Butter is the bedrock of cooking and one of life’s simplest joys. Take any form of white bread, a pat of butter straight, and you’ve got a Perfect Snack that you can enjoy standing in front of the fridge.

But not all butters are made equal, so we did what needed to be done: a full taste test of readily available supermarket butters, so you can butter better. We focused on salted butters to properly judge flavour, balance, and salt variance.

Each butter was tested for flavour, mouthfeel, salt distribution and spreadability, both on its own and on a white French baguette (classic). And for editorial rigour, we followed it up with a blind tasting too, because fancy foil, branding, and nostalgia should not be allowed to influence serious butter journalism.

Macro Organic Salted Butter

Creamy, flavoursome, fresh and a little grassy - it’s like we could taste the farm (which we can chalk up to the organic certification).

There’s a clean dairy sweetness to it that feels fresh, not flat, with a sensible level of salt that’s seamlessly incorporated rather than an afterthought.

Really, very, truly enjoyable. No weird aftertastes, no textural crimes. Just really, very, truly enjoyable. Would take home to meet the parents.

Coles Australian Butter Salted

Pardon my French, but what the **** was this.

This butter tasted like candle wax and had a stiff, plastic texture to match. This was the only butter in our test that had an anticaking agent and perhaps this was the main contributor to its poor performance.

There was a weird aftertaste that sort of defies any adjectives. It feels like it’s overcompensating for the lack of actual buttery flavour with a heavy hand on the sodium (700mg, one of the highest in the test), but salt can’t save bad butter. We see through your tricks.

Woolworths Australian Butter Salted

Okay after the Coles homebrand fiasco, we had really low hopes for the Woolies equivalent, but this was a solid butter for the price tag.

Good mouthfeel, fairly spreadable, decent level of salt, but I just wish it tasted a little more fresh.

Across the board, this is what we, in the biz, would call ‘standard’. No ‘wow’ factor, but still decent. More than what we could say for your latest Hinge date.

Western Star Salted Butter

A staple in many households for a reason, she’s a hardworker. No frills, no fuss, just dependable everyday butter that does its job and does it well.

Robust, and one of the saltiest in the lineup (776mg) with a pronounced unmistakable buttery flavour.

Absolutely deserving of a spot in the fridge.

Lurpak Slightly Salted Butter

A bit of an outlier, Lurpak is technically a cultured butter — but seeing as it’s readily available at supermarkets, it earns its seat at the table.

That signature tang gives it its own distinct intensity and complexity you don’t get from standard cream butters.

Creamy, fresh, smooth, and highly spreadable. It delivers flavour without heaviness. True to the packet, it’s genuinely ‘slightly salted’, so you might need to amp up the sodium yourself.

One thing to note is that its on the pricier side. But if you can splash out on Lurpak for your everyday, all power to you.

Devondale Salted Butter

Eh.

I was...unmoved. I expected more buttery oomph, more richness, more pizzazz. Instead, it landed squarely in the land of fine.

Not bad, not offensive, not great - just…there.

It works. It functions. It exists.

Westgold Salted Butter

Bright, fresh, a little grassy, and an absolute overachiever on value at $6 for a large 400g block.

Clean dairy flavour, balanced on the salt. This is a workhorse butter, generous, reliable, and pretty damn delicious.

If you cook a lot, bake a lot, or butter a lot - this is your butter.

A solid hunk. Financially responsible. Emotionally supportive. My dream man.

Mainland Organic Salted Butter

Tangy, savoury, delicious!

This butter is sure of itself, but doesn’t feel the need to go overboard. Unlike you at your work Christmas party.

However, it’s on the pricier side, so I would deem this one a ‘bread butter’ - to be eaten unadulterated on delicious bread to enjoy it to its full capacity.

The texture of this one was almost whipped and very light in colour, but creamy.

I did notice this butter has water in its ingredients list, so perhaps this dials down the dairy goodness slightly. But (sadly) I’m not actually a butter expert so I’m not entirely sure - I’ll let you decide.

Good level of salt, very apparent in every mouthful. While it doesn’t deliver a full buttery kapow, the subtlety works in its favour.

At first glance, we thought this was Lurpak from the silver foil packaging which I thought may have falsely improved its perception in the taste test. But it still proved enjoyable in the blind taste test too.

TL,DR:

Macro Organic Salted — Best All-Rounder (4.5/5)

Balanced, creamy, gently grassy, beautifully integrated salt. Reliable, likeable, and deeply enjoyable across every test category. The butter you’d introduce to your parents.

Westgold — Best Everyday Value (4/5)

Bright, fresh, grassy, exceptional value, and consistently excellent across cooking, spreading and eating straight. This butter doesn’t just win — it laps the field. A supreme everyday butter.

Mainland Organic — Luxury Performer (4.5/5)

Tangy, savoury, flavour-forward and confident. A butter for bread, toast, and reverence. Not cheap, but deeply good.