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Drinkable Peanut Butter is Now a Thing

by Phylisa Wisdom

Have you been wondering if there's a trendy new drink — preferably processed — your diet is missing? Have you recently wondered whether your treatment of peanut butter as its own food group is weird or dangerous? Peanut butter lovers, corporate foodie America has heard your cries for more peanut buttery treats (Have you made those cries? I know I have, albeit quietly!) and answered in the form of Peanut Hottie, a hot peanut butter flavored beverage.

Like it's foremother instant hot chocolate, Peanut Hottie is a powdered, instant beverage one simply mixes with water or milk, heats, and enjoys. Available in two flavors — peanut butter and peanut butter and chocolate — the makers of Peanut Hottie tout it as an easy way to get your PB fix. Peanut Hottie not only boasts an adorable name, but at 100 calories a cup this vegetarian-friendly, caffeine-free drink is suitable for PB lovers on a variety of diets. It's just peanuts and sugar, guys. Just peanuts and sugar mixed in some liquid.

It was only a matter of time before someone created this drink. Americans love peanut butter at far greater rates than our overseas friends. We love it. Luckily for our cross-pond neighbors, Peanut Hottie is available in four of the biggest supermarkets in the United Kingdom. The bad news for progressive American lady-lovers of peanut butter is that it's only on the shelves at Walmart in the U.S., a supermarket I wouldn't go to even if I did live there. Alas, there is no Peanut Hottie in Australia.

Peanut Hottie won't do much to satisfy the "eat foods your grandparents would recognize" dieters; powered beverages are a few too many steps away from their original state to be considered "clean eating." If this Peanut Hottie's cool factor reached zeitgeist levels, hot drink snobs would boycott with the same gusto as they (we...I'm sorry!) do the pumpkin spice latte craze.

I'm not convinced that Peanut Hottie would stave off full-blown peanut butter cravings; the texture of the real thing is part of the appeal and if I'm honest with myself, I'd rather eat those 100 calories off of a spoon. I crave that stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth masochistic pleasure that comes with a globby peanut butter. And while the clean-eating conversations can feel tedious, it's worth considering that the new peanut butter treats food companies create to meet our demand should perhaps contain... peanut butter.

Can't get your hands on Peanut Hottie and require a peanut butter hot drink post haste? DIY it with Popsugar 's Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate Recipe:

Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate

Ingredients2 cups milk1/4 cup chocolate drink mix (such as Nesquik or Ovaltine)1/4 cup powdered sugar1/4 cup peanut butter

Directions

Heat the milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat. When the milk is hot, add the drink mix, powdered sugar, and peanut butter. Stir continuously until the peanut butter has melted. Pour into two mugs, and serve warm.

images Peanut Hottie/Facebook