ManiLife Peanut Butter

ManiLife range at Booths

ManiLife was born in Summer 2015, when 45 friends came together to make 4,000 jars of peanut butter one jar at a time. The journey of ManiLife’s peanuts from farm to jar is not just key to the quality of their peanut butters, it’s an important part of who they are. Big believers in nurturing working relationships with people they love and respect, they’re one of the only peanut butter producers to use peanuts from one single family-run estate. Working closely with their farmers, they can ensure that they follow the best practices to sustainably produce the best possible quality of peanuts.

“It takes exceptional peanuts and extraordinary people to make the tastiest peanut butter on the planet.”

The essence of ManiLife, in a (pea)nut shell:

  1. Peanuts grown by their good friends at their family-run farm in Argentina.
  2. Roasted for a deeper, more intense flavour by their master peanut roaster in the UK.
  3. Blended only in small batches to give it a unique creaminess that will leave you wanting more.
  4. You – because as much as they care about the peanuts, what genuinely drives them – and what has always been and always will be their main motivation – is to make people happy.

Conditions for the perfect peanut

ManiLife source all of their peanuts from a single estate farm in the natural home of the peanut, Argentina (peanuts originated in South America over 3,500 years ago). They’ve been working with the same farmers since 2015 when their first ton lasted them 6 months. They now ship over 40 tonnes of peanuts every month!

Whilst they primarily source from their partners because of the relationship Stu (Founder of ManiLife) built up with them back in 2015, their farm is blessed with both the perfect soil and the perfect climate which together with specialist farming techniques, produces what they believe to be the world’s finest peanuts. The highly fertile soil also reduces the need for fertilisers without waning crop yield or quality.

Just as wines from different regions have different qualities and attributes, so do peanuts. This collection of environmental factors (soil, topography, climate) is known as ‘terroir’.

Mani Terroir

  • The seed – they use runners but there are others – e.g. Virginia, Valencia and Spanish.
  • The soil – ideal is loose soil, deep bed, low clay content, high water retention, warm (when planting)
  • The moisture – runners require a higher moisture level than other peanut types
  • Temperature – 20-30 degree is optimal – 160 days completely frost free. Warm days (29) and cool nights (23)

Sustainability

Water Useage

Runner peanuts require higher moisture levels than other peanut types, but to farm peanuts requires less water than other nuts (16 times less than almonds) and peanuts have the smallest carbon footprint of any nut.

Peanut plants are rare in that they flower above ground but fruits grow below the ground, this increases their efficiency.

Crop Rotations

ManiLife’s farm rotates crops in cycles of 4-5 years. The rotation of corn, wheat and soy naturally improves the fertility of the soil, thus limiting the need for pesticides and reducing risks of water and wind erosion.

Use of by-products

Since August 2018 the leftover peanut shells have been used to create electricity for the region. The biomass generation for the Thermoelectric Power Plant includes the storage steps of peanut shells and their transfer to the boiler where they are burned to generate high pressure steam. The steam goes to a turbine that produces rotating mechanical power, which is then coupled to a generator and transformed into electrical energy.

In 2018 there was a country wide power cut but the village powered by our farm was the only village in all of Argentina with the lights on!

Why small batch?

ManiLife carefully craft their peanut butters to perfection in small batches. This approach helps them on their mission to raise the beautiful Córdoban peanut to lofty heights. They started ManíLife making 4,000 jars one jar at a time. Whilst their batches aren’t quite that small anymore, they’ve maintained the same principles and pride themselves on being one of, if not the only, majorly distributed peanut butter brand in the UK that produces in small batches.

Attributes of ManiLife’s Peanuts

Runner: Uniform in size to enable even roast. Runner peanuts are most commonly used for peanut butter.

Ugly but delicious: The majority of people when offered a Chinese, American and Argentine peanut at a bar will pick the American or Chinese one because it looks nicer BUT after tasting all three the proportions flip and the majority will pick Argentine because they taste better.

Sensory profile: Intense roasted peanut flavour and a smooth sweet reminiscence. High calcium content gives the peanut a moderate hardness which adds to the crunch.

Nutritional qualities: Argentine peanuts feature high protein content (23.2% to 24.5%) and high fatty matter content (47.5% to 49.5%). And high mineral contents: iron, zinc, calcium, magnesium, potassium and phosphorous contents. More specifically, Córdoban peanuts are typified by a higher calcium content, low level of acidity and better antioxidant concentration. Therefore, the nutritional composition of Manilife’s peanuts contributes significantly to daily intake recommendations.

To go one further, roasted peanuts have been shown to contain as much as 22% more antioxidants than unroasted, making them as rich in antioxidants as blackberries and strawberries!

You’ll find the following in stores now:

ManiLife Original Roast Crunchy, 295g
ManiLife Deep Roast Crunchy, 295g
ManiLife Original Roast Smooth, 295g

Take a look at these ManiLife recipe ideas here.

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