Trader Joe's Strawberries

Ordinary, average, unremarkable grocery-store fresh strawberries. Not great, not terrible--just adequate.

Much less flavorful than Trader Joe's Organic Strawberries, at least on the basis of one sample of each.


Will I buy them again? 

Not if the organic ones are available.

Verry Cherry Plums

I'm not sure if these are an actual hybrid of plums and cherries, or just plums that have been selectively cultivated for a cherry-like flavor. But however they were made, I think they're excellent. Now, the cherry thing is a bit oversold; it's subtle, not front and center. But it is definitely present.

Every single plum in this container was perfectly ripe, sweet, and fully flavorful--not a bad one in the bunch--which is rare for produce, especially (forgive me) at Trader Joe's.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes, eagerly.

Trader Joe's Rainbow Pears

These are ordinary pears, distinguished only by having a variety of colors. As far as I could tell, the color of the skin was unconnected with any distinguishing flavor of the underlying fruit.

Most were good; none were excellent. Only one was mealy in texture. A couple ended up going overripe and mushy before I could get around to eating them. (A man can eat only so many pears.)


Will I buy it again? 

No. It's just too many for me. A few at a time is better than a big bag.

Trader Joe's Vacuum Dried Crunchy Red Dragon Fruit Chips

I've never eaten dragon fruit. It's a weird, scary-looking thing. Fortunately, the dried chips made from it are much less intimidating. They're still plenty strange, but at least they don't look, I dunno, lethal. Just looking at them, I would guess them to be some sort of red corn chips with maybe chia seeds--like a new variation of these chips. But nope--that would be way off.

The texture really is--as the name implies--like chips. The flavor is hard to describe, other than being obviously fruity. I found it to be sort of halfway between cherry and strawberry, but with an element unlike either of them. Not unpleasant at all. And, oddly, seeming familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.


Will I buy it again? 

No. But it's definitely worth trying once just for the new experience.

Trader Joe's Freeze Dried Red Seedless Grape Slices

These are a trip to eat. Sliced grapes--but they crunch when you bite them and disintegrate into grape-flavored powder. It kind of plays with your brain, because the texture is so foreign to what your whole life's experience tells you to expect from a grape.

They're extremely sweet. Which makes sense--because grapes are almost all water and sugar, so when you take away the water, guess what's left?


Will I buy it again? 

No. But I strongly recommend trying it once just for the new experience of it.

Trader Joe's Sliced Fresh Gold Pineapple Spears

This is an improvement on Trader Joe's previous attempt to sell fresh pineapple slices as rings. You get two more ounces for the same price ($3.49), I think the spears are easier to eat than the rings, and, at least in this sample, the fruit was sweeter and better-tasting.


Will I buy it again? 

Probably not. As mentioned in the review of the rings, other grocery stores sell fresh pineapple that I have found to be consistently better quality for less money.

Trader Joe's Sweetened Dried Lemon Slices

Until I saw this on the new-products shelf, I had no idea that dried lemon slices were a thing. I guess it shouldn't have surprised me, though; why wouldn't they give basically the same treatment to lemons that they did to Mandarin oranges?

You're supposed to eat them rind and all--so I did. It's an interesting experience, but not especially in a good way. It's startling how sweet they've made them. The "interesting" part of tasting them is the contrast between what your life experience tells you to expect when biting into a lemon, and what you get here.

I thought they were way too sweet to enjoy. Nina, conversely, liked them a lot. (Long-time readers will note that this is a reversal of our traditional positions with respect to sweetness.) But we both agreed that it would be a much better product if TJ's cut back the added sugar by about half.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Just Mango Slices

Eating this reminded me of that famous scene of Charlie Chaplin eating his shoe. Don't buy it. If you want straight dried mango, the Chokanan variety reviewed yesterday is better--sweeter and less leathery tough. And the Carabao variety is even better than that.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Mango Chokanan Variety

I don't know from mango varieties. But what's in this package is exactly what I would expect from the generic descriptor, "dried mango." It's like the texture of most dried fruit--tough, chewy, leathery. And it tastes like moderately concentrated mango.


Will I buy it again? 

I doubt it. Though they were unconventional, I liked both the crispy-crunchy and the freeze-dried better than this.

Trader Joe's California Persimmons

Yuck. These are dried, tough, cardboard disks, sprayed with the lightest, vaguest hint of essence of persimmon. Or at least that's how they seem. A major disservice to persimmons.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Apple Mango Dried Fruit Bar

This is the last of the four versions of this product. Sadly, it's also the least enjoyable. As with the apricot, the balance is off--but even more so. I had to concentrate hard to find any mango here. It was just apple apple apple. This isn't an intrinsically terrible thing; I'd buy a "dried apple bar." But it's not what the wrapper promises.


Will I buy it again? 

In spite of my griping, yes. I don't like this or the apricot varieties as much as the strawberry and raspberry, but I'll keep them all coming home with me.

Trader Joe's Apple Apricot Dried Fruit Bar

I adore apricots, so I had predicted that this would be my favorite of the four versions of Trader Joe's Dried Fruit Bars.

It wasn't. I like it just fine, but didn't love it. There's just too much apple and not enough apricot.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes. I think I'll still get all four of them in equal numbers, for the sake of variety.

Trader Joe's Apple Raspberry Dried Fruit Bar

This is just like the apple-strawberry version, but with raspberry.

Because of that, I should like it better; raspberry beats strawberry as a general rule. But for reasons I can't articulate, I thought it wasn't quite as good. Close, though.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes. I'll be happy to keep both on hand.

Trader Joe's Apple Strawberry Dried Fruit Bar

This is like "fruit leather," but made only from dried fruit--nothing added except ascorbic acid (vitamin C). No extra sugar, gums, etc.

And it's delicious.


Will I buy it again? 

Definitely. This is going to become a staple that I keep around all the time for snacking.

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 California Slab Apricots Blenheim Variety

I believe this is a new product for Trader Joe's, though I didn't find it on the new-products shelf. I think I would have noticed it before now if it had been around for long.

It took me a while to convince myself that this actually is a different product from an extremely similar one that I buy regularly--one of my Top Ten items--Blenheim Variety Extra Choice/Choice Apricots. Both packages are dried apricots, same weight, same variety, same price, both grown in California. They look alike.

I had never heard of "slab apricots," but later found this explanation: "All the old-timers know that slabs are the extra-ripe, fullest-of-sweetness kind of dried apricot. Usually hand-cut and when placed on a tray to dry, they lose their shape and "slab" out on the tray. Often compared to fruit leather, slabs are the sweetest, most intense flavor of our dried Blenheim apricot."

So, are these indeed the sweetest dried apricots, with the most intense flavor? No--at least not more than the others. I bought a bag of each, opened both, and alternated samples from the two bags. I could not tell any difference in size, shape, color, texture, flavor, or sweetness, even after repeating the experiment for five nights in a row. If you put a gun to my head and forced me to choose which bag carried which label, I'd still be reduced to a pure 50/50 guess.


Will I buy it again? 

Sure. The other kind is one of the rare TJ's items that is both a Top Ten and a staple in my kitchen. Since these are functionally identical, they merit the same status. I'll choose randomly between them for future purchases.


Bonus personal story

In 2014, I was one of six members of my family to go on a two-week guided tour of the British Isles. I brought along a bunch of snacks to eat on the motor coach between stops, including some of TJ's Blenheim variety dried apricots.

Shortly after we left Oxford, heading for Stratford Upon Avon, I started seeing signs for "Blenheim Palace" ahead. I recognized the name because I had wondered what "Blenheim" on the apricot package referred to, but had never bothered to look it up. Well, it turns out that Blenheim Palace is where Winston Churchill was born and raised, and this variety of apricot is named for that palace because they thrived on the grounds there.

So I had accidentally taken some Blenheim apricots back to the very place for which they were named!

Trader Joe's Supersweet Dried Carabao Mango

I'll make this simple: This is the best way to eat mangoes ever devised by mankind.

First, there's no fuss with cutting them.

Second, these really are sweeter than regular mangoes and have virtually none of that slightly bitter mango off-taste. And no, they have not been artificially sweetened. In fact, the ingredients list on the back is maybe the shortest I've ever seen: "Mangoes."

Third, they're sliced very thin, so you can eat a lot--or at least have the illusion of eating a lot--without a big calorie load.

Fourth, they're more "dried" than dried; that is, they're sort of partially dried. More like prunes than dried apricots.

I like these a lot--far more than I like eating fresh mangoes. It's one of Trader Joe's very best dried-fruit products--and I've had a lot of them.


Will I buy it again? 

I already have, and will again. I don't think they're quite Top Ten material, but the fact that I had to stop to consider conferring that status suggests that they're pretty damn good.

Trader Joe's Cara Cara Navel Oranges

I picked this up because I was intrigued by the teaser on the bag: "I'm an orange, but I'm pink."

And they kinda are, on the inside. Not as pink as pink grapefruit, not as dark red as blood oranges, but definitely pinker than standard oranges.

Incidentally, "Cara Cara" is a variety name, not a Trader Joe's thing. See Wikipedia, here.

I've had four of these now. In terms of flavor, one was outstanding. One was quite poor. Two were pretty average. All were admirably juicy.


Will I buy it again? 

No. It was an interesting experiment, but other than the novelty of the color, I'm not seeing any compelling reason to choose these over more typical varieties.

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 Mandarin Oranges

I used to eat canned Mandarin oranges a lot when I was young--usually Three Diamond brand, I think. These from Trader Joe's seem identical to my memory of those. Maybe the syrup is a little less sweet, or maybe that's just my imagination working, as prompted by the "light syrup" on the label.


Will I buy it again? 

I doubt it. It had been at least 20 years since I had bought any canned Mandarin oranges before this. They're OK, but when I get a yen for something snacky, it's never this. But if I did suddenly develop such an urge, or needed Mandarin oranges for a recipe, these would do as well as any others.