{"id":75738,"date":"2026-04-13T15:05:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T15:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/the-butter-tourism-trend-explained\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T15:05:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T15:05:12","slug":"the-butter-tourism-trend-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/the-butter-tourism-trend-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"The Butter Tourism Trend, Explained"},"content":{"rendered":"


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I love butter. I could eat a fresh baguette smeared with a thick slab every day and never get bored. I\u2019m not alone in harboring fantasies of this indulgence: Americans inhaled 6.8 pounds of butter per person in 2024, the most ever in at least 50 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been a bit of a butter snob,\u201d actress and comedian Heather McMahan tells me. \u201cGood butter has always been my thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

In one of her recent podcast episodes, McMahan detailed a trip to Paris and her subsequent journey home with 12 (yes, 12) sticks of butter nestled in the depths of her suitcase. This led me down the delightful rabbit hole of butter connoisseurship that\u2019s engulfed social media.<\/p>\n

Everywhere I scroll, people are obsessed.<\/p>\n

While McMahan has also brought home butter from Japan, Italy and other travels, the internet seems particularly enamored with the French heavy-hitters right now.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a viral video of a new mom getting an 11-pound bucket of Isigny Ste-M\u00e8re as her \u201cpush present.\u201d (BTW, you can also custom order said bucket.) I\u2019ve watched people document their dedicated trips to Saint-Malo, France, ground-zero for European butter production. And who can ignore Reel after Reel of giddy tourists loading up shopping baskets with Maison Bordier butter from Paris\u2019s La Grande \u00c9picerie?<\/p>\n

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\"Three<\/picture><\/span><\/div>\n
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A Highly Opinionated Guide to the Best Butter for Baking<\/div>\n

According to our test kitchen’s pastry expert.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cButter has entered the chat as something worth traveling for,\u201d laughs Anna Stockwell, author of The Butter Book. \u201cIt just keeps getting trendier and trendier.\u201d<\/p>\n

These folks gracing my feed aren\u2019t settling for your average grocery store sticks. Or even Irish Kerrygold, which Stockwell lovingly refers to as \u201cgateway butter.\u201d No, they\u2019re seeking out and even making pilgrimages for the definitively more delicious continental European varieties.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unlike [any butter] that’s in the US,\u201d gushes Meghan Donovan, founder of travel planning agency En Route to R\u00eaverie and one of the first viral butter tourism Reel creators.<\/p>\n

In the US, butter has to contain at least 80% butterfat. In Europe, it\u2019s 82% minimum. Sounds like a rounding error, but the extra couple of percentage points of creamy fat is what really intensifies the flavor. Also, most European butter is cultured, yielding a tangy and slightly nutty flavor versus the more muted flavors you\u2019ll find in traditional American sweet cream butter.<\/p>\n

Frankly, Euro butter is dreamier than its stateside counterparts. You could even eat it like a piece of cheese if you wanted. (Don\u2019t tempt us with a good time.)<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s butter tourism is a far cry from the margarine soaked days of the \u201870s where butter and its fatty gloriousness was practically shunned. In her book, Stockwell notes the fall of butter to disproven studies from the 1950s that linked eating saturated fats (which butter has plenty of) to things like heart disease. The low-fat diet craze of the 1980s didn\u2019t help butter\u2019s cause either, she points out.<\/p>\n

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Very Fancy Butter Is on the Rise at Restaurants Around the Country<\/div>\n

Bread and butter for $12. Worth it?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

So what\u2019s driving butter\u2019s prolific resurgence, then? Beyond the obvious that it\u2019s tasty?<\/p>\n

Michelle Webb, butter enthusiast and co-owner of Wedgewood Cheese Bar in Carrboro, North Carolina, has a theory.<\/p>\n

She reminds me that the so-called \u2018Lipstick Effect\u2019 is a real economic indicator. \u201cChanel will sell more lipstick [during slower economies], because customers aren\u2019t going to buy the bag,\u201d Webb says, speculating that people are spending more on little luxuries\u2014like lipstick and now, butter\u2014when there\u2019s a fear of recession or economic downturn.<\/p>\n

Spending $24 on a few ounces of specialty butter in a local shop feels 100% worth it. While I can\u2019t take a private jet to Paris right now (or ever?) to go straight to the source, I can<\/em> ball out buying a bit of tangy, cultured butter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n