Ok, so this is butter. With a minimum saturated fat content of 80%, it's basically a solid lump of fat, with a bit of salt thrown in. But I love butter, and can't help feeling that there must be some benefit in eating a 'natural' product as opposed to some weird, manufactured margarine, full of ingredients I don't understand. Plus, there's the small issue of taste, and nothing beats that creamy richness on a piece of toast. Mmmm...

Anyway, justification over, it's time to move on to this particular butter. I find the supermarket value ranges to be a bit hit and miss, but the simpler the product is, the more likely it is to be of a similar quality to the higher priced versions. I mean, how many variations on saturated fat and salt can there be?!

At 85p per 250g pat, this butter is substantially cheaper than the branded versions, so that's one point in its favour. Wrapped in the usual Value style, it doesn't look particularly glamorous, but the paper it comes in serves perfectly well as a greaser for cake tins, which is probably the only reason you'd keep it. The wrapper also has handy 50g marks along it, so it's easy to cut off the right amount for baking.

The butter itself is average in appearance and texture- nothing to comment on here. As for the taste, it's reasonable, but not quite up to the standard of the pricier brands. It's difficult to put my finger on why- it's about the same in saltiness, but seems to lack some of that creamy, dairyish flavour that adds a mellow element to other butters. This doesn't really have that smooth, unifying taste- the salt comes through, and the fat comes through, but there's not that special flavour bringing them together.

While this butter is perfectly decent, it isn't quite up to the standards of other brands. I'd happily buy it if the other options were much pricier (which sometimes they are), but supermarkets often have special offers on branded butters, bringing them down in price so that they're only a few pence more than this. Given that choice, I'd definitely stock up on the big brand butters, as they certainly have the edge on this for flavour. But this is perfectly satisfactory, and will do the job at a great price if you're not too picky!