Back in 1981, Reese’s launched an ad campaign where two folks were walking down the street, one with a tub of peanut butter, the other with a chocolate bar. Upon bumping into each other, they got chocolate in “my peanut butter” and peanut butter on “my chocolate,” which it turned out, tasted pretty good. And then dot, dot, dot, it became a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.
Even though that never really made any sense, Jif has taken the actual logical next step several decades later of creating Jif Peanut Butter & Chocolate Spread, what the brand calls its “biggest flavor innovation in nearly 10 years.”
While it’s not entirely clear what the previous flavor innovation was, they’re probably referring to Jif To Go, which was introduced on August 21, 2014. And in fact, the new Jif Peanut Butter & Chocolate Flavored Spread will be available in both 15oz jars, and as 1.1oz To-Go cups, so looks like you got your packaging innovation in my flavor innovation!
Anyway! You can probably figure out what this tastes like, but just to be 100% clear this isn’t ribbons of peanut butter and ribbons of chocolate, Goober-style. Instead, this is blended spread with a “thick smooth texture” that Jif touts is “the perfect topping for desserts, snacks, and meals.” They also note, and their big selling point here, is that this has 50% less sugar than “the leading hazelnut spread with cocoa,” most likely referring to Nutella. Unless there’s another omnipresent hazelnut-cocoa spread I’m unaware of.
Starting today, Jif’s Peanut Butter & Chocolate Flavored Spread is available on Amazon, and will roll out nationwide over the course of the next few months. Make sure to walk outside with an open tub so someone can jam their potentially incongruous taste in it, and we get some sort of cheeseburger-chocolate-peanut-butter spread in another forty years.