Trader Joe's Freeze Dried Mango

Like the Crispy Crunchy Mango Chips reviewed yesterday, this bag was lost and forgotten in my cupboards until I unearthed it while moving recently. It's apparently even older, with a best-by date of September 2015. And again, I don't even know if it's still available. [EDIT: It is--I saw it on the shelves just a few days ago.] I decided to ignore the expiration date. After all, they're freeze-dried and then sealed up to make them last forever, right?

The texture could not be more different from the fried chips. They're sort of the texture of puffed-corn cereal, or maybe circus peanuts that have gotten dried out. You can actually see air spaces throughout, making them amazingly light.

The only ingredient is mango--no oil, no sweeteners, no preservatives. But I would have had a hard time identifying the pieces as mango if I didn't know it in advance. I have a hard time explaining why, but I think it's more the texture than the flavor. It's just hard to believe that anything that so closely resembles Styrofoam packing peanuts is actually fruit.

But they're really good! I kept switching back and forth between these and the fried mango chips, and I couldn't decide which I liked more. They're completely different, but equally successful--and equally odd--presentations of mango.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes.