For those of us who believe that almost anything gets better with more butter, a new shop in Paris is good news. Le Butter Shop—the name says it all—opened last month, near the Eiffel Tower.
The store is a project of Erwan Leo, who also owns a wine-tasting business, carries 30 varieties of butter from independent producers in Northern France and the Loire Valley, and offers spoonful tastings in the store.
Purists may be bothered by the variety of flavored butters on hand, including fruit and spice flavors, but Leo doesn’t think that’s a problem. He told the Independent (UK) that “Most people don’t expect to like a raspberry butter or to like chocolate butter. And when they try it, this is where they’re just like, ‘Oh wow, OK.'”
The shop sells butter in sizes from a 10 gram portion up to a one kilo block. While southern France leans heavily toward olive oil, consumption in the north is heavy enough that the average for the whole country is 8.38 kilos per person. That’s almost as much as world champion Denmark at 8.55 kilos. Other top five countries are Bahrain at 8.15, Belgium at 7.8 and Netherlands at 6.89 kilos per capita. The figure for the U.S. is a mere 2.64 kilos, edged out by the UK at 3.17
