Butter is my passion. I could indulge in a fresh baguette slathered with a generous layer daily and never tire of it. I’m not the only one dreaming of this treat: Americans consumed 6.8 pounds of butter per person in 2024, the highest amount in over half a century.
“I’ve always considered myself a bit of a butter connoisseur,” shares actress and comedian Heather McMahan, the host of the Absolutely Not podcast. “Quality butter has always been my forte.”
In one of her latest episodes, McMahan recounted a trip to Paris and her return home with 12 (yes, 12) bars of butter tucked away in her suitcase. This sparked my delightful exploration of butter appreciation that has taken over social media.
Everywhere I look, people are enamored.
While McMahan has also returned with butter from Japan, Italy, and other destinations, the online world seems particularly taken with the renowned French varieties at the moment.
There’s a popular video of a new mother receiving an 11-pound bucket of Isigny Ste-Mère as her “push gift.” (By the way, you can also custom order such a bucket.) I’ve seen people sharing their special trips to Saint-Malo, France, the epicenter for European butter production. And how can one overlook the endless Reels of excited travelers filling their shopping carts with Maison Bordier butter from Paris’s La Grande Épicerie?
According to our test kitchen’s pastry expert.
“Butter has become a topic worth traveling for,” chuckles Anna Stockwell, author of The Butter Book. “It just continues to grow in trendiness.”
These people gracing my feed aren’t settling for the typical grocery store sticks. Or even Irish Kerrygold, which Stockwell affectionately calls “gateway butter.” No, they’re pursuing and even undertaking journeys for the definitively richer continental European varieties.
“It’s not like [any butter] available in the US,” raves Meghan Donovan, co-founder of travel planning agency En Route to Rêverie and one of the original viral butter tourism Reel creators.
In the US, butter must contain a minimum of 80% butterfat. In Europe, it’s at least 82%. It may appear minor, but those extra couple of percentage points of creamy fat significantly enhance the taste. Moreover, most European butter is cultured, providing a tangy and slightly nutty flavor compared to the subtler tastes found in conventional American sweet cream butter.
Honestly, European butter is more appealing than its American equivalents. You could even enjoy it like cheese if inclined. (Don’t tempt us with a fun time.)
Current butter tourism vastly contrasts the margarine-drenched era of the ’70s when butter and its fatty magnificence were virtually avoided. In her book, Stockwell discusses the decline of butter due to disproven studies from the 1950s that falsely linked consumption of saturated fats (of which butter has an abundance) to issues like heart disease. The low-fat diet trend of the 1980s also hindered the progress of butter, she notes.
Bread and butter for $12. Worth it?
So what’s fueling butter’s remarkable comeback, then? Aside from the undeniable fact that it’s delicious?
Michelle Webb, a butter admirer and co-owner of Wedgewood Cheese Bar in Carrboro, North Carolina, has a hypothesis.
She points out that the so-called Lipstick Effect is a legitimate economic indicator. “Chanel sells more lipstick [during economic downturns], because buyers aren’t going to purchase the bag,” Webb explains, suggesting that people are investing more in small luxuries—like lipstick and now, butter—during times of recession or economic fear.
Spending $24 on a few ounces of specialty butter at a local store feels completely justified. While I can’t hop on a private jet to Paris right now (or ever?) to head straight to the source, I can splurge on some tangy, cultured butter.
