I first heard about this product on the "What's Good at Trader Joe's" blog, here. It was elevated into their rare "pantheon" status, reserved for the very few, very best TJ's products: "It still gets 4.5 big stars from me. Sonia gives it a perfect 5. Don't take our word for it. Wait for the spring/summer if you must, but this is a product that needs to be tasted to be believed." That sounded like something I needed to try. Immediately. So I did.
It is pretty darn good, though I didn't love it as much as other reviewers. It's amazingly smooth and creamy. The flavor reminded me strongly of those Kraft caramel cubes wrapped in plastic that I used to get by the handful at Halloween when I was a kid--with a little salt added. Speaking of which: I'm not a big fan of mixing salt in with candy and other sweets, but here the salt component is so muted that it doesn't bother me at all.
This is exactly the sort of oddball yet delicious product that I love Trader Joe's for. Yeah, I'm sure some other company somewhere makes something similar. But if for whatever reason you suddenly thought that you'd like some salted caramel gelato, and you had to guess which grocery store was most likely to have such a weird thing, you would just know that TJ's was your best bet, right? And as icing on the cake, even if you could manage to find such a thing somewhere else, it's unlikely that another store could beat the TJ's price (which in this case is $4.99).
Will I buy it again?
Despite liking it, the answer is probably no. But that's only because it's so rich that a single scoop is about all I can manage at a time, and therefore a quart is much too much; I'll get tired of eating it long before it's gone. Now, if they came out with a pint-sized container, that could get me to buy it more often.
Nina's View
So so so so so sweet. And rich. And sweet. And really really rich.
Bob is correct, it is too much of a muchness. If they would swirl this
together with a high-quality vanilla, you might have a winner.
More expensive per ounce, but Talenti's is the amazing original mass market version and does come in pints: http://www.talentigelato.com/products/sea-salt-caramel
ReplyDeleteHaven't had the TJ's one to know how they compare. Still sad that TJ's apparently discontinued the blueberry pom sherbet just before I finally had the freezer space for it and started looking for it.
That blueberry pom sherbet was delicious. I admittedly grabbed the last one at my local TJ's when I noticed there was only one left and asked if it was being discontinued ;-)
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