Trader Joe's Freeze Dried Raspberries

I love, love, love raspberries. Best fruit on the planet, period. I thought there was nothing that one could do with raspberries that I would not like.

I was wrong.

Trader Joe's freeze-dried raspberries are not good. I don't suppose it's TJ's fault, exactly. I think it's intrinsic to the idea. Dried raspberries just cannot be made good--or at least that is my presumption based on this product. It's an inherently flawed concept.

The best way I can describe these is by a comparison. If you've ever had a cereal like Cap'n Crunch "Crunch Berries," or any of the others that have "fruit" pieces made of flavored grains--well, that's what these are like. They feel like they're cereal, though with genuine raspberry flavor. It's a weird mix of signals that I find my mouth sending to my brain. The taste does not match the texture.

But the problem is not really the mismatch. That happens the first time you try any dried fruit, and you quickly get used to it and can enjoy it. The problem is in the texture itself. Most dried fruit retains some moisture, so that the product is chewy. The freeze-drying process they use for these raspberries does not. It sucks them completely dry. The result is that it feels like you're eating a hunk of, I dunno, maybe dust. The berries disintegrate in your mouth into what feels like dust. Dust with seeds. It's not just unexpected. It's not just weird. It's downright unpleasant.

Will I buy it again? 

No. I'm sorry to have learned that such a desecration of raspberries even exists.

Nina's View

When Bob told me he wanted me to try these, I asked: "But if you remove the juice doesn't that just leave the part of raspberries I hate the most, the little seeds that get wedged annoyingly in my teeth?"

No. It also leaves behind some vaguely fruitish back-of-the-tongue-sourness sawdust too.

UGH NO. What a terrible, terrible idea. SRSLY WHAT WERE THEY THINKING.

This is a product that should never have seen a shelf. 

Kill it. Kill it with fire.


Bob notes 

And with that agreement from my beloved, I cast Trader Joe's Freeze Dried Raspberries into the purgatory of the Bottom Ten list, that despised little collection--not limited to ten items, by the way--of the most repulsive, inexplicable products TJ's has had the temerity to foist upon its customers.