Ready For Teddie
You ever try that all-natural Teddie Peanut Butter? Did you know it’s family-owned and made in Massachusetts? I sure-as-shootin’ didn’t. Apparently an Armenian immigrant named Michael Hintlian created it. He named it Teddie after the son of an employee. Today, the company is run by third-generation president Jamie Hintlian. They’re cautious about expanding outside of New England because they don’t want to dilute the brand. As they put it, “our loyalty is to the customers who made us.”
Wirecutter, the New York Times’ popular independent review site, named Teddie the best creamy peanut butter in the USA—with a unanimous thumbs-up from every member of the testing panel.
Now, I’ve been a Skippy peanut butter fan my whole giddy-up life. Last year I went to see my longtime doctor and friend Patrick Boyce for a physical. He asked me if I ate anything that morning. I said, “Yeah, I had an English muffin and peanut butter.”
“What kind of peanut butter?”
“Skippy—what else?”
He shook his head: “Lotta sugar, lotta sugar. Ya gotta get Teddie.”
I didn’t. I stuck with Skippy—until I learned Teddie was a family business making it right here in Massachusetts. So I skedaddled down to the nearby Big Y, scooped up a glass jar with the green lid, and made myself a PB&J, a glass of milk, and some State Line potato chips. It brought me right back to Sister Helen Thomas’s classroom—and it was damn good. Pro tip: If you want to get rid of the oil on top, turn the jar on its head and let it settle. Just make sure the lid is screwed on tight. Keep your dukes up.
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