THE (NOT-SO-SMOOTH) STORY OF MANI

STU RUNS AWAY FROM SPREADSHEETS

In 2014, our founcer Stu ditches accountancy and heads to Argentina. He stumbles into a peanut butter social enterprise and realises PB can be so much more than 'on toast'. Cooking, drizzling, dunking - it’s flavour with range. He starts roasting and blending in his mate’s kitchen. The obsession begins.

ONE TONNE, ONE BEDROOM, ZERO PLAN

He finds the best peanuts on the planet, grown by a single family in Argentina (who we still source from today). Imports a literal tonne. The day they land? His manufacturer bails. Cue 1,000kg of peanuts in 25kg bags... in his bedroom. He calls in 45 mates and takes over a rugby club kitchen. 4,000 jars made. One at a time.

FROM 'STU'S PEANUT BUTTER' TO MANILIFE

Turns out calling it 'Stu’s Peanut Butter' didn’t scream cult brand. So we renamed it ManiLife: "maní" = peanut in Argentina, "life" = the joy it brings. Google kept thinking we were a Canadian finance firm called ManuLife. Took a while… but we won.

DEEP ROAST, ACCIDENTAL ICON

One distracted afternoon, Stu burns a batch. Turns out, it’s delicious. Bold, intense, unlike anything else. Deep Roast is born - the first of its kind, and eventually the most awarded peanut butter in history.

GOUSTO, LOVE & LOGISTICS

It's 2017. Gousto puts in a last-minute order for 9,000 mini pots. The team packs through the night - and Stu meets Saz (now his wife). Turns out, peanut butter is a pretty great matchmaker.

FROM RUGBY CLUB TO CULT STATUS

In 2020, Waitrose takes Mani mainstream. We move from a DIY kitchen setup to a 15,000 sq ft factory. Still small-batch. Still single-origin. Still roasting low and slow. Because once you’ve tasted peanut butter done properly, there’s no going back.

STILL SPREADING THE GOOD STUFF

We started with a blender in a mate’s kitchen. Now we’re in a 15,000 sq ft factory, still doing things the hard (but better) way. Small batches. Big flavour. ManiLife’s just getting warmed up. Thanks for being part of it - and if you’re reading this, keep spreading the word (and the peanut butter).

HOW THE MAGIC HAPPENS

CHAMPAGNE NUTS ONLY

We don’t do average peanuts.

Ours come from a single estate in the Córdoba region of Argentina - home to the Champagne of peanuts.
They’re so good, they’ve got DOP status (that’s like a Michelin star for crops).
Higher in natural sugar. Better in flavour.
And no, you can’t just grow these in your back garden.

THE PLANT, THE PLACE, THE OBSESSION

Like wine, peanut quality comes down to terroir - the magic mix of soil, weather, and timing.
Here’s what makes Argentina the GOAT of peanut-growing:

Warm days + cool (but frost-free) nights
Deep, loose, sandy soil so the plant can send down its weird little pegs (yes, that’s a real thing)
Rain when it counts, dry when it matters - too much moisture at harvest = mould
Rotated with corn and wheat to keep the soil healthy
Legume perks: Peanuts fix their own nitrogen, so they’re good for the land, not just your spoon

Fun fact: Pepsico tried to grow peanuts in Europe. Didn’t work. The terroir just wasn’t it.

FOUR PEANUTS, ONE CLEAR WINNER

There are four main peanut varieties. Only one makes elite-level peanut butter:

Runner – Small, uniform, packed with flavour. The one we use.
Virginia – Big, sweet, and great for snacking.
Spanish – Tiny, red-skinned, mostly used in candies.
Valencia – Super sweet. Usually boiled (don’t ask).

Runner peanuts + Córdoba terroir + our roast = flavour worth obsessing over.
And yes, we tested all of them. Because of course we did.

THE SCIENCE OF CRUNCH

We don’t just add crunch. We engineer it.

In our factory, we’ve got a dedicated sorting machine that sieves out every crunchy piece to exactly 8mm. Not 7. Not 9. Just right.

Because through extensive (and delicious) testing, we’ve deemed it: the perfect crunch.

ROASTING

Where the flavour begins - and where we accidentally made history.

Also known as the Maillard reaction, this is the magic that happens when heat hits peanuts. Same science behind toasted bread, roasted coffee, and, of course, Deep Roast.

It all depends on the time, the temp, the sugar and amino acid levels, and how well you avoid burning the lot. Caramelisation kicks in, sugars break down, and boom - flavour.

Before 2015, no one talked about roast levels in peanut butter. Then we accidentally took it too far… and created Deep Roast. What started as a mistake became an obsession. Now, every jar we make is a tribute to that perfect, precise, dangerously-close-to-burning-but-created-peanut-perfection instead moment.

BLENDING

This is where it all comes together - or falls apart.

Anyone can grind peanuts. But blending? That’s an art. We batch-blend, obsessively. Controlling speed, temperature, time, blade sharpness, and even the number of passes - because that’s what it takes to get that signature thick, creamy, stupidly good mouthfeel.

It’s what separates ManiLife from the rest. And why your spoon keeps going back in.