Spread Love: Banner Butter’s Elizabeth & Drew McBath

Banner Butter, a Charm partner, is elevating our thinking about one of the most traditional foods. Butter in its purest form has one ingredient: cream. Yet, it’s the approach that a couple in Decatur, Georgia, is taking in the processing of that cream, that’s making a difference that your palate can’t help but notice and crave.

The history of butter suggests that its creation may have been the accidental result of a Nomad having tied a pouch of milk around his horse’s neck during travel. Elizabeth and Drew McBath, however, have been more intentional with the making of their butters. Launched in 2013, this husband and wife began selling their compound butters at local farmers markets. Although the recipes for the compounds (like Balsamic Fig & Caramelized Onion and Cinnamon, Cardamom & Ginger) belonged to Banner Butter, the butter itself was sourced from a nearby farm. After touring France’s best butters, including those belonging to the Brittany region, the foodies returned home; compelled to purchase their first churn. Elizabeth and Drew began selling their own churned butter in April 2014. Their goal was to “get back to the art of butter” by recapturing the old method of churning in small batches.

What’s the difference between Banner Butter and others? It’s the care that they’ve taken with butter’s key ingredient. The pasteurization process kills both good and bad bacteria. Industrial scale butters have been rushed through a process of using unripened cream, and then later adding “natural” flavor so that it has the butter taste that you’ve come to recognize. Banner Butter is made the old-fashioned way, although that means a longer wait. They add a mixture of bacterial cultures – carefully selected to optimize taste and texture, and allow the cream to ripen for hours. Good cultures then return to the cream, allowing it to taste like the butter our great-grandmothers knew. No added butter flavoring; packaged by hand.

Banner Butter has been quite a success, as you can find it in far more places than neighborhood farmers markets (they’re still there, too). These amazingly yummy butters are up in the air aboard Delta Airlines international flights, and all around Atlanta at four Whole Foods Market locations, and restaurants like the newly opened hotspot: Atlas at The St. Regis, Watershed and The Cafe at Linton’s in the Garden . They’re also available nationwide via Shoppe by Scoutmob – whew!

Elizabeth’s sound advice for sustaining a successful business is to “surround yourself with positive, excited people who believe in what you’re doing, and make it a real team effort.” I’m certainly excited about what these entrepreneurs have done in such a short amount of time, and am most proud to have Banner Butter atop our table and as a partner.

 3731 Northcrest Road | Atlanta, GA 30340 | 404.401.3735

Erika Preval is a certified etiquette consultant and founder of both simply put, a blog that simplifies the intricacies of manners for adults as well as Charm Etiquette, the premiere source for boutique events in social and leadership skills for modern youth and adults. She’d love your follows on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.