Trader Joe's Brownie Crisp

Today is Day 6 of CHOCOLATE WEEK on the blog: 


Oh, the agonies of being a pedant! I cannot get past wondering why this package says "Brownie Crisp" instead of "Brownie Crisps." It's not a single item; it's cut into small squares just like the picture indicates. Maybe "Crisp" is being used as an adjective, rather than a noun. But if so, what is the noun? Brownie? If so, then I have the same question--why singular instead of plural? And why that word order? Why not call them "Crisp Brownies"? To be maximally descriptive, I'd call them "Crisp Brownie Cookies."

Sigh.

Anyway, this is a brand-new item at TJ's, released July 22. (See here for TJ's introduction.) It seems to me that Trader Joe's has been on a blitz of new-product releases lately. It's been hard to keep up. Fortunately, this one came out during Chocolate Week, so I just had to bump another review to a later date to slip this one in.

If you were handed a few of these squares and asked to describe them, I guarantee you'd come up with some minor variation on the basic idea of "a cross between a cookie and a brownie." That's what they were explicitly intended to be, and that's the unmistakable impression that they convey. They taste like brownies, but crunch like crisp cookies.

They're OK, but I'm not head over heels for them. I generally prefer soft cookies to crisp ones, so if TJ's had asked my opinion, I would have told them to make what I guess they would call "Brownie Softs." Or, if they were sticking with the puzzling singular, "Brownie Soft." These seem too dry and brittle to really enjoy.

Will I buy it again? 

Nope. I'd rather have either a brownie or a cookie, preferably a soft one. The hybrid doesn't really work for me.

"So then because you are lukewarm, and neither not nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth."  --Revelation 3:16, King James Version.