Trader Joe's Mini Stroopwafel Ice Cream Sandwiches

Yes, they're good. But no, they're not as amazing as people on social media seem to think.

You have to look closely to see, but the waffles are each filled with caramel, in addition to the ice cream being caramel-flavored. I thought that was the best part, but Nina thought it was too much.

The "salted" portion of the "salted caramel" is pretty understated, and they might have been even better if it were more prominent.


Will I buy it again? 

No. Enjoyable, but there are many other desserts and ice creams that I like better. Well worth trying at least once, though, for the novelty.

Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels

I think this is the first Trader Joe's-branded product I've seen that doesn't say "Trader Joe's" on the front. That's why I'm including a picture of the side of the box, where one finds the brand name. Odd.

This is obviously meant as a stocking-stuffer kind of gift. That dark brown insert in the front is a removable gift card.

There's only four chocolates inside. They're nice--rich and flavorful. The chocolate, caramel, and salt work together as well as we've come to expect, given that this combination has been used by TJ's many times before.


Will I buy it again? 

Not for myself. But it's possible I could purchase another to be used as intended--as a small gift in an appropriate circumstance.

Trader Joe's Gelato--Caramel Cookie Crunch

This is a new product line at Trader Joe's. So far there are just two flavors available, this one and pistachio. I would guess that more are coming.

The texture is first-rate, extremely smooth and creamy. I liked both the caramel and the cookie flavors, though I didn't think they worked particularly well together. Not a clash, exactly, but also not a successful, harmonious pairing.

As I was eating it, I kept thinking that this texture would work much better with a single flavor, especially a fruit like strawberry or raspberry. I hope those are coming, because they should be fabulous.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Chocolate Salted Caramel Mug Mix

This is a weird product. At first I thought it was a new hot chocolate; that's what "chocolate...mug mix" implies to me. But then I noticed the strange, semi-solid, gloppy stuff in the picture, and it didn't compute. Then I saw the smaller print: "cake." WTF?

Yes, this mix creates a little chocolate cake in a mug. You put the powder in the mug, add a little water, stir, and microwave. Voila--cake. Or at least that's the idea.

On my first attempt, I followed the directions precisely, with two 20-second zaps. The "cake" was still partially liquid. So the second time, I increased to two 25-second bursts. That seemed to fix the problem.

However, the result is still very strange. It's sort of cake-like. But spooning cake out of a mug sets off conflicting brain signals. This isn't what's supposed to be in a mug, and this isn't how one is supposed to eat cake.

Beyond the problem of expectations being dashed is the problem that it's just not particularly good cake. That shouldn't be surprising. What do you expect from an add-water-and-microwave concoction?

You might also want to know that the mix contains large crystals of salt that do not dissolve. The first time I crunched one of these without knowing it was there, I thought I had broken a tooth.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Golden Caramel Swirl In French Vanilla & Chocolate Ice Creams

If I just dip my spoon in and eat this, I like it. But if I compare it with what I expected it to be from the product name, description, and package images, I'm disappointed.

The ice cream doesn't strike me as a "super premium"--not by a long shot. Neither the chocolate nor the vanilla is particularly rich in flavor.

But the most disappointing thing is the lack of caramel, which was what I was most looking forward to--the feature that I thought would set this apart from other chocolate/vanilla combos. I've had two servings of three scoops each, and in only two or three bites was there enough caramel for me to be able to detect its presence, visually and/or by taste.

It appears that I am not alone in this criticism. The good folks at the "What's Good at Trader Joe's" blog described the same problem nearly six years ago. The fact that TJ's has done nothing to improve the product since then goes to show you the immense influence we bloggers have over the company....


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Toasted Sesame Caramels

These are...kind of weird. The dark chocolate shell is nice enough. But the little bit of caramel (seriously not oozing out, the way the picture shows) doesn't seem to add anything. I can see sesame seeds if I look, but I can't taste anything from them. Really, the only thing I detect other than the chocolate is the taste and texture of some bits of cookie--which aren't mentioned on the front of the package but are listed in the ingredients on the back.

It's a mystery to me what they were trying to accomplish here. If it was highlighting the sesame seeds, as the product name implies, it's a complete fail.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Covered Caramels

These turned out to be much better than I had expected. The chocolate is good. The caramel is rich and just the right texture--soft enough not to stick your teeth together, without being runny and messy.


Will I buy it again? 

Yep. It has earned a place in my regular rotation of chocolates.

Trader Joe's Fleur De Sel Caramels

The addition of a pinch of salt is the only thing that sets these caramels apart from any others--and it's not enough to make them especially interesting or desirable.


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.

Trader Joe's Caramel Ginger Popcorn

And yet again I seem to have misplaced the photo I took of this. I don't know why this is happening so often lately. But the one above is swiped from Trader Joe's own introduction to the product, here.

It's pretty good stuff. The caramel is lighter than it is in my favorite commercial caramel popcorn, which is TJ's own--one of the first members of my Top Ten list. But in compensation, you get the lovely bits of crystallized ginger clinging to some of the popped kernels. This adds a surprising snappiness to the flavor profile.


Will I buy it again? 

Probably not. If you have any inclination to try it, I'd encourage you to do so. It's an interesting variation on a traditional idea. But I think I'd always choose my long-time favorite over this.

Trader Joe's Chocolate Cara Cara Caramels

I get the feeling that somebody, somewhere, decided to make a candy combining caramel and a particular variety of orange as soon as they realized the name could be "Cara Cara Caramels." Kind of surprisingly, the combination works as well in terms of taste as it does in the name. Tasty, bite-sized morsels of goodness with an intriguing, well-calibrated blend of three dominant flavors.


Will I buy it again? 

Probably not, unless maybe as a gift to a chocolate lover. It was interesting and delightful to try once, but didn't endear me enough to keep going back for more.

Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Bar--Caramel With Black Sea Salt

A similar product, Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Bar--Coconut Caramel, was so good it made my Top Ten list.  So I had high hopes for this variant.

It's good, but not nearly as good as the other. I've said several times that I'm not a fan of adding salt to chocolate, but it may be growing on me. It did add considerable flavor interest here over what the chocolate and caramel would have had by themselves.

Like the others in this line, however, it suffers from being messy. The bar simply won't break cleanly along the pre-cut lines designated for that purpose. Because of that, breaking off a piece inevitably breaks open one of the chambers containing the caramel, which then oozes out. This should be a simple engineering fix.


Will I buy it again? 

No. Not because it's bad, but because if it's sitting next to the version with coconut, I would always pick that one.

Trader Joe's Salted Caramel Coconut Cookies

This is Day Seven of Cookie Week. 


These ought to be a slam-dunk winner. Put coconut and caramel together, and I'm in.

But somehow Trader Joe's managed to screw up an unscrewuppable combination. There's a huge amount of packaging material for just a few cookies (eight, if memory serves). The cookies are sticky and floppy. Both the caramel and salt are barely noticeable.


Will I buy it again? 

No. They're not awful, but they're a big letdown from what you'd expect from the picture on the box.

Trader Joe's Chocolate Covered Sea Salt Butterscotch Caramels

Nina ate one of these before I did, and predicted that I would not like them. She was right--at least at first. The combination of a bit of bitterness in the dark chocolate, the salt, and the butterscotch I found initially off-putting.

But I returned to them the next night, and found that I was warming up to them. In fact, I ate about 10 of them. They're never going to be a favorite, but I expanded the sphere of what I can like in a candy a teensy little bit with these unusual morsels.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Nina's View

Yeah, these are good. They are super-sweet, super-rich, and salty. They call out for binge-eating, but the richness puts a stop to that after a handful. I will never buy them because: thighs.

Trader Joe's Milk Chocolate (Filled With) Caramel

Disappointing. Chocolate is weak and waxy. Filling is only vaguely caramelly. And the one I bought was broken in many pieces.

I love both caramel and chocolate, but I found nothing to love here. I wish it were otherwise.


Will I buy it again? 

No.


Addendum 

At some point after writing the above, I had forgotten about my bad experience, and I bought another one. In fact, I didn't remember writing that review until I sat down to write what I thought was a new one, and found it. The candy still wasn't great, but it was less disappointing than my first reaction. (I think "less disappointing" is the very definition of damning with faint praise.)

Trader Joe's Caramel And Dark Chocolate Popcorn Crunch With Almonds, Pecans, Walnuts And Cashews

Nina bought this and together we ate about half of the package after dinner last week. Once again, I'm really not the guy to be reviewing this, since I consider nuts something to be tolerated when necessary, but never enjoyed. (I know. I'm weird. Don't judge.)

Some of the popcorn is caramel-coated, though I don't think it's the same formula as the wonderful TJ's caramel popcorn. This part was OK.

Some of the popcorn is coated in dark chocolate. I didn't care for this much. I just don't think popcorn and chocolate go together well.

Some of what appear to be chocolate-coated pieces of popcorn turn out to be chocolate-coated nuts. This should be illegal.

Will I buy it again? 

No.

Nina's View

This was a purchasing FAIL on my part. I was beguiled by the festive packaging, highlighting caramel and chocolate, and didn't read the curly fine print. "Bob likes caramel popcorn and chocolate, I bet he'll like this!" says I to myself. ("And I'm sure I can choke down a few bits myself.")

Once I got it home I saw my error, but I served it up, caveats and all.

SUUUUUUUGGGGARRRRRRR.

Tasty sugar. And chocolate. And nuts. And salt.

I'll be finishing this up. My thighs are not amused.

Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Bar--Coconut Caramel

Three of the best words in the English language start with C: chocolate, coconut, and caramel.

What happens when you put all three of them together? Pure awesomeness.

This is simply the best Trader Joe's chocolate bar I've had, and one of the best from any manufacturer. The three main ingredients are balanced perfectly, and there's an obvious, though downplayed, bit of salt, too. (I generally think that the recent fad of salt with chocolate is way overblown. Just a touch is nice, as here.)

It's moderately expensive, at $1.99 for 3 ounces, but worth it.

My only complaint is that the sections don't break off cleanly. The chocolate breaks across sections, which are filled with the thick, liquid, caramel-coconut mix, thus making things messy.

In spite of that flaw, this is Top Ten material. Yum.

Will I buy it again? 

Surely.

Nina's View

Bob wondered whether I'd remember this chocolate, since I've been on a dessert moratorium for a while.

Oh yes. Yes indeedy I do certainly remember.

My mouth is in fact actually watering as I recall the very extreme level of tastiness of this particular chocolate bar. This is no small compliment as I am not an especially zealous chocolate-eater.

Maybe Bob will have some in the house when I next go to dinner. It could happen, right? I might kick my dessert-abstinence to the curb for a few squares of this fabulosity.

Trader Joe's Caramel Popcorn

I love "The Sound of Music." But perhaps its greatest flaw is that in the famous song "My Favorite Things," Rodgers and Hammerstein listed "crisp apple strudels" and "schnitzel with noodles," but utterly failed to list "Trader Joe's Caramel Popcorn." That is such a grievous oversight that it should result in revocation of their Tony and Oscar awards.

I just discovered this stuff a few days ago, and it landed on my Top Ten list (which, I hasten to remind you, is not actually limited to ten items) about five seconds after the first handful landed in my mouth.

I can't say that this is the best caramel popcorn I've ever had, because caramel popcorn is best when obtained fresh and hot from the cooker at a candy store. I've had that, and nothing packaged, shipped across the country, and sold on grocery store shelves is ever going to surpass that. But this is, unequivocally, the best packaged caramel popcorn I've ever had. In fact, it's pretty much the only packaged caramel popcorn that's worth buying. Other stuff is just uniformly sad.

What's even more interesting is that, according to the label, they make this without butter, which I would have thought was an indispensable ingredient. Better-tasting and low-fat, too? Yes, please!

What is it that makes this superior to other packages caramel popcorns? Surprisingly, I think it's how lightly they coat the popcorn with the caramel. I'm used to the caramel layer being thick and hard--like eating hard candy with a little popcorn in the center. But TJ's isn't like that; it's regular popcorn with a very thin coating of caramel. When I first looked at it, I thought that was going to doom it. "Clearly not enough caramel," thought I. I was wrong. I can't analyze what it is about this caramel formulation that makes it so potent, but it somehow gets the caramel-to-popcorn balance exactly right. As an extra bonus, it's easier to eat than other brands, not requiring a massive crushing force with the molars to crack the hard exterior.

I have only two quibbles. First is the flagrant lie that TJ's tells on the back of the bag:

SEVEN servings in a 7-ounce bag? Who do they think they're fooling? My first bag, I ate the whole thing in one sitting. I went to the store again the next day and bought two more bags. The first of these I managed, with considerable self-restraint, to stretch to two consecutive nights of snacks. The fate of the remaining bad is yet undetermined as I write this.

Second quibble, somewhat related to the first: This stuff should come in packages about seven times bigger than it currently does.

Will I buy it again? 

Yes. I'd buy the factory they make this in, if they'd let me. I'd move in and make it my home. I'd appoint myself Chief Taste Tester and insist on tasting every bag, to make sure that no sub-standard packages left the factory. And by "tasting" there, I mean "eating in its entirety." Admittedly, that sequence of events might make it difficult for the rest of you to enjoy this extraordinary snack, but that's your problem, not mine.