’s, but you can hack regular Earth Balance to be nearly as good. And, regular Earth Balance has by far the lowest price, is the best in baking, and quite good in all uses. I’ll continue to use it for all of my baking and will use my hacked European style butter for spreading on my baked goods and vegetables. (For holidays and company, though, I’ll pay the extra for Miyoko’s!)