Trader Joe's Wild Blueberry Pie

I don't know for sure that this is a new item, but I had never noticed it before. It was being sampled at my local store last week. I didn't take a sample--I just took a whole pie, cuz that's how I roll.

Looking back through my archives, here are the fresh-baked (i.e., not frozen) pies I have tried from Trader Joe's:

Apple
Cherry
Strawberry Rhubarb
Peach Crumble
French Apple Tart
Raspberry Tart
Fig, Pear, and Cranberry Tart

I think this blueberry is the best of the bunch. The berries were flavorful and the crust was a little sweet (which isn't usually the case with store-bought pies). Visually, I love the stars pattern in the crust. Nina had one piece, and I eagerly ate the rest.

Speaking of Nina's piece, she was not nearly as enamored as I was. She said the blueberries weren't as tasty as the "wild" implies, and the crust was just so-so.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes. Though without Nina's help to eat it, it can't be often. The number of whole pies that I can afford to add to my belly fat is strictly limited. 

Trader Joe's Peach Crumble Pie

I knew there was trouble when I spotted a fruit fly flitting around under the plastic window as I was trying to open the box.

But ultimately, the unpleasantness of the pie had nothing to do with the insect(s) it brought along. Nina summed it up best: "The crumble topping is gritty, the filling is slimy, and the crust is gummy."

Let the record reflect that "gritty," "slimy," and "gummy" are not favorable adjectives when describing a pie. (However, a law firm called "Gritty, Slimy & Gummy" would be amusing.)

I'll add that the filling was was too sweet. Nina also thought that the peaches tasted artificial, though I didn't share that opinion.


Will I buy it again? 

No. This is going back to the store for a refund--and quickly, before that fruit fly's eggs hatch.

Trader Joe's Pear & Persimmon Tarte

This makes a pretty nice dessert pastry. It's pretty to look at. The crust has good texture. Not too sweet.

Minor flaw: I'm not sure exactly what persimmons taste like, but I didn't detect anything other than pear.

Major flaw: The filling:crust ratio is way too low. In the picture above, imagine that the little puddle of fruit you see in the middle is all there is, and that those wide margins of crust are, in fact, nothing but crust. Because that's about how it is.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Nantucket Style Cranberry Pie

I bought this for Thanksgiving. I don't know if it will stay on sale through Christmas, or maybe it's even intended to be a non-seasonal item. For some unfathomable reason, Trader Joe's does not notify me about these matters.

I mostly liked this: Nice cranberry flavor, not disgustingly sweet, good crust. Super easy to prepare--just leave it on the counter to thaw, no cooking required.

The main thing I didn't like was the chunks of walnut in the crust. I'm sure many people--most, even--will find that to be a lovely touch, but I just don't care much for walnuts, so I judged this a fairly significant demerit.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Mini Pie Medley

These look so good, don't they? And it's not just a photographer's trick--they pretty much look like the package photo, except that the fruity stuff poking out looks less like actual pieces of fruit and more like colored filling.

And therein lies the problem. The fruit filling is nearly all filling, very little fruit--and there's not much of it. The crust:filling ratio is way too high, and what there is of the filling looks and tastes like chemical, gelatinous, fake fruit. It's a major disappointment.

Great idea, lousy execution.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Key Lime Pie

Good stuff. No cooking required, just defrost in the refrigerator. Good graham cracker crust. Filling is appropriately rich, limey, and tart. My only complaint is that it's unusually small for a pie.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes.

Nina's View

Not bad, Trader Joe, although I find the graham cracker crust overly sweet and grainy—I wish this came with the fabulous crust on the raspberry tarte of Top Ten fame. 

This pie makes an excellent vehicle for my Port-Berry sauce, which sets off the tartness of the lime perfectly. So good.

Trader Joe's Lemon Meringue Tarte

This is a brand-new product at Trader Joe's; see the company's announcement of it here.

I was worried about this one. TJ's Raspberry Tarte may be the single finest item they carry. Nina and I have eaten, I think, five of them--and it is only because of monumental exercise of restraint that that number is not, like, fifty.

On the strength of that, we tried the Pear Tarte, and found it to be good, but not great. The raspberry is made great by the perfection of the fruit it contains, and in that aspect the pear was lacking. Hence my worry--what happens when there's no fruit (per se) at all?

The answer, it turns out, is more greatness. Seriously, TJ's hit it out of the park with this version. All three components were just about perfect: tender crust, amazingly tart lemon custard, and sweet, airy meringue. I loved every part of it, and every bite of it.

You guessed it: Trader Joe's Lemon Meringue Tarte is going on my Top Ten list.

For an only slightly less enthusiastic review, see what the good folks at "What's Good at Trader Joe's" blog had to say about it.


Will I buy it again? 

As often as my bathroom scale tells me I can, in spite of the relatively steep price of $5.49.

Nina's View

This is very, very good. It would be even better with an ever-so-slightly higher ratio of lemon curd to meringue. Still, if you bought this at a bakery, you could expect—easily—to pay $12-15 dollars for it, so it is a screamingly good buy. Furthermore, all it requires is defrosting, and once defrosted, you would never guess that it had ever been frozen.

I think this is likely to be my go-to cheatery choice for potlucks when I have no time to actually make something.

This goes into the Nina's Top Ten list as well.

Trader Joe's Apple Pie

This is the fifth of ten consecutive days of reviews of the things Nina and I tried at our all-Trader-Joe's Thanksgiving meal. 


I had serious misgivings about buying this, given our unpleasant experience with the Trader Joe's cherry pie. But Thanksgiving dinner isn't complete without pie, so an all-Trader Joe's Thanksgiving means a Trader Joe's pie.

Fortunately, this is nothing like the cherry pie. (Except, y'know, that they're both pies.) As the most noticeable difference, look at how thick it is in that second photo above! I've never seen so much apple crammed into a pie before--either commercial or homemade.

Second, it tastes good. Now, that requires a little caveat; it depends entirely on expectations. Had I made this myself, I'd be proud just for not having screwed it up in some major way. If my mother had made it, I'd say she was off her game. If it had come from a small, neighborhood bakery, where everything is made by hand, I'd be disappointed and pick a different source for my next one. But for a mass-produced commercial product, it's surprisingly good.

Will I buy it again? 

Probably not--even though it's about as good as you can expect from such a product. But I have two fine bakeries within a mile of my house, so when I want a really nice pie, that's where I'm going to turn instead of any grocery-store item. Put another way, this was a reasonably successful experiment, but I don't think it's the way one should buy pies.

Nina's View

I pretty much concur with Bob's assessment. This item would, however, be greatly improved by ten minutes in a nice hot oven. That would relieve the crust of its pasty, flabby quality and put a little bit of a tan on it and impart some flakiness.