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 Kosher Dill Pickle Spears

This is a new Trader Joe's product; see the company's description of it here.

This is another instance in which my difficulty is that a new product is going up against an entire lifetime of one specific competing product being ingrained as my Platonic ideal of what it should be. In this case, it's the Vlasic kosher dill pickle spears, which I've been eating since I was a kid. It's probably also important that those are just about the only pickles I ever eat, so I don't have laid down in my brain a broad range of what is acceptable in a pickle. In such situations, I have a hard time being objective, discerning "It's not as good" from "It's not what I'm used to."

The TJ's spears definitely taste fresher. They are crisper. They have more prominent garlic. It's entirely possible that if I had never had a dill pickle before, and came to a comparison test between these and the Vlasic without preconceived notions, I would judge these to be superior.

But I can't do it. A newcomer pickle would have to completely blow me away with its superiority to dislodge my deep prejudice in favor of the familiar, and TJ's couldn't do that.

Will I buy it again? 

I don't think so. But I hasten to add that I can readily see why somebody less tied to one specific pickle product than I am might judge these to be superior.

Nina's View

My boyfriend the philistine. (In fairness, I think if he were to buy and eat these exclusively for six months, he'd never go back to the previous familiar.)

These are really good pickles. They are much better than the flabby, slightly fluorescent yellow-green things you get from Vlasic. Ignore that Groucho-Marx-lookalike stork and his corny patter. TJ's FTW.

I wish they made a hamburger version of these, as I rarely put a spear on my plate. But yeah, I'd buy 'em, and you should, too.

Trader Joe's Watermelon Cucumber Cooler

This is not a new product; it apparently came on the Trader Joe's scene about this same time last year. I'm guessing that TJ's is making a company-wide push to sell it again now as a spring beverage. This is based on (1) the large display of them I found last week at the Asheville, NC, store, and (2) a sudden surge in the number of people in the last two weeks who have taken to Twitter to say that they found this "new" product, or that they have bought it for the first time, or that they love it.

As for that last group of Twitterers, I think they have plumb lost their damn minds. Because this stuff is gross. According to the ingredients list, there is more sugar than either watermelon juice concentrate or cucumber juice concentrate. And it shows--it's disgustingly sweet.

Let us speak candidly: This is sugar water, with a little watermelon juice and cucumber juice thrown in. That is not what I want when I head to the refrigerator for a refreshing beverage.

It seems, however, that others disagree with me. The "Eating at Joe's" blog describes it as "a rare participant in the summer drink wars – a beverage that satisfies the sweet tooth, quenches the thirst, refreshes with cucumber, and goes easy on the sugar." The "Vegan Taste" blog "loved it" for its "fresh, sweet note of watermelon without being overly sweet." The author of the relevant post on the "What's Good at Trader Joe's" blog  couldn't get past the weirdness of drinking cucumber juice, but reported that his wife was "down with the cucumberiness" and thought it would be "perfect come summertime."

I think anybody who tastes this and finds it not overly sweet needs to go through some sort of government-mandated resetting of their sweetness scales.

Will I buy it again? 

No. Because it's gross and it shouldn't exist and the memory of it will make me mildly nauseated every time I pass the display in the store.