Trader Joe's Apple Cider Donuts

I'm torn about these.

On the one hand, they're surprisingly good cake donuts, given that they're packaged and shipped to stores, rather than sold fresh where they were just made. They have a nice amount of cinnamon-sugar coating. They are the best store-bought cake donuts I've ever encountered.

But on the other hand, there's precious little "apple cider" about them. I ate all six of these, and with every one of them I was consciously trying to detect the flavor of apple cider, or even of just apple--and completely failed. Not a hint of it anywhere, as far as I could tell.

So they're pretty good at being something they're not supposed to be (cinnamon donuts), and a complete failure at being what they're supposed to be.


Will I buy it again? 

No. I'm fortunate to have many better donut choices. And I always prefer raised over cake.

Trader Joe's Apple Cider Cookies

Nice crunch. Bite size. Strong apple flavor (though for some reason it reminds me more of applesauce than of straight apples). Fairly prominent presence of allspice and nutmeg.

All in all, a perfectly pleasant treat, about which I have no serious complaints. I can eat a dozen of them at a time. Yet I don't love them.


Will I buy it again? 

No. Nothing wrong with the cookies, but they don't set off any "must have" bells in my pleasure center.

Trader Joe's Organic Sparkling Apple Cider Drinking Vinegar--Cucumber & Mint

This is, obviously, the shelf-mate to the strawberry/basil version that Nina and I tried last week. We both liked this one better. It's cool and refreshing. I expected to like it less because cucumber isn't a favorite flavor. But it's mild and unobjectionable. The mint, too, is subdued, not shouting its presence. The vinegar component is even less pronounced than in the other variety.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes. I think it can be an occasional treat.

Trader Joe's Organic Sparkling Apple Cider Drinking Vinegar--Strawberry & Basil

I passed this by a couple of time because the very idea of "drinking vinegar" seemed like a big bowl of wrong. But I gathered my courage, bought it, and shared the bottle with Nina last night.

Upon unscrewing the cap, the distinctive smell of vinegar hit me immediately, and I was worried that drinking it would be more of the same. It wasn't--not at all. It's a peculiar but pleasantly surprising mismatch. It's mostly just like drinking ordinarily sparkling apple cider, though with more than the usual amount of vinegary sensation, more in the nose than on the tongue.

As for the strawberry and basil, I had to close my eyes with a swig of the cider in my mouth and go on a mental hunt for them. I found them that way, but I never would have noticed them if not for the words on the label.


Will I buy it again? 

No. But it's definitely worth having once.

Trader Joe's Blushing Apple Tart

I had never heard of "blushing apples" before encountering this new Trader Joe's dessert.

Nina prepared this. Unlike most TJ's frozen products, the recommended bake time on this one proved to be a little long, as you can see from the slightly overdone edge. (That second photo is half of what's in the box, by the way. It's supposed to make three servings, but Nina and I just split it between us, and had no difficulty putting it away.)

I thought the almond paste might be a deterrent, as I don't love almonds. But it turned out to be just a pleasant background sweetness, with little actual almond flavor. Somehow, the combination of the paste and the apples combined to remind me of maraschino cherries. I asked Nina if I was crazy for thinking that, and she instantly answered, "Yes." So it may not be a universal impression.

The crust was somewhat dry. It's not clear whether that's an intrinsic property, or due to the slight overbaking. Tasty, though.

The apples are excellent.

The thing looks like a pepperoni pizza. Even after you realize that, yes, the flesh of these apples is pink and those aren't slices of meat, it looks like an apple pizza. OK, a square apple pizza.


Will I buy it again? 

Close call. I don't think I loved it enough to bring home again for myself. But if it showed up again at Nina's, I'd happily eat my half again. And it would make a nice contribution to a potluck dinner.

Trader Joe's French Apple Tart

I was at TJ's doing my Thanksgiving shopping, planning to pick up a more ordinary pie, when I spotted this--and that was all it took to settle on it as our dessert.

The apples are nice--a variety I had never heard of before, Northern Spy. The list of ingredients says that there are also sliced apricots here. I couldn't physically locate any for sure, but I could definitely taste them as a complement to the apples. You've also got a generous helping of cinnamon and vanilla.

The result was nice, though not wonderful. I thought it was a little too sweet, with not enough tartness from the apples. Nina thought the texture was a tad "gummy."


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Organic Cold Pressed Fuji Apple Spiced Cider

I very much enjoyed this, but I don't think it's noticeably different from any number of apple/cinnamon/clove concoctions one can buy this time of year, such as TJ's own Spiced Cider. It is astonishingly sweet--so much so that Nina felt sure it had added sugar, until I checked the label and found none.


Will I buy it again? 

No. It's good, but the price per ounce is just too high to justify.

Trader Joe's Organic Apple Juice

This apple juice is so boring it's sad. It's just lifeless. Drinking it is a reminder of how wonderful the Honey Crisp Apple Cider is. Every fall I stock up on the latter to last me through the rest of the year when it isn't available, but I had run out, so purchased this one instead. Such a disappointment.

Three years ago, I bought TJ's MacIntosh Apple Juice, and contemplated doing a comparison test with this one. I never did, because the discovery of the cider made me want to never buy anything else. Now I'll never complete the test because I don't want this uninteresting juice in my life.


Will I buy it again? 

No. If I can't have the cider, my next choice would be the Flash Pasteurized. I'd pick something other than apple juice before having this again.

Trader Joe's Crunch Dried Honeycrisp Apples

My local Trader Joe's store had a big display of this new product right inside the front door--the first thing a customer would see. My knee-jerk reaction was, "Well, that's a slam-dunk winner." Honeycrisps are my favorite apples, and I like dried fruit generally. What's not to like?

Plenty, as it turned out. Nearly all of the contents of my bag were small fragments, not apple slices. And the drying is so extreme that it left those fragments hard and brittle.

There is a solid honeycrisp flavor, but the unhappy texture and size of the small, broken pieces far outweighed that niceness.


Will I buy it again? 

No. For dried apples, the New Zealand Sweet Apple Rings are the ones to get.

Trader Joe's Honeycrisp Apples

Honeycrisps are my favorite eating apples. But, like any produce, they can be hit or miss on flavor and quality.

This bag from Trader Joe's has been, so far (I've eaten four of them), only average on taste. Nothing off-putting, but a far cry from the best I've ever had. And they're unusually small.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Sparkling Pressed Apple Juice Beverage

There's nothing special about this. I would much rather pick up a bottle of Welch's or Martinelli's, so that I get the festive satisfaction of uncorking a bottle. These tiny little cans are just kind of sad.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Apple Cider Caramels

Well, these are definitely something different from any candies I've had before. The apple infusion is strong--I actually noticed it before the taste of caramel hit. It's an unusual combination, and I don't think it works particularly well. Not terrible by any means, but just...off. The caramel-apple center is also really runny, and you basically can't bite into it without getting it on your hands. I don't like chocolates being messy.

Note, finally, that you get only four to a box, which seems kinda chintzy.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Envy apples

I saw somebody on Twitter excited to find her favorite variety of apple at Trader Joe's. I had never heard of Envy, but I looked it up, and of course the brand's web site makes it sound fabulous. So I grabbed two of them on my last TJ's trip.

I am underwhelmed. They are extremely crispy, I'll give them that. But it's almost to a fault; they're actually physically difficult to bite into because of being so firm.

Other than that, I found no extraordinary qualities. They're not especially sweet or juicy.


Will I buy it again? 

No. I'd pick a honeycrisp over Envy every time.

And, do we really need to be flying apples in from New Zealand, which is about as far from the US as it's possible to get?

Trader Joe's Organic Cranberry Spiced Apple Kombucha

The only kombucha I've ever had before this has been a few varieties from a locally made brand called Buchi. I liked them, but I don't think they're particularly representative of the genre. Then again, neither is this new product from Trader Joe's. I'm guessing that it's seasonal but who knows?

It was OK, though--of course--entirely different from the ones I've had before. But frankly, I would have been happier with a cranberry-spiced-apple juice than I was with the same flavors mixed into a kombucha.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Apple Cranberry Tart

This is a new seasonal (I assume) item, and it's well worth a try.

Because they looked fully baked, I just took the first one out of the box and shared it with Nina at room temperature. I liked it a lot--nice mix of flavors, sweet and tart. There's a generous amount of filling, and it's even tucked in under the folded pastry edges. Nina liked the filling, but thought the crust was "gummy." She suggested trying the next one heated.

I did, and in the process discovered what I should have seen from the beginning: directions on the back of the box saying to give the things 15-20 minutes in the oven. That seemed like a lot, but I did it, and the result was a definite improvement. Not only was the hot tart nicer to eat than the cold one, but the baking seems to have finished off the crust, making it firmer and flakier.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes. I've had a couple of similar products from Trader Joe's before, but this is the best of them.

Trader Joe's Apple Cider Jam

Good jam, but with a somewhat deceptive name. Yes, there's apple cider in it, but you'd have no way to know this from tasting it. After all, apple cider is just unfiltered apple juice, so it tastes like...apples. Putting it in apple jam doesn't change much.

What makes this product different from most apple jams has nothing to do with the cider. It's the addition of a medley of what we now consider traditional autumn spices: cinnamon, cloves, etc. So you know what would be a more accurate name? "Apple Pie Jam." And I'd argue that that would be not just more accurate, but also more intriguing. It's jam that tastes like apple pie filling. Who would not want to try that?


Will I buy it again? 

Yes.

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 Organic Holiday Fruit Spread

I could tell from the description--"plums, apples, cranberries, cinnamon & cloves"--that I would like this. However, whether it turned out to be a modest "like" or a big one would turn on whether they avoided two obvious traps: (1) Making it too sweet. (2) Dumping in too much cinnamon and cloves.

I'm pleased to report that they passed both tests. It's excellent stuff.

Now I'm just disappointed that they called it "holiday," and will presumably sell it for just a month or two per year. There's no reason this shouldn't be on the shelves all the time.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes.