Trader Joe's Ghost Pepper Potato Chips

Due to the ongoing proliferation of new stuff from Trader Joe's, we are forced to bump our regularly scheduled programming and continue New and Seasonal Products Week for at least three more days--and maybe even more after that, depending on what else comes out. Now on Day 8. 


Brand-new TJ's product; see the company's description of it here.

This is one that I wanted to try the instant I first saw somebody from LA tweeting a photo of it. They always get the good stuff first! I had to wait several more days before my store in North Carolina had it available.

It was worth the wait. These are wonderfully tasty chips. A bit on the oily and salty side, but man, the flavor! It's powerful and peppery, but not knock-your-socks-off. And it's not just heat, but a blend of several different peppers. There's some inconsistency, so that one chip will be mild, and another will smack your eyes wide open--but that's OK. In fact, it seemed kind of like part of the adventure.

If you're having a bland sandwich for lunch, I think these would be just the thing to have on the side to prevent terminal food boredom.

A TJ's employee told me that these were a seasonal item, available for only a short time, despite having none of the obvious hallmarks of the rest of the autumn/Halloween lineup. Get 'em while you can.

Will I buy it again? 

Definitely.


Nina's View

Okay, first off, the whole notion that you'll be doing something death-defying in consuming these chips—just no. The amount of actual 50-kajillion-Scoville ghost pepper action in these babies is pretty minuscule. You're going to get a little bit of heat going, but it's not going to raise your cranial lid.

My general objection to the whole ghost pepper hype is that ghost peppers pack huge firepower, but not so much flavor. Habeñeros at least have a nice fruitiness to them. TJ's has solved this problem by blending them with other types of chili and black pepper. But Bob is right, the result is nicely flavorful, almost a little smoky, with a nice slightly bitter edge.

They are too oily, but I like the lattice texture and the extra fattiness helps the pepper float out into your mouth in a nicely emollient fashion. These are eminently edible. I will not be buying them because I have no self-discipline and the bag is *really* large.

Roundup

This is my weekly compilation of news and other links related to Trader Joe's.


My favorite 20 Trader Joe's products 

Trader Joe's pumpkin-spice products, rated from worst to best 

Story about the writer's brother, who works at Trader Joe's 

17 kid-friendly finds at Trader Joe's 

Trader Joe's great on prices and snack choices 

Trader Joe's versus Sprouts on produce prices 

Trader Joe's announces recall of Coconut Cranberry Granola 

Best pumpkin picks from Trader Joe's 

5 things you should buy at Trader Joe's 

Daily dose of pumpkin 

Trader Joe's 12 best pumpkin products 

Top ten figure-friendly food finds from Trader Joe's for the fall 

Expert rates Two-Buck Chuck 

We tested all the pumpkin spice products we could find



Here's this week's YouTube video from "Trader Joe":





Best tweets of the week:

1.

And finally, the cute cat of the week is this 9-second video clip.

Trader Joe's Autumnal Harvest Creamy Pasta Sauce

We have arrived at the end of New and Seasonal Products Week--except that we're going to need to extend it, because a few more items have rolled in. More about this tomorrow. 



This is a new product; the company has not yet posted its own description of it.

I don't force myself to buy and sample every new product that Trader Joe's puts out. There are things that I'm just not interested in, or know I will hate, and I don't bother.

Once in a while, though, I'll buy a new product even though I'm pretty sure that I'm going to dislike it. I'm usually right.

But then come those rare occasions when I'm Mikey in the old Life cereal commercial, shocking everybody, including myself: "He likes it! Hey, Mikey!"

This was one of those moments. I looked at the main ingredients: tomato puree (good), pumpkin puree (OK, but does not belong in pasta sauce), butternut squash puree (ditto), heavy cream (ditto), carrot puree (ditto). Nope. Not gonna like it. But it didn't have anything that I consider so awful as to be a dealbreaker. So I bought it.

And then I poured it on my pasta and took a bite. Wow! It's good! It's really good!

In fact, I think it is now my second-favorite TJ's pasta sauce, after the humble tomato-basil marinara.

Will I buy it again? 

Knowing that it will soon be pulled from the shelves until next fall, I'm going to buy two more jars on my next shopping trip. Maybe three.


Nina's View

I liked this more than I expected to. It's not bad at all. It has a fair amount in common with TJ's vodka sauce, which I have enjoyed. Still, I'm staying away from the dairy products, so I'm unlikely to pursue this any further.


Addendum, October 30, 2015: 

TJ's finally posted an introduction to the product. See here.


Addendum, October 17, 2018: 

I have bought and enjoyed this every fall since 2015. Nina loves it, too. In fact, though it's not quite my favorite and not quite her favorite, it's easily the top of the list of pasta sauces that we both like. Given that, I bought a stash of 6 jars this year so it will last a while. And I'm retroactively naming it to my Top Ten list.

Trader Joe's Halloween Joe Joe's Cookies

New and Seasonal Products Week is flying by--now on Day 6. This one has been around for several years, but only available in the autumn. 



I grabbed these from the Trader Joe's shelf, thinking they were pumpkin-flavored Joe Joe's, and didn't realize they weren't until I looked more closely at the package as I was about to take the photograph above. The only "pumpkin" thing about them is the design on the chocolate cookie. The orange color of the filling is from annatto. As far as I can tell, other than those two cosmetic changes, these are identical to regular Joe-Joe's. I compared the ingredients list side by side with the regular Joe-Joe's in the store, and they were identical, except for the annatto.

This presents me with a dilemma--a contradiction. Because before it dawned on me that these were probably identical, for all practical purposes, with regular Joe-Joe's, I found that I liked them a lot. As in, completely delicious. As in, even--may the Snack Gods not strike me with lightning for saying this--better than Oreos.

Why is this a problem? Because here's what I said about regular Joe-Joe's when first reviewing them:

These are not nearly as intensely sweet as Oreos, and thekind of chocolate and vanilla flavors are quite far afield from what Oreos have taught you to expect, though I lack the vocabulary to describe exactly how they differ. What I can tell you is that I had a strong initial dislike: "These aren't Oreos! WTF?" 

However, after a while, I got used to the difference. When I stopped expecting Oreos, I found that I could accept these on their own terms, and even enjoy them. I don't think they're nearly as good; given a straight-up choice, I'd go with Nabisco every time. But if Oreos ceased to exist, I would buy a box of these once in a while and like them--though it would still be with a melancholy wish that they'd bring back the original.

Now I'm stuck with trying to figure out whether my taste has evolved as rapidly as it appears, or if there is, in fact, some substantive difference between these two products that I'm missing.

I may have to go back to the store and buy a package of each, and try them together. It's a tough job, but dammit, somebody has to do it. I did a quick search (which I should have done before), and found this on TJ's web site, which pretty much confirms that I'm going to find them tasting identical.

Will I buy it again? 

Yes. I have to, you see?


Addendum 

On my next trip to the store, they were all out of the Halloween Joe Joe's. But I brought home a box of regulars, and they do indeed seem to match my recent memory of the Halloween ones. If I can get a box of Halloween ones, I'll try to check them side by side.


Special note for fellow anal-retentive types

Are you an attentive enough reader to notice the typographical inconsistency in the name of this product? There is no hyphen between "Joe" and "Joe's." (I'm setting aside for now the problematic question of the function of that apostrophe in all of the product names discussed here.) Regular Joe-Joe's have a hyphen. Pumpkin Joe-Joe's have a hyphen. Gluten-free Joe-Joe's have a hyphen. Candy Cane Joe-Joe's have a hyphen. WHY IS THERE NO HYPHEN IN HALLOWEEN JOE JOE'S?

Trader Joe's Pumpkin Joe-Joe's

We are now up to Day 5 of New and Seasonal Products Week. This is not new, having been introduced last fall, but it is only seasonally available. 



I didn't mind the flavor of these. In fact, it's rather nice. But they are just way too sweet. The sweetness hit like a sugar bomb on first tasting. I've had more on two subsequent days, and the bombing feels a little less intense, but it's still excessive.

Will I buy it again? 

No.


Nina's View

Yearning to adopt a needle-based lifestyle? Eat these cookies.

There may be some flavor buried in there (personally, I think it's some stray aromatics coming in via the nose), but it's negligible. All I taste is sugar sugar sugar sugar. Which is too bad, because conceptually this is a good idea. In practice: run like the wind.

Trader Joe's Fall Harvest Salsa

For Day 4 of New and Seasonal Products Week, we present an item that fits both categories. 


This is a brand-new product from Trader Joe's. See the company's description of it here.

Allow me to get straight to the point: This is the best store-bought salsa I've ever had.

Now, that declaration, while true, deserves a caveat--which is that I have not been a salsa kind of guy. I have purchased, before this, exactly one jar of salsa in my life, and that was to keep on hand here for when Nina comes over. I have, however, sampled several at parties, dinners, and so forth. And of course I have salsa on tacos and burritos and as a chip dip when I'm eating out at Mexican restaurants. It's just that when it comes to jars of the stuff from stores, I have never encountered one that made me want to keep eating it until the jar is empty. This one does that.

It brings a whole new twist to the genre, what with the pumpkin and squash and fruits and veggies. You would think that such things would doom it to being untrue to its salsa roots. But they don't. The first taste impression remains a moderately hot, peppery, distinctly tomato-based salsa, with the flavors of the special autumnal ingredients only kicking in after that first impression. The wizards at TJ's have concocted something really special here, and they somehow did a complete end-run around the Blandification Committee.

We had it with TJ's outstanding Organic Corn Dippers (review to come), which I thought made a superb combination.

Here is a concurring opinion from the good folks at the "What's Good at Trader Joe's" blog.

This is tasty enough that it's making me rethink the whole salsa-in-a-jar thing. Have I been missing out on a whole category of yumminess, like I was with hummus for my entire adult life? This may require some exploration.

It's so good that I'm seriously considering adding it to my Top Ten list. I'm going to hold off a bit though. I'm still in the throes of ecstasy from having just tried it. And I want to hear what Nina has to say.

[Edit: OK, having seen that the passage of 24 hours since we ate it has not dimmed her enthusiasm, I am proceeding with the Top Tenification of this lovely salsa.]

Will I buy it again? 

Oh, yes. Next TJ's run, I'm going to take home several, knowing that this will disappear from shelves without advance notice as soon as the Christmas stuff starts coming in.


Nina's View

Oh was I skeptical! I looked with disfavor upon this jar. I envisaged pumpkin-spice flavored salsa and I was all about the NOPE. Nopety-nope. Gag. Will not eat. The fact that the number one ingredient listed is pumpkin just upped the negatory attitude. And then the inclusion of honey and sugar. NO WAYZ, I sez to myself.

But since Adventure Bob had these on the menu as an appetizer offering, who was I to say HELL TO THE NOES? Try it I must.

If you're anything like me (and I admit that it's a lot less likely than I used to believe), you'll be pleasantly surprised by how good this stuff is. It does NOT taste like pumpkin spice in any way. It's NOT too sweet, although it is certainly not as sharp as most salsas. Bob and I ate half the jar in short order. Had dinner not been in the offing, I would have helped him finish it off.

This item is not for salsa purists. It's almost a chutney. But it's darn tasty. Go getcha some.

Trader Joe's Organic Carrot Coconut & Ginger Soup

This is Day 3 of New and Seasonal Products Week. 


I think this is a new Trader Joe's product. I had looked over the refrigerated soup selection many, many times without seeing it before, and the selection there is small enough that I feel reasonably confident that I would have noticed it. Also, I find nothing online about it anywhere, whereas with any product that has been around for more than a few weeks, lots of descriptions and photos come up in a search. (TJ's has long had a similar but non-refrigerated product: carrot ginger soup, without the coconut. Clearly not the same thing, but it's all that comes up in a Google search.) However: There has been no new-product announcement on the TJ's web site, and I saw no "new product" sign on the shelf at my local store the way they usually do for new things. So I remain slightly uncertain about its newness.

Anyway, if you haven't tried this, you're not missing much. It's dull. The carrot component is reasonably prominent. But I had to try hard to find any ginger flavor. And I could not detect any coconut--which is the part I was most looking forward to--no matter how hard I tried to convince myself that it was present.

One-note. Boring. Forgettable.

Will I buy it again? 

No.

Nina's View

Short version: Nina's Bottom Ten has a new denizen.

Longer version: Oh ugh. I actually expected to like this. I like carrots. I like ginger. I like coconut. I can easily envisage a soup with all those ingredients that is yummy.

Senator, this is not that soup.

I don't know whether the carrots in this batch were unusually bitter, or there was some other colossal fail in preparation here, but I found this basically inedible. I had three spoonfuls and gave up.