4 Spray Butters, Ranked Worst To Best

Whether you're trying to be careful with how much butter you're using in any given recipe, or you just want to ensure a more even application on whatever butter-adorned food you're making, spray "butter" can come in handy. Admittedly, most spray butters out there aren't actual butter, but are rather oil-based products simply flavored to taste like butter, so they're not necessarily a good option if you care about eating the real thing. But when you're going for flavor alone, they can be a good substitute from a more standard stick of butter, which — let's be honest — can sometimes be hard to spread if it's straight out of the refrigerator.

That's why I wanted to get a better picture of the spray butter landscape. There aren't a ton of widely accessible spray butters out there, but I still got the chance to try four of them both alone and on bread. I've ranked these spray butters from worst to best, so you'll have a better idea of which products are worth trying and which you're probably better off skipping, based on flavor and ease of use. 

With the exception of one spray butter, all of these products are intended to be used on popcorn. That's an application that certainly makes sense (and one you should try if you're trying to upgrade the flavor of your popcorn), but you can also use these spray butters on bread or in a variety of other dishes. Regardless, this ranking should help guide you through your spray butter journey.

Of all of the spray butters on this list, Kernel Season's Movie Theater Butter Flavored Spritzer has the least flavor to it. Yes, it has a richness to it, but that's to be expected from any fat-based product. The main ingredient in this product is soybean oil, which happens to be the world's cheapest cooking oil, followed by natural butter flavor. However, that butter flavor isn't pronounced at all. Rather, it tastes like the shadow of actual butter, offering that fatty mouthfeel without much else. For those who just want to add some richness and body to popcorn or bread, it'll get the job done. But if you really want to capture that creamy, buttery flavor, you're likely to be disappointed with this stuff.

But it's not just this product's flavor that earns it the last spot in this ranking. Another problem is the packaging. You can't spray just a little bit of this stuff — it comes out in a steady stream of oil that's hard to control. And since the point of spray butter is to be able to moderate your intake and distribute the product more evenly across whatever it is you're adding it to, this stuff just doesn't seem that useful.

Another spray butter that I wouldn't necessarily recommend is Popcorn Perfect's Butter Blast Popcorn Spray. Like the Kernel Season's spray butter, this product doesn't have a very strong flavor to it, relying mostly on soybean oil to give it its fatty flavor. However, there's also artificial butter flavor in the mix, although the flavor of that ingredient doesn't seem to come through very strongly. You could use this spray as a product that could help spices or other ingredients better stick to your popcorn or bread, but otherwise, it doesn't seem to help make the most of your snack very much.

So, why is this product ranked higher than the worst-performing spray butter on this list? Well, it really comes down to the packaging of the spray bottle. You can get more of an even spray with this stuff, and it doesn't all come out of the canister at once. That means, if you're trying to watch the amount of spray butter you're using, this stuff isn't the worst option you could choose.

Winona's Theater Style Popcorn Seasoning Spray is a definite step up in terms of flavor from the spray butters I've covered thus far, although it doesn't reach the coveted No. 1 spot on this list. This product boasts a bolder, more buttery flavor along with the richness that you'd expect from any butter spray. This is the only product on this list that isn't predominantly made with soybean oil — rather, the recipe uses canola oil instead. Perhaps that's what gives this stuff its already somewhat popcorn-like flavor. It doesn't taste like straight butter, per se, but it does taste like buttered popcorn — and considering its intended use, that's probably a good thing.

However, don't feel like you have to limit yourself to popcorn when you want to use this type of butter product. You can spray it onto bread or use it as a flavorful coating for roasted veggies. Use it before putting ingredients in the air fryer, and you'll find that they come out tasting more seasoned than they would with plain oil alone. Although it's not my favorite product of the bunch, it's worth checking out if you're in the market for spray butter.

Finally, we arrive at the very best spray butter I tried for this ranking. It's I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! Original Spray, and it does its name justice. This stuff is made from soybean oil (along with a slew of other ingredients I can't pronounce), but it seriously does taste like real butter. The inclusion of salt in this product really seems to make a difference, because there's a boldness and brightness to this stuff that the other spray butters just didn't offer. Although the ingredients list is a bit questionable, and you'd probably be better off using real butter instead, this stuff is worth a try if you're specifically looking for a spray or you're trying to avoid dairy.

Additionally, this is the best packaging out of any of the other sprays I tried. It's a lot easier to control how much you're using, and it requires you to spray a small amount instead of releasing a steady stream of "butter." To me, there's absolutely no competition in this lineup: I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! is the way to go when you're searching for a butter-flavored spray.

I chose these spray butters based on local and online availability. I taste-tested each product both on its own (by spraying the product on my finger and then tasting it), as well as on plain white bread to better understand how the sprays performed solo and with other ingredients. However, I did not try any of the sprays on popcorn, which is the intended use for three of the four products listed here. I ranked the products according to flavor, most importantly, prioritizing more complex, concentrated flavors. But I also took the packaging into consideration, opting for containers that sprayed easily and consistently without delivering too much "butter" in a single spray.