Trader Joe's Blueberry Muffins

These are pretty good. Not as good as bakery muffins, but better than most mass-produced ones. Nothing surprising. I had one per morning for four days, and didn't detect any drop-off in freshness.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes.

Trader Joe's Wild Blueberry Pie

I don't know for sure that this is a new item, but I had never noticed it before. It was being sampled at my local store last week. I didn't take a sample--I just took a whole pie, cuz that's how I roll.

Looking back through my archives, here are the fresh-baked (i.e., not frozen) pies I have tried from Trader Joe's:

Apple
Cherry
Strawberry Rhubarb
Peach Crumble
French Apple Tart
Raspberry Tart
Fig, Pear, and Cranberry Tart

I think this blueberry is the best of the bunch. The berries were flavorful and the crust was a little sweet (which isn't usually the case with store-bought pies). Visually, I love the stars pattern in the crust. Nina had one piece, and I eagerly ate the rest.

Speaking of Nina's piece, she was not nearly as enamored as I was. She said the blueberries weren't as tasty as the "wild" implies, and the crust was just so-so.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes. Though without Nina's help to eat it, it can't be often. The number of whole pies that I can afford to add to my belly fat is strictly limited. 

Trader Joe's Mini Blueberry Tea Scones

I have virtually no experience with scones generally, or with "tea scones" specifically, if those are something different. But whatever these are, and however they may or may not match up to their platonic ideal, I like them. They're sweet, soft, and flavorful--in every way pleasant to eat. I'm a sucker for that large-grained sugar they sprinkle on top.


Will I buy it again? 

To my surprise, yes. I did not expect that a plastic bag of mass-produced baked goods would be this tasty.

Trader Joe's Gluten Free Blueberry Bagels

Is it possible that I've never had Trader Joe's bagels before? Apparently so. I can't remember any, and a text search of this blog's archives finds none.

Too bad, then, that my first venture into the field is so disappointing. These taste reasonably like the many other conventional blueberry bagels I've had from bakeries, but the texture is all wrong. There's no chew; they just kind of fall apart in your mouth, as if made of dust. Why, it's almost as if they contained no long-chain proteins holding them together!


Will I buy it again? 

No. I ate one, but the rest will go back to the store for a refund.

Trader Joe's Organic Super Fruit Fruit Spread

This is the best jam/jelly/preserves/spread I've ever had from Trader Joe's, and one of the best I've ever had from any source. Though the cherry is the most prominent, three of the four main fruit ingredients are readily identifiable (I haven't been able to make out the pomegranate component), which is not usually the case when these things get blended. It uses fruit juice concentrates as sweeteners, not sucrose. It's sweet, of course, but it doesn't taste sweetened, even though it is.


Will I buy it again? 

Definitely. I'm even adding it to my Top Ten list.

Trader Joe's Blueberry Vanilla Chevre

I had seen this in the Trader Joe's cheese section many times, but I always passed it by. I thought it looked too weird to enjoy. Even after I bought it, it sat uneaten in my refrigerator for about three weeks, because I was so leery of its strangeness that night after night I saw it sitting there, but picked something else for my nighttime snack, telling myself that I'd get to the weird cheese "tomorrow."

Now, this isn't an entirely rational attitude. After all, I've tried cheese with cinnamon, sriracha sauce, black pepper, paprika, Syrah, pesto, bacon, apricots, apple pie ingredients, smoked chiles, rosemary and olive oil, and apple and cinnamon, and I liked most of them, so I shouldn't perceive this stuff as too far outside my experience. And yet I did.

But I had to try it because of having made a promise. I recently gained two new neighbors in the apartment next to mine. When they learned of my odd TJ's blogging hobby, one of them, Kendra Warren, told me this was her favorite TJ's thing, and said I had to try it, and I promised that I would. That's why I bought it, and that's why backing out on the taste test wasn't an option, despite my trepidations. Besides, how bad could it be? I like cheese, I like vanilla, and I like blueberries.

So I finally got to it. Verdict: It's just as peculiar as I had anticipated. Vanilla and blueberry are not flavors that my tongue expects when I tell it that a piece of cheese is incoming.

The main problem I have with this product is that it's hard to tell it's cheese. The blueberries so dominate the flavor that it's hard for me to tell that anything else is there. Even when I carefully cut around them to try some blueberry-free cheese, I tasted mostly vanilla (which seems to be blended into the cheese, not just added to the surface). If Clara Peller were doing a TV commercial, she'd bark, "Where's the cheese?"

Also, this is the messiest cheese I think I've ever tried. I found no way to attack it that didn't involve getting most of my fingers sticky and stained blue. It's about as soft as cheese can be without actually flowing, so it's hard to slice.


Will I buy it again? 

No. I enjoyed eating it--much more than I had thought I would, in fact. But that's because I like blueberries (in this case, with a little vanilla added in), not because I like it as cheese.  So if I want blueberries, I'll eat some blueberries. If I want cheese, I'll select something else. Sorry, Kendra! De gustibus non est disputandum. 

Speaking of my friend Kendra, a little plugging is in order. She is a fine musician and model, and you should seek out/listen to/hire her as appropriate. Here's a fun music video she did, singing the true story of her dad burning down the mountain on which the family home sat:

Trader Joe's Wild Boreal Blueberries

I don't think I've ever purchased frozen blueberries before. I like blueberries just fine, but mostly in a berry mix, not by themselves.

These are surprisingly small--one might even say tiny. But they're very flavorful and sweet, with essentially no tartness.

What I liked least was the large amount of ice they're packed with, which makes for a watery bowl of berries when thawed. This is unlike any other TJ's frozen fruit I've had before.

See Trader Joe's own description of this product here. See how it did in a comparison taste test with other brands of frozen blueberries here.


Will I buy it again? 

Probably not. It's back to berry medleys instead.

Trader Joe's Golden Berry Blend

This makes for pretty good snacking material--as long as I don't think about the list of ingredients. Because if I do, I'm reminded that of the four fruits represented here, all except the raisins have been sweetened with added sugar. This is a fact that is not disclosed or even hinted at on the front of the package.

I love golden raisins, but I think I'd rather have them alone than mixed in with a bunch of sugared-up other dried fruits.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Tarte Aux Fruits--Mixed Berry Tarte

It was with a heavy heart that I learned that Trader Joe's was discontinuing its Raspberry Tarte, which both Nina and I thought might well be the single best product in the whole store.

Not too much later, though, this quasi-replacement showed up. It's not quite as good as the original, but it's still great. You get a medley of raspberries, blueberries, and red currants, instead of all raspberries. The crust is more prone to getting soggy if not eaten in its entirety soon after thawing. But those flaws aside, the berries are superb, and the glaze that holds them together seems unchanged from the old version.

My conclusion is that this is about 90% as good as the original. That makes it still of sufficient quality to join the Top Ten list.


Will I buy it again? 

Shhhhh. Don't tell anyone, but I've already had four of them.

Trader Joe's Sparkling Blueberry Flavored Juice Blend

Despite the suspicious weasel words in the product name ("flavored" and "blend" raise my eyebrows in deep skepticism), this is actually delicious. It's easily the most successful of this line that we've tried--better than the apple, better than the pomegranate. The blueberry is front and center, as it should be, though one can definitely notice the supporting roles of the grape and apple juices. Nina and I usually have just a few ounces of juice each during our weekly dinners here, but we polished off this bottle before we were even halfway through the meal.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes.

Nina's View

Yeah, it's a teensy-eensy bit too sweet. Sue me.

But it actually tastes of blueberry. It is guzzleable. (What? That's a word. Now, anyway.)

I didn't expect to like it and did. Go drink some, it is Nina Approved.

Trader Joe's Blueberry Poppy Seed Cookies

This is Day Four of Cookie Week. 


The shortbread is fine, but nothing special. The poppy seeds add nothing that I can detect. The winner here is the dried blueberries--they're whole, chewy, and flavorful, which is totally unexpected in this kind of usage. There's a bit of a stick-in-the-teeth problem, but I'm willing to overlook that.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes. They make for fine late-night munching.

Trader Joe's Blueberry Breakfast Biscuits

These "biscuits" are a puzzling thing. They're certainly nothing like what is conjured up in the typical American mind by the word "biscuits." I'm not sure they're even what would be conjured up in the typical British mind by their very different use of the same word, though it would be a closer match.

They're like thin blueberry cookies, but with an unusually strong grain-like flavor. I'm not sure if that is attributable to the rye or the oats (the "biscuits" contain both, second and third on the list of ingredients, respectively), or maybe the combination. But whatever is doing it, the result is a powerful cereal-y/granola-y accompaniment to what is otherwise a nice, distinct blueberry flavor.

And, for me, that's what keeps these from being something I'll want again. They feel too dessertish to be a good breakfast food, and too breakfastish to be a dessert.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Nina's View

I liked these quite a bit. The best part is that the blueberry flavor tastes genuine. I enjoyed them with a glass of soy milk and with coffee.

Trader Joe's Dried Wild Blueberries

My reaction to this product evolved over many phases:

PHASE 1, initial impulse: Ooooo, blueberries! I want that.

PHASE 2, reactive skepticism: Hey, but wait a second. Blueberries tend not to work well as a dried fruit. When I've had them before as part of dried-fruit mixes (see here, for instance) they tend to be shriveled and kind of unpleasant, with little sweetness.

PHASE 3, decision: Ties or doubts on purchasing an unfamiliar item at Trader Joe's are always resolved in favor of buying since I started this blog. A review every day demands a constant infusion of new material.

PHASE 4, desuetude: The Phase 2 fears dominated after I got the bag home. It sat in my cupboard for several months. I would always pass it by when choosing my late-night snack, like the three-legged dog at the shelter that never gets adopted.

PHASE 5, resignation: Finally, something snapped inside me, and I realized that the purposes for which I bought the product would go unfulfilled if I didn't actually eat it, so I pulled it down from the shelf and opened the bag.

PHASE 6, surprise: Wow--these are unexpectedly tasty! They're a lot sweeter than I thought they would be. In fact, they're sweet enough to remind me strongly of what you get in blueberry pie filling. Also surprising is that they're moist and plump--not so much dried as par-dried, if I am allowed to invent a new culinary term.

PHASE 7, continued enjoyment: Nom, nom, nom. I am seriously liking these. Quickly becoming one of my favorite dried fruits.

PHASE 8, suspicion: Hold the phone. Just how is it that these are so much sweeter than other dried blueberries I've had? In fact, they're sweeter than most whole blueberries I've had, both fresh and frozen. How can that be?

PHASE 9, remembrance: I recall being unhappy to discover added sugar in several Trader Joe's products where I did not expect it. Could my favorite store have pulled another fast one here, with this apparently all-natural, healthful snack?

PHASE 10, investigation: I flip the package over and locate the ingredients. "Wild blueberries. SUGAR. Sunflower oil."

PHASE 11, betrayal: Oh, Trader Joe's, how could you?

PHASE 12, conclusion: Look, I'm not anti-sugar. I likely consume more of it than the American per capita average, in candy, cookies, cake, ice cream, etc. In spite of that, I maintain that there are many, many food items that do not need to be sweetened, and/or that I do not want to be sweetened. I don't want sugar added to my crackers. I've learned that applesauce is better without it. I don't need it in pasta. Please keep it out of my soup. It has no place in bread. And I want dried fruit to stand or fall on its own natural sweetness and flavor, without being pumped full of sugar.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Blueberry Raspberry Oat Bran Muffins

This was a completely impulse purchase at the store yesterday. Muffins are not a staple of my diet, I didn't have them on my shopping list, and I didn't even know what kind of muffins TJ's carries. But I saw them, thought they looked good, and took them home. I had one right after I got home, another this morning for breakfast.

I like them, even though they don't fit very well with my mental image of what muffins are supposed to be. I think of muffins as light, while these are dense, heavy, substantial, and chewy. But I didn't mind. They're moist and delicious.

They're not perfect. The paper cup is really difficult to remove intact; I had to dig out a bunch of small pieces that tore off, leaving a pock-marked muffin behind. They're unusually sticky. I'd up the number of berries by about 50% if it were up to me. But still, the overall eating experience was strongly more positive than negative.


Will I buy it again? 

Next time the muffin impulse hits me, I hope I find them again.

Trader Joe's 100% Blueberry Juice

For once, Trader Joe's seems not to be misleading buyers with a juice label. This really is what it claims to be: blueberry juice, full stop. Yes, it's reconstituted from concentrate, but that's forgivable, as it is the only way it's possible for bottled juice to be (1) available all year, and (2) affordable.

In contrast to so many previous juice purchases from TJ's, this one tastes like the real stuff. It's clearly not sweetened, and blueberries are not the naturally sweetest of fruits, so this doesn't taste like blue Kool-Aid. (That's a good thing, you know.)


Will I buy it again? 

Yes. It's a relief to find a rare gem like this hidden among the costume jewelry that is most of the TJ's juice aisle.

Trader Joe's Dried Berry Medley

I have mixed opinions about this mix. The dried cherries are excellent--sweet and flavorful. I could eat them all day. The dried whole strawberries are a novel thing to me. They're pretty good, though they seem to lose a lot of their natural sweetness in the drying process. The blueberries are a disappointment. They're little blebs of slightly bitter chewiness with little to no blueberry flavor.

Still, on several occasions I found myself eating a lot more of this than I set out to do. I kept thinking, just a little more. Then a little more. And a little more after that. It was mainly the super-yummy cherries that kept me willing to eat the so-so strawberries and the sad blueberries to get to them.

I see that Trader Joe's sells bags of dried Bing cherries. I guess I'm going to have to try that next.

Will I buy it again? 

It depends. If the dried cherries alone are as good as the ones in this bag, then I think I would always choose that over this. But maybe they're different and not as good, in which case I may well come back for more of this medley.


Addendum 

This wasn't supposed to publish when it did. I meant to move it out of the queue to make room for the post about the gingerbread cookies, but apparently I forgot that step in the process. I didn't even notice that two posts went up at the same time until a couple of days later. Oh well. Might as well leave it now. I just add this note in case anybody wonders why a random day had two reviews instead of the usual one.

Trader Joe's Blueberries (fresh)

I've always been leery of Trader Joe's fresh produce. One of the most frequent gripes about TJ's that you see following the #TraderJoes hashtag on Twitter is people photographing the fruits and vegetables that rotted or went moldy much faster than one would reasonably expect--or, even worse, were that way in hidden areas as soon as they were unpacked and inspected at home. And my own rare experiences with the produce there have not been great.

However, the strawberries that I picked up last week were pretty good, so I decided to take a shot at some blueberries. Now, I have to wonder exactly where these came from, because the label says "Product of USA," but traditional blueberry season isn't until late summer. (I bought these and am writing this in May.) Maybe there are places, like in California, where they can grow blueberries in several crops per year. Or maybe they're grown in a greenhouse and somehow forced into season. I don't know.

Anyway, these were perfectly decent--not a badly shriveled, rotten, moldy, or sour one in the bunch. They were more tart than other blueberries I've had before. I don't know whether to attribute that to being out of season, the specific variety, or just random variation. It wasn't quite what I expected, but I didn't find it unpleasant.

Will I buy it again? 

Yes. I'm pleased to have had two consecutive good experiences with TJ's fresh fruit.

Trader Joe's Blueberry Preserves Made With Fresh Blueberries

Though obviously meant as part of the same family as Trader Joe's cherry preserves and apricot preserves, the blueberry version seems quite different to me. Specifically, it seems much sweeter and more artificial. More sugar, less fruit. It's not to the point of being unpleasant, but easily reaches the level of being disappointing. I would never choose it over the cherry or apricot versions. That is not because I like blueberries less than cherries or apricots as a general rule, but because of how much more obvious and prominent the added sugar is.

Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's "This Blueberry Walks Into A Bar..."

Having liked the strawberry version of the same product previously, when I went back to the store to get more of them, these went into the basket as well. No surprise: I liked them just as much. If I weren't afraid that it's against the law to like something more than strawberry, I might even say that these were a teeny tiny bit better. They're basically like eating a piece of blueberry pie.

Now I have to wonder about the other varieties--I believe I've seen apple and fig alongside the strawberry and blueberry. Will they be as good?

Will I buy it again? 

Yes. Yes I will.