Trader Joe's Tahini, Pepita & Apricot Slaw Kit

My record of liking Trader Joe's prepared salad kits is pretty low. Heck, it might even be zero. (I didn't go through the archives to check.) This is one of the more successful ones.

It has serious crunch to it, what with the raw carrot, cabbage, and broccoli-stalk shreds. In fact, it takes so much chewing that Nina said she was starting to feel distinctly "bovine" while eating it. (To the best of my knowledge, however, she did not regurgitate any of it for re-chewing later.)

I got very little flavor enhancement from either the pumpkin seeds or the apricot bits. I wish the latter had been a lot more prominent.

I was kinda meh about the tahini-orange dressing (too much tahini, not enough orange), but Nina thought it was one of the nicest kit dressings TJ's has put out.


Will I buy it again? 

No--but it's close. I was happy to finish off, by myself, the three servings that were left after Nina and I had the first two with a dinner. But I already eat a ton of brassica vegetables, and I like them better in other forms.

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 California Slab Apricots Blenheim Variety

I believe this is a new product for Trader Joe's, though I didn't find it on the new-products shelf. I think I would have noticed it before now if it had been around for long.

It took me a while to convince myself that this actually is a different product from an extremely similar one that I buy regularly--one of my Top Ten items--Blenheim Variety Extra Choice/Choice Apricots. Both packages are dried apricots, same weight, same variety, same price, both grown in California. They look alike.

I had never heard of "slab apricots," but later found this explanation: "All the old-timers know that slabs are the extra-ripe, fullest-of-sweetness kind of dried apricot. Usually hand-cut and when placed on a tray to dry, they lose their shape and "slab" out on the tray. Often compared to fruit leather, slabs are the sweetest, most intense flavor of our dried Blenheim apricot."

So, are these indeed the sweetest dried apricots, with the most intense flavor? No--at least not more than the others. I bought a bag of each, opened both, and alternated samples from the two bags. I could not tell any difference in size, shape, color, texture, flavor, or sweetness, even after repeating the experiment for five nights in a row. If you put a gun to my head and forced me to choose which bag carried which label, I'd still be reduced to a pure 50/50 guess.


Will I buy it again? 

Sure. The other kind is one of the rare TJ's items that is both a Top Ten and a staple in my kitchen. Since these are functionally identical, they merit the same status. I'll choose randomly between them for future purchases.


Bonus personal story

In 2014, I was one of six members of my family to go on a two-week guided tour of the British Isles. I brought along a bunch of snacks to eat on the motor coach between stops, including some of TJ's Blenheim variety dried apricots.

Shortly after we left Oxford, heading for Stratford Upon Avon, I started seeing signs for "Blenheim Palace" ahead. I recognized the name because I had wondered what "Blenheim" on the apricot package referred to, but had never bothered to look it up. Well, it turns out that Blenheim Palace is where Winston Churchill was born and raised, and this variety of apricot is named for that palace because they thrived on the grounds there.

So I had accidentally taken some Blenheim apricots back to the very place for which they were named!

Trader Joe's White Stilton With Apricots

Sorry for the crappy photo. I didn't realize how badly I had botched it until it was way too late to go back and take a better one.

I had no particular reason to pick this; it just looked interesting, different from anything I've ever had before. And it was. I couldn't imagine what cheese and apricots would taste like together. Turns out, it's a combination that works surprisingly well.

I don't think I've ever eaten Stilton cheese before. It's among the most mild-flavored cheeses I've tried. Maybe apricots only work well with a cheese that mild.

It was extremely crumbly, essentially impossible to slice with any implement.


Will I buy it again? 

No, but I'm very happy to have tried it once.

Trader Joe's Semi-Dried Apricots

Yet another brand-new Trader Joe's product. The company's introduction to it is here. $3.99 per bag.

This is unlike any other fruit I've had before. Even the concept is kind of hard to grasp. The apricots are both dried and frozen.

Actually, even though they're dried, they're not at all dry. In fact, they go beyond being moist and can truly be said to be wet. After thawing, the only evidence that they have been dried is that the little wedges of apricot are clearly smaller than any fresh apricot would produce. TJ's claims that it takes about two pounds of apricots to produce each 10-ounce bag, implying that something like 50% of the weight (after you account for the pits and skin, which have been removed) has been dried out of them. That seems about right, given the size of the pieces.

They are tasty--sweet, with a real apricot taste (which I suppose shouldn't be surprising) and a nice texture. The hype is true for once: they really do taste and feel like eating fresh fruit, except for the size thing.

This just leads me to wonder why they need to be partially dried before freezing. Maybe apricots don't freeze well in their native state. That's kind of what is implied by the web site description: "Unlike other frozen fruit that hasn’t been semi-dried, our Apricots don’t exude any excess moisture—it’s been removed in the drying process."

I just thawed the whole bag in the refrigerator, rather than trying to thaw one serving at a time. I then ate them straight out of the bag. I didn't try using them to top cereal, or any of the other ways that they suggest.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes, at least once in a while. I still prefer frozen berries over these, but they're definitely good enough to revisit now and then.


Nina's View

No, no, no, no, no, no. A thousand times no. No the no^th power.

Okay, let me count the ways:

1. Slime. Apricots should not be slimy. Juicy=good; slimy=bad.

2. Unsweet. Apricots should have a sunny, piercing sweetness. These had a nasty back-of-the-tongue musty bitterness. They tasted green, but not in a good way. Ugh.

3. Rubbery. The betwixt-and-between of neither fresh nor dried results in a rubbery texture. Rubbery is good for rubber and NOT MUCH ELSE ESPECIALLY FRUIT.

These abominations are consigned straight to Nina's Bottom Ten. Take my advice and AVOID.