There are more "natural" peanut butters on the market in Bangkok than ever before. Most of them say the same things: stone-ground, no palm oil, one ingredient, made with love.
So how do you know which one to trust?
We're going to be straightforward with you — because we think you deserve more than marketing language.
It starts with the peanut itself
Most stone-ground peanut butters sold in Bangkok — including several well-known local brands — are made from imported peanuts. The nuts come in, get roasted, get ground, get jarred.
Ours are different. Sunshine Market's peanut butter is made from locally grown Thai peanuts, sourced from Thai farmers and roasted in-house in our Bangkok kitchen.
Why does that matter? Three reasons:
Freshness. Imported peanuts travel. Thai peanuts don't. The shorter the journey from farm to grinder, the more the natural oils are intact — and that's what gives peanut butter its depth of flavour.
Traceability. We know where our peanuts come from. That's harder to say when your supply chain crosses borders.
Supporting local agriculture. Thailand grows excellent peanuts. We'd rather use them than import alternatives.
What stone-ground actually means — and what it doesn't
"Stone-ground" has become a label that gets applied loosely. Here's what it means when we say it:
Every batch of Sunshine Market peanut butter is ground the same day it's roasted, in our dedicated kitchen in Bangkok, using stone grinders that turn slowly enough to preserve the oils without generating heat that damages them.
We don't use pre-ground paste. We don't outsource the grinding. We don't store roasted peanuts for weeks before processing. Roasted today, ground today, jarred today.
The result is a flavour profile you can't get from a peanut butter that was made in bulk, packaged, and shipped. The oils are alive. The roast comes through. Nothing is hiding behind added salt or sugar — because there's nothing to hide.
The full ingredient list
Creamy Peanut Butter: Thai peanuts.
Crunchy Peanut Butter: Thai peanuts, 30% real roasted peanut pieces.
Dark Roast Creamy: Thai peanuts (skin-on, deep roast).
Dark Roast Crunchy: Thai peanuts (skin-on, deep roast), 30% real roasted peanut pieces.
No palm oil. No added sugar. No salt. No stabilizers. No emulsifiers. No preservatives. No flavouring. Nothing extracted, nothing added.
If you see oil on top of your jar — good. That's the natural fat from the peanut separating without stabilizers to hold it in place. Stir it back in. It means what you're eating is real.
Why the crunchy versions are different to what you're used to
Most "crunchy" peanut butters are just smooth peanut butter with some smaller pieces blended through. The crunch disappears by the second spoonful.
Ours are made differently. We stone-grind the base to a smooth consistency first, then fold in 30% real roasted peanut pieces afterwards — so the crunch stays intact through the whole jar, not just the first bite.
The dark roast range — and why roasting with skins on matters
Our dark roast peanut butters use Thai peanuts roasted with the skins intact. Most commercial peanut butters — and many artisan ones — remove the skin before roasting because it introduces bitterness and a more complex flavour that takes skill to balance.
We keep the skin on because that complexity is exactly what makes a dark roast worth eating. The result is a deeper, bolder, more savoury peanut butter with a finish that lingers. It's not for everyone. But if you've ever found regular peanut butter a little one-dimensional, this is what you've been looking for.
A note on allergen safety
This matters, and we want to be transparent about it.
Our entire facility is free from wheat, spelt, kamut, barley and rye — so for anyone with celiac disease or gluten intolerance, our nut butters are safe.
We process multiple nuts in our kitchen — peanuts, almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, pistachios, sesame — so we cannot make a tree-nut-free claim for products beyond peanut butter. If you have a specific tree nut allergy, please contact us before ordering.
Where to buy?
Sunshine Market has been making nut butters in Bangkok since 2010. Everything in our range is stone-ground in-house, naturally gluten-free, and free from palm oil, added sugar, salt, stabilizers, and preservatives.
Available in 200g and 1kg jars — in-store at our Bangkok (Sukhumvit 22) and Chiang Mai (Old Chiang Mai cultural center) locations, and online with delivery across Thailand.