Trader Joe's Apple Cider Donuts

I'm torn about these.

On the one hand, they're surprisingly good cake donuts, given that they're packaged and shipped to stores, rather than sold fresh where they were just made. They have a nice amount of cinnamon-sugar coating. They are the best store-bought cake donuts I've ever encountered.

But on the other hand, there's precious little "apple cider" about them. I ate all six of these, and with every one of them I was consciously trying to detect the flavor of apple cider, or even of just apple--and completely failed. Not a hint of it anywhere, as far as I could tell.

So they're pretty good at being something they're not supposed to be (cinnamon donuts), and a complete failure at being what they're supposed to be.


Will I buy it again? 

No. I'm fortunate to have many better donut choices. And I always prefer raised over cake.

Trader Joe's Cinnamon Bun Spread

The idea is genius: take the ooey gooey good stuff that tops Cinnabons, and sell it in a jar. Convert ordinary toast into a simulacrum of the decadent breakfast that we indulge in at the airport before an early-morning flight.

But it doesn't really work. The texture is pleasantly thick and creamy, but the taste misses the mark. There's some cinnamon, sure, but it's kind of wimpy. The tapioca and brown sugar seem more prominent. And without the cream-cheese element, it can't replicate what Cinnabon does.

Now, to be fair, they're not claiming Cinnabon specifically, so I'm making a comparison that TJ's doesn't. After all, not all cinnamon buns are Cinnabons. But that's what I was hoping for, and I ended up disappointed.


Will I buy it again? 

No. It's OK, but not great. It's basically a thickened, spreadable form of cinnamon sugar. I don't need that.

Trader Joe's Cinnamon Croissant Loaf

This is one of the most unusual loaves of bread I've ever bought. It really is as light, airy, flaky, and buttery as a croissant. (This means it kind of makes a crumbly mess when you eat it. Be prepared.) The cinnamon component is delicate, not overpowering--more "whiff of cinnamon" than CINNAMON!

I tried toasting this in my toaster, but even though this particular model is allegedly designed to accommodate thick slices, the croissant loaf was too much for it. I was able to stuff the slices in, but just barely, and it was a pain both going in and coming out. It also started burning quickly, perhaps because its thickness brought it too close to the heating elements. So for subsequent uses, I put it in my toaster oven, which is slower, but did a much better job, and without the need to manhandle the bread.

The loaf is kind of misshapen, but I ended up not caring, because it tastes so good. It's really superb for making buttered toast. In fact, it was so good after first tasting that I never could bring myself to put jam or jelly on, for fear that it might not be quite as perfect that way. You can slather huge amounts of butter on it, because it's so airy that there's tons of room for the butter to soak in without running off. I'm too lazy to make French toast for myself, but I suspect that this would be perfect for that purpose, with its thick, absorbent slices.

As you might imagine, it's completely impractical for making sandwiches. The slices are too thick and a bit too small, and the substance of the bread is really too delicate and too easily crushed. Besides, cinnamon bread as the platform for, say, ham and Swiss does not sound like a great idea. So this is a limited-purpose bread, rather than an all-purpose one.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes. It's kind of a crazy idea for a bread loaf, and a wild departure from my usual bread selections, and even when it's on hand I'll need to have one of the more standard ones simultaneously available for sandwich use--but I love it anyway.

Trader Joe's Cinnamon Raisin Bagels

I loves me a good cinnamon-raisin bagel.

What is in this bag is not a good cinnamon-raisin bagel, but a disappointingly mediocre one. (Or six disappointingly mediocre ones, if you're counting.) Sure, there's a limit to how good a mass-produced bagel can be, but my feeling is that Trader Joe's isn't even trying to bump up against that ceiling. The flavors are dull, and the texture is too soft and thoroughly unbagelly.

I suppose they'll do in a pinch, when every bakery in town is closed for a holiday or something, and yet you desperately need a cinnamon-raisin bagel. But if you have just about any other choice, take it.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Organic Cold Pressed Fuji Apple Spiced Cider

I very much enjoyed this, but I don't think it's noticeably different from any number of apple/cinnamon/clove concoctions one can buy this time of year, such as TJ's own Spiced Cider. It is astonishingly sweet--so much so that Nina felt sure it had added sugar, until I checked the label and found none.


Will I buy it again? 

No. It's good, but the price per ounce is just too high to justify.

Trader Joe's Brown Sugar & Cinnamon Butter Spread

This is a small tub (you can't tell scale from this photo, but notice the number of ounces of product) of butter mixed with brown sugar and cinnamon. If you spread it on hot toast, you'll get essentially the same result as if you used regular butter and then sprinkled a cinnamon/sugar mixture on top--for very slightly less effort.

It's fine, but it's just not a product I need. It's terrible to try to spread when cold, so despite the "keep refrigerated" instruction, I've been leaving it out on the kitchen counter, alongside the regular butter. But I don't have cinnamon toast often enough to use it before it goes bad, so it's likely a lot of it will be wasted.


Will I buy it again? 

No. I'll just continue to use regular butter and McCormick cinnamon-sugar mixture. (Not the Trader Joe's one, for reasons explained here.)

There's also a companion product, "Roasted Garlic & Herb." I did not buy it, and won't, because I don't care for garlic.

Trader Joe's Cinnamon Coffee Cake

I thought this was a new product, because I don't remember seeing it among the baked goods before, but there was a Fearless Flyer article about it last year, so I guess not.

I liked it a lot: light, moist, heavy on the cinnamon-sugar. I spooned some generic Cool-Whip kind of stuff on top, and it was just right.

I did not, however, have it with coffee, which Nina says means I didn't eat it right, and my review may not be valid. So be it.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes.

Trader Joe's Crunchy Cinnamon Squares Milk Chocolate Bar

This is basically an ordinary milk chocolate bar with a layer of cinnamon stuck to the bottom. The label says it's "bits of crunchy cinnamon squares cereal." I didn't find that. If there's any cereal, it's crushed to a power and mixed with the cinnamon.

I think chocolate and cinnamon is a new flavor combination for me. At least I can't think of anything else I've ever eaten that features it. I don't think it works well. It gave me a weird sensation of not being able to process both dominant flavors at once. I felt like, "There's the chocolate...oh, and there's the cinnamon. And some chocolate. And some cinnamon." This could easily be some strange brain wiring or sensory problem in me, rather than anything intrinsic to the candy bar.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Cinnamon Sugar Muffin & Baking Mix

This item makes 10 that I have reviewed under the heading of "mixes," and it's only the third to rate a "Will buy again." (The others are cornbread mix and pumpkin cornbread mix.)

I made the muffins rather than the cake. They baked up light, fluffy, and moist. They taste great with the cinnamon sugar on top.

Oddly, the picture on the front shows the use of paper cupcake cups, but the directions specify using a greased muffin tin--i.e., without paper cups. I opted to follow the photo rather than the directions, and it was probably a mistake, because the one problem I had in eating the muffins was how they stuck to the paper. Next time, I'll skip them.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes.

Trader Joe's Baked Churro Bites

My only previous life experience with churros is the Trader Joe's Mini Cinnamon Sugar Churros. These new "bites" are nothing like those, except in having a strong cinnamon-sugar flavor. What they remind me of most is cinnamon toast--heavy on the sweetened cinnamon. I like them, but it's purely because of that flavored coating, not because of what lies under it.

My understanding is that traditional churros are fried dough, not baked corn puffs. It seems to me that they've named this wrong. I would have called them "Cinnamon Toast Nuggets." That would be both more accurate than "churros" and, I think, more appealing.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes.

Trader Joe's Organic Frosted Toaster Pastries--Brown Sugar & Cinnamon

I had high hopes for this, given the Top Ten status of the cherry-pomegranate version. But these are actually the least successful of the five in this line (the others being strawberry and pumpkin). Too much brown sugar, not enough cinnamon--and, as a result, just too sugary.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Mini Cinnamon Sugar Churros

This is day 11 of an extended New Products Week. 


This is a brand-new product; see Trader Joe's description of it here. They're just deep-fried dough with a packet of cinnamon sugar to be added by the user after the churros have been heated.

I've never had churros before, though I've had plenty of other similar pastries consisting of fried dough with cinnamon sugar, usually under the name of "elephant's ears." But the shape of these churros isn't flat and thin like those, so the center is soft rather than crisp. I thought that worked to their detriment.

At first I thought the suggested serving of 10 was excessive, but it turned out to be just right. They're small; each one is less than two bites.

They seemed a little undercooked with the recommended 6-7 minutes at 425 degrees. For the next batch, I'm going to try 9-10 minutes and see what happens.

The enclosed package of cinnamon sugar badly needs a resealable closure, like the main bag has.

Overall, pretty good, but not great.


Will I buy it again? 

I don't think so.

Trader Joe's Apple Cinnamon Goat Cheese

I like cheese. I like apples. I like cinnamon. The question is, will I like them together?

The answer: Not so much.

As you can see from the photo, this extremely unusual cheese has big chunks of apple coated all over the outside of the cheese. The apple chunks are cooked to softness and held together with some sort of sweet, sticky, cinnamon sauce.

There are mechanical problems: It's hard to slice the cheese because of the chunks of apple getting in the way, so you end up knocking them off, which defeats the purposes. You have to either use really large crackers (Some Enchanted Crackers are big enough), or cut the slices into quarters. The whole thing is kind of a sticky mess.

Then there are taste problems: The cinnamon-apple combination is so sweet and strong that the underlying cheese is completely overwhelmed. It's the same problem I had with the cinnamon-Toscano cheese, except made even worse by the additional presence of the apples and their sweet binding sauce.

It's definitely interesting and different from any other cheese I've had before. If you're at a party over the holidays and the host has a cheese sampling tray where this is one of the options, by all means give it a try, because there's probably nothing else like it anywhere. But after curiosity is satisfied, I don't think this is worth having.

Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's British Style Crumpets--Cinnamon

You can see at a glance that these are basically the same as TJ's plain crumpets, but with a little cinnamon added. So see that earlier review, imagine the same thing with a medium helping of cinnamon, and you'll know what to expect here.

They're good. The dose of cinnamon is about right. But even though I'm generally a fan of cinnamon, I finally decided that it doesn't work especially well here. I prefer the plain version.

Other views 

What's Good at Trader Joe's blog: "At $2.49 for six, this product is simply brill. Sonia gives them 4.5 stars, and I give 'em 4. Really, really darn good. Bottom line: 8.5 out of 10."

Rebe with a Clause blog: "I had my first one this morning and I'm in love." 

Shannon's Lightening the Load blog: "The cinnamon flavor is very mild, it just kind of lingers in the background – it is no where a “BAM! Cinnamon” flavor. I enjoyed them warm and slightly crisped out of the toaster, spritzed with spray butter. I found they were yummy and simple in this manner."

Will I buy it again? 

Probably not, but only because I liked the plain ones better.

Trader Joe's Old-Fashioned Cinnamon Grahams

It's been many years since I bought graham crackers, but boy oh boy did I ever love them when I was growing up. So when I spotted this tub on the TJ's shelf, my reaction was a rush of ecstasy: nostalgia combined with my love of cinnamon. I anticipated an improvement on perfection.

I should have known: it's impossible to improve on perfection, by definition. I was underwhelmed by these cookies. The cinnamon was tepid, and seemed to conflict with the underlying graham, rather than enhance it. Overall I didn't mind them, but every single one that went in my mouth felt like a disappointment compared to what I thought this combination ought to be.

And one serious gripe: This tub was horrible to open. It wasn't just the first time, but every damn time! It took me probably eight or ten sittings to finish up the cookies, and I never got the lid off in less than a minute. It just doesn't budge. It's fundamentally different in design from the many superficially similar tubs I've had from TJ's before, with various cookies and candies in them. I can't remember any TJ's container that has proven so stubborn to open repeatedly. A pox on that.

Will I buy it again? 

Sadly, no.

Trader Joe's Cinnamon Apple Snack Sticks

This is exactly the sort of unusual, never-heard-of-it-before product that is found in every nook and cranny of a Trader Joe's store, but nearly impossible to find anywhere else. I really had no idea what to expect when I spotted this bag and decided to give it a try.

The sticks are made out of a multigrain mix combined with apple puree. Besides the apple, I can detect only rice in them. Imagine apple-flavored rice cakes, and you'll be pretty close. Then there's a light dusting of cinnamon and sugar. The sugar portion is blessedly light--only 4 grams out of a 28-gram serving. The cinnamon is just right, complementing the apple without overpowering it.

I liked these--not enough that they're going to be a favorite, but they're a light, crunchy, pleasant little snack. I find that after a handful or two I've reached my saturation point of apple and cinnamon, which produces an auto-limiting effect. Unlike, say, TJ's caramel popcorn, which I tend to continue eating until the ambulance arrives to take me to the ER for a stomach pumping.

Will I buy it again? 

Yes, occasionally.

Nina's View

I like these too. They go great with applesauce.

Trader Joe's Cinnamon Sugar Grinder

I know, I know. It's cinnamon and sugar. I could buy them separately (in fact, I have both on my shelves anyway), mix them together, and be good to go for a lot less money. But I don't. Actually setting aside time to find the right kind of container--one with a hole for pouring the resultant mixture--and look up the right ratio and then get it all shaken up well...it just doesn't happen. Which is kind of strange, because I remember when I was a kid, my dad would put the cinnamon and sugar in an old jelly jar, and I thought it was great fun to get to be the one to roll and shake the jar until it was all smoothly blended together. Ah, the small joys of childhood. Sunrise, sunset, swiftly fly the years.

Anyway, I keep having good intentions along those lines, but no actual results. It has always been easier to grab "just one more" pre-mixed concoction from the grocery store, while promising myself, yet again, that I'll do the mix-and-shake thing next time I'm out. Here's the one I have on hand right now, for instance:

So that's what Trader Joe's is up against with their mixture in a grinder. Why a grinder? Because the sugar and cinnamon are in large crystals inside. Here's a close-up:

(OK, so cinnamon technically doesn't come in crystals. Whatever.)

Which seems cool and maybe a little artsy-fartsy. Until you actually put it into use. Then, not so much. Then it feels slow and seems like unnecessary work, when you just want to get to eating the hot buttered toast already. Also, it comes out a lot more unevenly than the McCormick:

It's kind of messy, hard to drop the mixture into a nice, even layer across the toast. And even after a pass through the grinder (which is built into the container), you end up with fairly large sugar crystals.

I've gone through this for about a dozen breakfasts now, and I'm not getting any more fond of either the process or the result. I thought it might grow on me, or I'd find a technique that made it come out better.

Nope.

Will I buy it again? 

Nope.

Trader Joe's Creamy Toscano Cheese Dusted With Cinnamon

Again I went to the cheese case at TJ's and just looked until I found something that looked interesting. I didn't even realize that this is considered a seasonal item until I saw in the Fearless Flyer that it is available only in the fall.

I didn't know what Toscano cheese was. You can learn what I did here. I liked the cheese itself--very rich, more buttery in flavor than any other cheese I can remember.

Two things about it don't work for me. First, the texture is crumbly, making it impossible to cut thin slices. It just breaks up into irregular chunks.

Second, the cinnamon. I would have thought that cinnamon makes everything better. Now I would modify that: cinnamon makes everything better, except for cheese. These two tastes just don't play nicely together. However, I'll admit that when Nina and I tried some atop TJ's Pumpkin Cranberry Crisps, the combination was quite nice, with all sorts of flavors going on all at once, in kind of a gustatory symphony. On a blander cracker, though, or eaten alone, I keep wanting to strip the cinnamon away from what is otherwise a delicious cheese. You can't do that, by the way, just by cutting off the outer layer; the cinnamon is dusted on before aging, and it infuses itself all the way through.

Will I buy it again? 

Not in this form. But poking around the web, I see that TJ's sells (or at least has sold in the past; I'm not sure if they still do) the same cheese in two other forms: dusted in black pepper, and soaked in Syrah (Shiraz). I'd be happy to try both of those, as I imagine either flavor would work better with the cheese than cinnamon does.

Nina's View

I liked this more than Bob did. The sweetness of the cinnamon made for a nice balance with the cheesiness of the cheese. And yeah, with the Pumpkin Cranberry Crisps: fantastic.

Trader Joe's Meditation Upon A Cinnamon Broom

To understand the reference in the name of this unusual item, see here.

You might wonder why I bought this thing. So do I. All I can say is that I saw a display of them at the store and thought, "Well, that's different!"

Actually using this as a broom, as shown in the illustration on the wrapping, is an absurd proposition. The ultra-dry twigs (pine, I believe) crumble with the lightest touch. Try sweeping with it, and you'll leave behind a far bigger mess than you were trying to clean up.

So what do you do with it? I asked the cashier at TJ's that very question as she rang up the purchase. She said, "You can hang it on your door as a decoration."

Excellent idea--except for one thing. The smell is so strong that I find I can't bring myself to inflict it on my fellow apartment dwellers, which rules out putting it on the outside of the door (i.e., in the common area). On the inside of the door, I'm afraid it will make a horrendous mess as it falls apart with the movement of the door.

But I do enjoy the scent. As far as I can tell, however, it's not so much cinnamon as clove. Good thing I like both. (EDIT: Looking more closely at the list of ingredients, I see that TJ's is claiming it's nothing but pine and cinnamon. No cloves. Coulda fooled me.) You can't imagine how powerful the scent is from examining the item in the store, because it doesn't really let loose until you unwrap it. It's so strong that it had Nina's nose stuffed up and runny, and I had to banish it to a back bedroom for the duration of her visit. I let it out again after she left, on the grounds that overpowering cinnamon is better than Eau de Bachelor Pad avec Chat.

I just leave it standing in a corner, smelling nice. I had worried that the cat might shred it, but she keeps her distance. I imagine that the odor is completely repugnant to her super-sensitive sense of smell.

Will I buy it again? 

No. I satisfied my curiosity fully with one of them.

Nina's View

I think my nasal distress is a pretty good predictor of how I feel about this thing. I strongly prefer Eau de Bachelor et Chat. It doesn't even smell *real.* It smells artificially enhanced, somehow.

Hang it on your door one night for Halloween to scare away the trick-or-treaters, if you must. Then throw it away.

Trader Joe's Pear Cinnamon Cider

This isn't complicated. You pretty much know from the name of this product whether you're going to like it.

I like pears. I like cinnamon. Ergo, I was virtually certain to like a cider made from pears and cinnamon--plus some apple juice thrown in. (What makes it cider instead of juice? It's the use of unfiltered juices.)

Yummy.

Will I buy it again? 

Unlike many of the TJ's autumnal products, this is one I will genuinely look forward to again next year.

Nina's View

This is pretty good. Except TOO MUCH APPLE JUICE (i.e., too sweet). If I were to buy it (which I won't), I'd probably squeeze a little lemon or lime juice in it to cut back on the sweetness. I could also use with a touch less cinnamon.