Roundup

This is the weekly compilation of news and other links related to Trader Joe's.


Trader Joe's employee unofficial glossary of terms 

Actually, that whole site is the memoirs of a former TJ's employee: http://www.checkoutgirl.org/

What I learned in the wine aisle at Trader Joe's 

Shopping at Trader Joe's for gluten-free products 

Did you know that Trader Joe's has a xylophone built into every shopping cart? (Vine video)

Is Trader Joe's violating Idaho wine-distribution laws? 

Best Trader Joe's summer 2015 wine deals 

10 more Trader Joe's items you didn't know you needed 

Schools should be more like Trader Joe's 

How to enjoy Trader Joe's 

Note: That last piece is in Japanese. If you're using the Chrome browser, just click the "translate" button. Then you can read excellent prose like this: "It is very thankfully for Bebi-chan who do not sit in the waist." "And Some people are not handed me until say that (laughs) and candy look to the left, we got to find a stuffed toy." "Children fun, parents survive. It is exactly kill two birds with one stone of shopping." (Maybe it's just me, but I think Google Translate still has a ways to go.)

Here's this week's YouTube video from "Trader Joe":




Best tweets of the week:

1.

And finally, here's this week's cute cat in a Trader Joe's grocery bag:

Trader Joe's Strawberries (frozen)

These are exactly as I expected them to be: large, plump, tasty. You just pour out whatever portion of frozen berries you'd like, give them about an hour to thaw, and eat. Yummy, and a bargain at $1.79 per package. Of course they're never going to be as good as the best fresh berries, but you can't keep fresh ones on hand all the time for those occasions when the strawberry urge hits, so these make a nice second-best option.

Will I buy it again? 

Definitely.

Trader Joe's Wisconsin Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese

This cheese was strange. Compared to the many other white cheddars I've had, it was strikingly lacking in flavor--and what flavor it did have was tainted by an unpleasant bitter note.

To make matters worse, it developed mold much more quickly than it should have. I have not noticed this being a problem before with other TJ's cheeses, though it seems to be a common complaint; see many comments here, for instance.

Will I buy it again? 

Nosirree me.

Trader Joe's Reduced Guilt Pita Chips With Sea Salt

This may be the first product in my life for which I think the reduced-fat version is just as good as the original. They are tasty, crispy, and strong enough to pick up whatever you might want to dip them in. I did not taste-test them side-by-side with the regular version, but I enjoyed them every bit as much as I remember enjoying the originals.

This is a winner.

Will I buy it again? 

Yes.

Trader Joe's Pita Chips With Sea Salt

These chips are a little dry, as you might infer from the boast that they have 50% less fat than potato chips. They definitely have more of a bready flavor than potato chips. They are really substantial--thick and strong, easily able to stand up to the densest hummus or other dip you might want to scoop up with them.

EDIT: I have bought them again since writing that and found it not to be true. In fact, they consistently and annoying broke off in the dense hummus that I like. I suspect this was batch-to-batch variation in the thickness of the chips. With only those two samples, I don't know which was the norm and which the anomaly.

I liked them. They'll never replace potato chips as the mainstay for snacking, or tortilla chips as the mainstay for dipping, but they're a nice change of pace. I do wish the package were bigger, though.

Will I buy it again? 

Yes--and there are other pita chip variants at TJ's that I want to try, too.

Trader Joe's Green Dragon Hot Sauce

This is a new product from Trader Joe's. The company's own description of this sauce is here.

First, a confession: I'm one of the worst people you could choose to write a thoughtful review of a hot sauce. I had never in my life either bought or used a hot sauce until I moved to Asheville 2 1/2 years ago. When I started having Nina over for dinner regularly, she requested that I buy some sriracha sauce for her to use. I did--but it was some off-brand, since I assumed they were all alike. Nina quickly but gently set me right on that point, and I soon bought her a bottle of the good stuff, the rooster sauce made by Huy Fong Foods. I have used a bit of it on occasion, when Nina breaks it out, but I've only used it once or twice on my own, and that has been when some Trader Joe's product turns out to be inedibly bland, and I'm trying to save it from being thrown away uneaten. See here, for instance. I do like it, but only occasionally, and only in tiny quantities.

All of which means that I have an incredibly limited repertoire of experience with hot sauces. I don't think I've ever even tasted Tabasco. So with that disclaimer....

Last night Nina was here for our weekly dinner. I made scrambled eggs, which I figured would make a nice neutral substrate on which to test this new TJ's sauce against the king of the hill, the rooster. I made a little squirt of each onto opposite sides of my plate, and alternated which I dipped a bite of egg into.

On the most basic level, the results are easy to describe: I liked the sriracha, I did not like the green sauce. I found them approximately equal in sheer heat factor. Beyond that, I'm basically incompetent to explain why. I probably just don't like the flavor of jalapenos much, and that's the major component of the TJ's stuff.

So this is the point at which I turn the microphone over to the reviewer with the far more experienced and discerning palate.

Will I buy it again? 

No.


Nina’s View

The sauce of green, it is tasty. And it is named after a dragon, which can also only be good.

In order to enjoy this, you must actively like 1) jalapeños (the real deal with some kick) and 2) cilantro. And as luck would have it, I do. Bob, not so much. In fact I’m willing to wager that it’s not so much the jalapeños that he dislikes in this sauce, but the cilantro.


I can think of many uses for this stuff: adding zip to a salad dressing, zinging up a taco, adding zest to a cole slaw, blending with rice and peas for a kicky pilaf, etc. I’m happy to give it a spot on the condiment shelf in my fridge.

Trader Joe's Apple Banana Fruit Sauce Crushers

This is hands-down the worst applesauce I have ever eaten. It is mushed so fine that its mouth-feel is that of baby food--no longer a puree, but a thickened liquid. The banana part tastes as if synthetic chemicals, rather than actual banana, have been added for flavoring. (That isn't actually so, but that's how artificial it tastes.) The pouches are an absurd way to deliver applesauce, besides being ridiculously unecologically sound.

I get that it's meant for kids, not adults. But this is not what you should be teaching your children to expect from applesauce.

It's one of the most appallingly bad products I've bought from Trader Joe's. It's a shoo-in to the Bottom Ten list.

Will I buy it again? 

No--nor any of the other three (I think) similar versions with different fruit combinations. If they were even mediocre, I might try the others just for the sake of broadening the scope of these blog reviews. But that's not sufficient motivation to get me to spend more money on something this wretched.