Flavored peanut butter business hits town

Justin and Amber Popp recently relocated to Thermopolis. They brought with them their flavored peanut butter business, called PB&J’s.

They make and sell flavored peanut butter, a business they originally started in Cheyenne. The start of their company began when they visited

various farmer’s markets.

Popp said, “We saw a need at the farmer’s markets for flavored peanut butter. You always go and you find bread, you find honey, you find jelly, but you never find peanut butter. So, we decided to jump in and see if we could fill a need we saw. And from there we went to farmer’s markets and last year we went on a farmer’s market tour around the state and we always found ourselves in Thermopolis. So we decided to relocate here and

serve this area of Wyoming.”

Popp’s business is a family thing with his wife Amber and children where they do the manufacturing of the peanut butter here in Thermopolis where they make, bottle and label everything themselves.

The flavors are the basic, premium crunchy, chocolate, banana, coconut, spicy, toffee, rice crispy treat, cinnamon and peppermint during the wintertime.

Regarding feedback from customers, Popp said, “We have been doing this for about five years and while we’ve been up here, we’ve had nothing but positives. People tell us that they love our unique idea, that we do fill the niche we initially hoped to fill. Everything has been positive. We can’t really

ask for too much more than that.”

Popp added, “We literally quit our jobs in Cheyenne, moved up here and started a full-time job making peanut butter.”

Justin and Amber met in Cheyenne and have been there for a long time. They noticed the good results and desired to be the best peanut butter business in Wyoming. Then they moved to Thermopolis because of the geography of being in the center of the state, making easy access to other places within the state.

Popp said, “We fell in love with the town every time we came here. All roads come through Thermopolis when you live in Wyoming. Every time we went out of town for vacation, Yellowstone or came up to the Big Horns we also came to Thermopolis. No matter which way we came, it always ended up the same way. We decided Thermopolis was home.”

Another aspect of their peanut butter products is their labeling, where they want to make things fun. They make the labels bright so the kids can see them. Their inspiration for their labels comes from how cereal box products are done with fun characters and interesting factoids or puzzles and games on the back. Popp puts hidden pictures in the labels to make it fun for the kids.

Popp’s website is www. peanutbutter.life. In Thermopolis, their peanut butter can be found at Kirby Creek Mercantile and their spicy version is also at Discover Thermopolis and also at the Farmer’s Market on Saturday’s from 8 a.m. until noon.

Popp said, “We just love to do what we do. We’re blessed that we can do what we do and pay all our bills and meet the cool people of Wyoming. We want to invite everybody out to the Farmer’s Market here in Thermopolis.”