Trader Joe's Mango Coconut Pudding

This is Day 13 of an extended New Products Week, and Day Four of Mangopalooza. 


I started hearing about Mango Madness via Twitter posts before I set foot in the store and saw how crazy things had gotten. Of all the mango products that people were tweeting pictures of, this was the one I most wanted to try. When I thought about what a mango-coconut pudding would taste like if I were in charge of it, well, I'd eat that until I exploded.

I did not explode. I did not even eat all 12 ounces of pudding in one sitting, as I easily can with puddings that I really like. In fact, it took me three servings to get through it, and I wasn't particularly happy about the last of them; it felt more like a duty than a pleasure, but I powered through it because I still had not figured out what to write about the stuff.

Maybe this is Nina's influence evilly taking control of me, but the bottom line is that this stuff is just too sweet. When I was growing up, my mother would sometimes make a fruit salad that had whipped cream and marshmallows as its base. I loved it, but I knew all along that it was not much better than eating ice cream; the fruit was just there to provide an excuse for eating a bunch of cream.

That's what this reminded me of--and I don't get anywhere near the same feeling when I mix up a batch of Jello-brand banana cream or coconut cream pudding. When you make your pudding sweeter than those, you've gone too far.

Other complaints: It's not thickened enough, and the mango:coconut ratio is skewed much too high toward the coconut side.

Price: $3.49.


Will I buy it again? 

No. In the end, the only thing I really liked about this pudding was my wistful thoughts of how great it could have been.