Billed as Paris’ first boutique devoted entirely to butter, Le Butter Shop opened last month a short walk from the Eiffel Tower – with 30 varieties from small family producers in Brittany, the Loire Valley and northern France.
France eats around 8kg (17.6 pounds) of butter per person a year, according to the country’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food. It is among the highest in the world. Yet the obesity rate is well below the average for wealthy nations – 14 per cent, compared to an average of 19 per cent.
At the new boutique, customers taste by the spoonful before buying anything from a 10g pat to a kilogram block.
Flavours include plain, shallot, pepper, seaweed, wild garlic, fine herbes and lemon with green pepper. At the sweet end: vanilla, raspberry, strawberry and chocolate.
“Most people don’t expect to like a raspberry butter or to like chocolate butter,” says shop owner Erwan Leo, 34. “And when they try it, this is where they’re just like, ‘Oh wow, OK.’”
Leo, who also runs a wine-tasting business, says butter should be used like wine to make a meal better – “the goal isn’t to get drunk”.