Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Filled With Speculoos Cookie Spread

This is my first encounter with the much-heralded Speculoos cookie spread in any of its several forms. I now get why it's called "cookie spread": it tastes a lot like cookie dough. I'm still fuzzy on the "Speculoos" part, though.

It works well enough as a chocolate filling--rather like nougat. But it's so mild that I had to scoop some out and taste it separately from the chocolate in order to discern the cookie-like flavor. Certainly nothing about the experience explained to me why people go ga-ga over Speculoos. Perhaps use as a chocolate bar filler does not show it off to best advantage.


Will I buy it again? 

I won't rule it out completely, but I'm inclined not to. I enjoy so many other chocolate things more than these that they probably won't make the cut in the future.

Trader Joe's Mini Vanilla & Chocolate Cupcakes

These are exactly what you'd expect from looking at them--tiny, one- or two-bite vanilla and chocolate cupcakes. They're typical of mass-produced commercial cupcakes in flavor and texture. Which means that they're OK, but nothing special or memorable. It's hard to see any advantage in eating three or four of these instead of one regularly sized cupcake.


Will I buy them again? 

No. If I really want a good cupcake, I have a nice neighborhood bakery to go to.


Addendum 

As you can tell from the date on the package in the photo above, this is a post I wrote a long time ago. Apparently it's one that got bumped to make way for a review of a brand-new item, so the delay between writing and publishing was even longer than usual. Keen readers may notice that I did, in fact, essentially buy this again when I purchased the very similar Halloween version, reviewed here. What's more, I said that I would buy them again. So I'm confused and inconsistent.

Trader Joe's Milk Chocolate S'mashing S'mores With Graham Cracker And Marshmallow

They're just what you'd expect--a reasonably convincing recreation of the traditional camping treat, without the mess. And, yes, they're good. I did not try microwaving them, because then I would no longer have the "without the mess" part. But I liked them even lacking the customary warmth.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes. They're not my favorite of the plethora of TJ's chocolate-coated-everything, but they're worth a revisit every now and then.

Trader Joe's Organic Brown Rice Pasta Fusilli

The first time I ever heard of fusilli pasta was in an episode of Seinfeld:





This means that I can't hear about fusilli without thinking (1) that's it's silly, and (2) of the unfortunate place that Fusilli Jerry ended up at the conclusion of that episode. "Million to one shot, Doc. Million to one shot."

But that aside, how is this particular form of fusilli? Not as good as regular wheat pasta, but not as bad as you might expect brown-rice pasta to be. Put some good sauce and your favorite crumbly protein source on it, and you probably won't even notice that it's anything out of the ordinary. Were one to need to live gluten-free, this is one substitution that could be made quite painlessly.


Will I buy it again? 

I doubt it. Regular pastas are cheaper, tastier, and have a wider margin of error for proper cooking.

Villa Italia soda

No point in wasting time here: These are the best sodas I have ever had. They are both blow-you-away good. I can't decide which is #1 and which is #2. Whichever one I'm drinking at the moment is my favorite.

Both are going on my Top Ten list.

The only problem with them is that they are expensive, as soda goes: $2.99 for a 1-liter bottle. Which means that they can't be an every-day drink. But for an occasional treat, there's nothing better.


Will I buy it again? 

Silly question.

Nina's View

What Bob said. Very good. 

Trader Joe's Low Fat Sprouted Whole Wheat Fiber Bread

Once again, I had to make a difficult editorial decision about what the name of the product actually is. It looks like "100% Whole Wheat" should be part of it, but then you end up with "whole wheat" twice, which sounds weird.

Anyway, this is superior bread, despite my initial misgivings. I wasn't thrilled about the presence of raisins and dates. I like raisins, but if they're in bread it should be with cinnamon, and then the bread's no good for things like peanut butter sandwiches. And I don't much care for dates--except, of course, those that I have with Nina. (Sorry, but I've got to try to rack up the boyfriend points where I can.) Here, though, both elements are minced so fine that I got through the whole loaf without ever detecting them. They seem to contribute more to a general chewiness than flavor per se.

I think this stuff is nearly as good as the best TJ's bread, the odd but wonderful Flourless Sprouted Whole Wheat Berry Bread. In fact, going just by memory, I'd have a hard time telling the two apart. Perhaps I should do a side-by-side comparison at some point. In the meantime, go try either of the two for yourself.


Will I buy it again? 

Yep.

Trader Joe's Italian Capellini

This is perfectly ordinary angel-hair pasta, as good as but not better than any other.


Will I buy it again? 

Sure, if I'm at TJ's when I need such a thing. Or I'll buy an equivalent product elsewhere if that's where I am. It doesn't matter.