Which Is The Best Butter Brand in India? A Detailed Review

As we know that fat is an essential part of what we eat. It imparts a distinguishable taste, aroma, and richness to even the simplest of dishes. Around the world, butter (मक्खन) is one of the most widely used types of fat for cooking everyday meals, for baking, and even as an everyday spread for your toasts and bagels.

For our review, we picked seven popular butter brands in India (Salted butter) – Amul, Mother Dairy, Gowardhan, Nandini, President, Verka, and Patanjali. We used them all as a spread on dozens of slices of hot toasts for over a week to check for spreadability, creaminess, and overall taste and aroma. We chose President Butter (Premium) and Amul Butter (Value For Money) as our Top Pick after a series of tasting sessions.

The rich, balanced flavors that we found in these blocks of butter were unmatched, making these the best butter brands in India in the salted butter category.

Butter in India goes beyond packaged table butter. It’s about homemade safed makhan (white butter). It’s about the farm-fresh flavors. 

Let us discuss the different types of butter, how they are made, primary ingredients, pricing, and available butter brands in India before we tell you about our review.

The different types of butter in India can be divided according to fat percentage, usage, and ingredients used. Butter, when used as a spread, is usually salted or infused with herbs and spices. 

Cooking butters, on the other hand, are unsalted. Here are some of the variations of butter available in India – 

Salted butter – This is regular table butter with the addition of salt. The addition of salt helps increase the shelf life of the butter as salt acts as a natural preservative. Salted butter is usually used as a spread on hot toast, atop paranthas, pao bhaji, dal makhni, and other dishes. It is generally not used for cooking.

Unsalted butter – As the name suggests, unsalted butter has no salt in it. It is best suited for cooking. In fact, unsalted butter is preferred over salted butter for baking desserts and cakes. It has a lower shelf life in comparison to salted butter and is usually pale yellow in appearance.

White butter (Safed makhan) – White butter is also unsalted, but it is different from the block of unsalted butter in the way the butter is churned. White butter is lighter on the palette in comparison to salted table butter. It is most famously enjoyed on top of homemade kulchas, paranthas, chapatis, and more. Traditionally white butter is made by churning the fat or cream collected from curd with a wooden madaani in a matki or a large vessel till the fat separates from the buttermilk. 

Clarified butter – Popularly known as ghee in India, clarified butter is made using butter or malai (milk fat). The rich, full flavor of clarified butter is much higher than table butter. Ghee is used for cooking a large variety of Indian sweets, gravies, and dishes. 

Herbed butter – Herbed butter usually comes with spices, herbs, and aromatics making it ideal for consumption as a spread. Herbed butter often contains garlic, oregano, red chilli flakes, and parsley and is enjoyed with soup sticks and dinner rolls. 

Lite butter – This has a lower fat content and calories in comparison to regular everyday butter.

Nut Butters – Made using nuts like peanuts, almonds, or cashews. Nut butters are dairy-free and used widely to make smoothies, desserts or can be relished as a spread. Nut butters are an integral part of an avid gym goer’s diet. 

A block of packaged salted table butter is primarily made using two ingredients – milk solids and iodised salt. Some butter brands in India also use artificial color for that distinct yellow color. 

The price range of a 100-gram block of salted butter is priced between Rs 40/- to Rs 60/-. The price range may vary within different cities.

Some of the butter brands available in India are – 

• Amul Butter
• Mother Dairy Butter
• Britannia Butter
• Verka Butter
• Gowardhan Butter
• Nandini Butter
• President Butter
• Patanjali Butter

For our review to find the best butter brands in India, we set out eight broad parameters – 

1. Taste

How good does the butter taste on top of toast or an untoasted slice of bread? Does the butter impart that rich creaminess we expect from salted table butter?

2. Quality and Freshness

A good quality table butter imparts a rich creaminess to our palate, which became a crucial parameter. Does the butter have a fresh taste, or is it rancid and stale?

3. Saltiness

Is the butter oversalted, under-salted, or is it balanced? When tasted with a slice of bread, does the saltiness in the butter seem sufficient? Which type of salt is used –sendha namak, iodized salt, or any other?

4. Colour

While color is not directly indicative of taste, it does play a role in impacting the overall experience of eating butter. We answered questions like – Does the butter have any added colors? Any artificial colors? Is the color of the butter visually appealing? Too pale, too intense? 

5. Price

Are those 40-something bucks that you spent on a block of butter worth your money? Is this a value-for-money buy? 

6. Availability

Was the brand of butter easily available offline and on online portals?

7. Spreadability

How easy and smoothly did the butter glide on our toast?

8. Aroma

Did the block of butter have the characteristic buttery aroma?

Who is this review for?

Table butter is an essential part of most households. If your choice of everyday bread spread is a block of salted butter, our best butter brand in India review is for you. 

This review is not meant for people looking for butter to cook with. 

Brands We Picked

We picked seven popular brands that were readily available online and offline as well. We did not pick brands that were not available even after repeated trials. 

All the butter blocks we picked were either 100 grams or 500 grams. We only picked salted table butter for our review. Unsalted butter was not a part of this review. 

The butter brands we picked are – 

• Amul Butter
• Verka Butter
• Mother Dairy Butter 
• Gowardhan Butter
• Nandini Butter
• President Butter
• Patanjali Butter

Our Review Process

For our butter review, we divided our process into three stages – 

Stage 1 included a visual inspection. Noticing the color of the butter, price, and ingredient list were all a part of this stage.

Stage 2 included a taste test on an untoasted slice of bread which helped us determine the spreadability of the butter at room temperature. This also allowed us to check for the freshness of butter.

Stage 3 was all about the taste. We tasted each brand of butter on hot slices of toast to check for the butter’s richness and saltiness.

We toasted dozens of slices of Harvest Gold White Bread in our top recommended 2-slice toaster –  Bajaj 2-Slice Toaster. 

After multiple batches of butter toasts –  all done on medium setting – we narrowed down the contenders to our top four – President Butter, Amul Butter, Nandini Butter, and Gowardhan Butter. 

Here is a comparison table of some of the best butter brands in India. Their price, quantity, ingredients, and shelf life are discussed in this section. 

President Butter is a French butter brand that has gained popularity in India as well. The gold foil packaging of President butter is very premium. 

Inside the 500 gram carton, there are separate 50-gram packs, so you do not need to open the whole block of 500-gram butter at once. This ensures that the entire block does not remain open for as long as it takes to finish the block.  It’s thoughtful and a hygienic idea, indeed.  We loved the user-friendly packaging of President Butter.

President Butter has the freshest aroma, and the taste is indicative of good quality. 

Not only the aroma, but the ease with which it spreads is also the best amongst all the contenders. On both a raw slice of bread and a hot toast, it spread with great ease. 

The milky, creaminess of President Butter is appreciable. It does not contain any added colors. 

All these factors made President Butter our Top Pick in the premium category.

Amul Butter is one of the most popular brands of butter in India that is owned by the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF). A 100-gram block of Amul Butter is priced at Rs 48/-. 

Amul Butter has a  deep yellow color with a robust and fresh butter aroma. 

The butter has a very rich, creamy texture, though it did not spread as well on fresh bread. While spreadability-wise, Amul lagged a little, but when it came to taste, it leaped ahead.

Amul butter has a very balanced taste with the perfect levels of salt that helped enhance the taste of a plain toast making this our Value For Money Top Pick.

Nandini is a brand under the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) that sells butter, ghee, cheese, and milk. A 100-gram block of Nandini butter is priced at Rs 41/- making it one of the cheapest butter brands. 

We kept the butter outside the fridge for over 2 hours to bring it to room temperature. But even after that, butter was still a thick block. Nandini butter also lacks the ease of spreadability. We could see blobs of butter on our raw slice of bread. 

Nandini butter has a warm yellow color and a subtle milky aroma. The butter has a rich, creamy flavor but tastes a bit high on salt.  

This is the butter brand for those who like to add a little extra salt to everything they eat. 

The brand Gowardhan is owned by the Parag company. Under the Parag company also come brands like Topp Up, Go, and Pride of Cows. A 500-gram block of Gowardhan butter is priced at Rs 250/-.

The spreadability of the butter is extremely good. There is a certain oiliness in this butter, which is not overwhelming. Sadly, the butter lacks the freshness we were looking for.

The salt levels of the Gowardhan butter are very balanced and it has a creamy flavor. That being said, there is a mild aftertaste which some may find off-putting.

Patanjali is a brand associated with Ayurvedic products and has a wide range of dairy products like ghee, paneer, curd, and butter. 

We liked that the Patanjali Butter has a clean ingredient list. It is made using cow milk and contains sendha namak. It has no added colors or preservatives as mentioned on the packaging. 

Sendha namak is lower in sodium content than common salt which makes the salt levels in this block of butter fairly low. 

When we tried this butter on top of a toast we felt that there is a certain oiliness in this but it lacks the creamy, butter flavor. 

It did not taste as good as the contenders. Spreadability-wise, this took longer to reach the desired consistency.

Mother Dairy is a company that is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). Along with milk, butter, cream, ghee, and ice creams, Mother Dairy also sells frozen food products and frozen fruit and vegetables. 

The Mother Dairy Butter is priced at Rs 48/-. It has a strong aroma and is a pale yellow in color. The spreadability of the butter is pretty good. This butter has a milky creaminess, but taste-wise it lacks freshness. It has a certain sour aftertaste, with a hint of acidity that is undesirable.

Verka, a brand from Punjab, has a wide range of dairy products, including packaged milk, table butter, ice cream, paneer, curd, milk powder, and more.

Verka butter is priced at Rs 48/- and has the lightest yellow color in comparison to all the other contenders. Verka butter has the strongest, oily aroma. Spreadability wise, this was the poorest. We had to keep applying layers of it till we got the right quantity of butter on the bread.

Why did we choose President Butter as our Top Pick (Premium)?

We chose President Butter as our Premium Top Pick because of the rich, creamy, milky taste of the butter. Not only that, but the ease of spreadability of this butter on a hot toast and a plain slice of bread was the most superior. 

The fresh, mild aroma of President Butter surely impressed us. The saltiness of the butter is appropriate.

Along with this, the premium-looking packaging of the butter was an added plus. A 500 gram butter carton contains individually wrapped 50 gram blocks of butter which is very user-friendly. 

As the pricing is slightly on the higher side, we chose President Butter as the best butter brands in India under the Premium category.

Why did we choose Amul Butter as our Top Pick (Value For Money)?

We chose Amul Butter as our Value For Money Top Pick because of the balanced taste and brilliant salty notes it provided to our toast. The rich, creamy texture of the butter is one of the best amongst the contenders.

While it lacked the spreadability that we found in President Butter, Amul tasted the best on a bread slice. The cost of the butter is very pocket-friendly, making it a value-for-money pick.

Why do we Also Recommend Nandini Butter?

We Also Recommend Nandini Butter because of its creamy texture and rich, buttery flavor. Spreadability-wise, this did not fare as well as our Top Pick. Even though we felt that the salt is on the higher side in this block of butter, it might be the pick for someone who typically adds extra salt to their food. Moreover, this is the cheapest butter within all the brands of butter we reviewed. The cost of this butter is Rs 41/-.

Here are some interesting FAQs on butter brands in India.

No Indian home is complete without a block of butter. Be it your paranthas, pancakes, pao bhaji or dosas. It is a loved form of fat that can make or break a dish. 

After multiple rounds of tastings on toasted and untoasted slices of bread, we chose President butter as our Premium Top Pick and Amul Butter as our Value For Money Top Pick. Both the butter brands tasted fresh, creamy, and delicious. We also recommend Nandini Butter.

Which is your go-to table butter brand? Tell us in the comment section below.

Our reviews are unbiased and all samples used during the reviews were paid for by us. Read our entire ethics statement here.