In the dairy industry, the words used to categorize and describe dairy products can be confusing, but at Challenge, we like to keep it simple. Like most butter that’s commercially produced in the United States, all Challenge Butter—including Challenge Salted and Challenge Unsalted Butter—is sweet cream butter. That means it’s produced from fresh sweet cream as opposed to cultured or soured cream. Plain and simple.

When it comes to how people talk about butter outside the dairy industry, however, things can get more complicated. In older cookbooks and recipes, you might see the recipe call for “sweet butter,” which often means unsalted butter. Some recipes mention “sweet cream butter” but that can mean salted butter, or could be referring to butter that is made from sweet cream.

So Sweet Cream or Sweet Butter?

We believe sweet cream butter offers the best base flavor for whatever you are trying to create in the kitchen, it’s why we make it in both salted and unsalted varieties. Choosing either for a dish is largely a matter of personal taste. Unsalted butter (sweet butter) is often preferred for more control over how much salt is in a recipe, while salted butter (sweet cream butter) is great a condiment, topping or spread. Whichever you choose Challenge has the right butter for you.