Trader Joe's Gluten Free Oat Cranberry Flax Seed Cookies

This is a new product; see the company's own description of it here.

I didn't hold out much hope for this. Trader Joe's gluten-free cookies have been an ongoing source of disappointment. (See here for all of them.) And "flax seed" doesn't exactly make my mouth water with memories of Mom's homemade.

But the first one was not as bad as I had anticipated. The second seemed even better. Mind you, I don't love them the crazy way that the good folks at the What's Good at Trader Joe's blog do, with their perfect 10 score. But after Nina had two, and decided that that was enough, I happily finished off the rest.

The cranberries are heavily sweetened, to the point that it's hard to recognize them as such. I think the cookies would be better if the berries were left with more tartness, as a point of contrast.

Strangely, the saving grace is one of the last ingredients listed, and one that didn't make it into the product title: cinnamon. I think that without that, these would be pretty lifeless.

Really, TJ's--we need to have a talk about packaging. A plastic box to throw on the landfill, just to hold six cookies? Seriously?


Will I buy it again? 

No. They're OK, but with so many truly great cookies in the world, I won't settle for just "OK."

Trader Joe's Gluten Free Crispy Crunchy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

This is the third in the "gluten-free, crispy-crunchy cookie" product line, following the Ginger Chunk and Chocolate Chip versions. My feeling about them is about the same as for those varieties: They're OK, and perhaps a godsend if you really need to avoid gluten, but not as good as standard cookies. On my personal preference scale, they're roughly tied with the chocolate chip, not as nice as the ginger chunk.


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 Carrot Ginger Oat Bran Muffins

Muffins are only a tiny, rare part of my diet. I bought these purely because I noticed them sitting in the store and found the name intriguing. Who puts ginger in oat bran muffins? Trader Joe's--that's who.

The ginger is noticeable from the get-to. It adds what I'd call a brightness to the otherwise fairly bland and dull background of oats and oat bran. The carrots, however, are more to be seen than tasted, and they're in the unattractive form of long, limp shavings. They could be left out with no loss, and perhaps some improvement.

Look closely at the label and notice what a scam TJ's is pulling with the nutrition information. Four muffins in a container, but a claimed eight servings. That's right--Trader Joe's is trying to get away with claiming that a serving size is half a muffin, which is akin to Frito-Lay claiming a serving size of one Lay's potato chip. When you mentally correct for that obviously deliberate bit of deception, you find that each muffin here packs 300 calories, 70 of which come from fat. I'm assuming that's the canola oil at work, since I see no other meaningful fat source among the ingredients.

Will I buy it again? 

Probably not. I liked them, but not so much that I'm suddenly going to become a regular muffin man. And those fat and calorie counts make me worry about turning muffins into a muffin top of my own.

Nina's View

Oh hells no.

Gummy. Nasty not-quite-cooked oatmeal texture. Heavy like lead.

To be completely fair, they were day-old (or more) by the time I sampled mine. But even if I extrapolate backward and subtract some sogginess and staleness, it still adds up to a big fat NOPE.

It does make me challenged to make some very yummy ginger-carrot-oatmeal muffins that don't suck. But I try to do as little baking as possible when it's 90ºF out.

Trader Joe's Druid Circles Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I admit it--I'm a sucker for Trader Joe's peculiar product names. My mindset these days, what with a daily blog to put out and all, is to buy anything at TJ's that even remotely interests me, and a quirky, out-of-left-field product name is one easy way to spark such interest. I saw somebody mention TJ's "Druid Circles" cookies on Twitter, and instantly knew that I had to find out what they were. I did, after all, just last year finally see the mother of all druid circles.* (See photos on my other blog, here.)

I had trouble finding these at the store. I wandered up and down the cookie aisle several times before finally surrendering and asking at the information desk. The guy there escorted me to the display of fresh-baked goods, which is in a different part of the store from the boxed cookies. He said that the fresh-baked varieties come in new every day, unlike the boxed ones. Well, alrighty then!

There's no difficulty telling that these differ fundamentally from boxed cookies--far more moist and chewy. How do they taste? Pretty good.

However. Over the past year I have been spoiled by having found a local neighborhood bakery--Geraldine's--that makes the most fabulous oatmeal-raisin cookies it has ever been my pleasure to devour. TJ's just has no prayer of competing with them, no matter what they do. It is probably unfair to expect them to.

So I guess I would say that the Druids have here produced one of the best mass-marketed oatmeal-raisin cookies I've had, but I won't be buying them again, because a mile up the road I can get something far, far better.

Sorry, Trader Joe's.

Will I buy it again? 

No.



*Yes, I know that the old theory about Druids building Stonehenge was discredited long ago. But it's not really any fun talking about neolithics, is it? Would you buy cookies called "Neolithic Circle Cookies"? No, of course you wouldn't. They sound gross. Druids are infinitely more fun than neolithics.