Trader Joe's White Leicester Handmade Hard Cheese

This is currently Trader Joe's "spotlight" cheese of the month, so it will likely be available for a very limited time.

That's a shame. I'd like to see it become a permanent addition to the lineup. It's among my favorites. It's not labeled "cheddar," probably for some technical reason that I don't understand, but it sure tastes like cheddar to me--and a very, very good one.

I love the Mull of Kintyre Scottish Cheddar Cheese. It, too, was a spotlight cheese, available only briefly from TJ's. Fortunately, however, I've recently found it under its own label at another local store. So I tried this Leicester cheese side by side with the Kintyre. The former is not quite as sweet and creamy as the latter, but it comes closer than most white cheddars.

If this became regularly available from TJ's, it would be one of my most frequent cheese purchases--a staple that I would return to again and again. I think it's not quite Top Ten List material. Sadly, however, all of my very favorite TJ's cheddars that made that list are no longer available, so almost-as-good will have to be good enough.


Will I buy it again? 

I'm already on my second block of it.

Trader Joe's Organic Buffalo Style Hummus

This was OK, but I thought it was (1) too hot, (2) hot without being especially flavorful, and (3) a little too mushy/soupy for my taste. Nina disagreed; she liked this a lot. I should also note that if you read the list of ingredients, you'll find that it contains no actual buffaloes.

IMHO, the platonic ideal of hot hummus is the hot chipotle variety from Asheville-based Roots. It is superior to this TJ's one in every way.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Outside-In Stuffed Gnocchi

Nina found this and cooked it up for our dinner last night. Sorry for the dodgy pictures; she forgot to give me a chance to photograph the package before ripping it open.

This is a new product. TJ's introduction to it is here.

The basic idea is gnocchi filled with the two things that you might most commonly put on top of them: pasta sauce and cheese. It's a great idea. As soon as I saw the wrapper, I thought I was going to love them. Nope. I found them disappointingly bland. Unremarkable gnocchi shells with a vague smear of tomato and cheese inside. Dull as all get-out. I think they should make the sauce zestier, like TJ's own arrabiata sauce. Anything with a little more zing to it. And more cheese.

So: Excellent concept, poor execution.

Nina, conversely, didn't have a lot of hope for them, but felt pleasantly surprised. Go figure.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Roundup

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


Trader Joe's favorites

How Trader Joe's makes customer experience its competitive advantage

Healthy and tasty Trader Joe's snacks

Favorites from Trader Joe's

The ultimate vegan guide to Trader Joe's

26 healthy kids' snacks from Trader Joe's



Best tweets of the week:

Auditioning for the Trader Joe’s employee who looses all enthusiasm once a customer doesn’t have a reusable bag. #TraderJoes pic.twitter.com/uUQDCKtKON

— Michael Vincent (@mvincennt) March 10, 2019

I saw pink 🍤 and my brain said “pink shrimp = cooked shrimp”.

Narrator: No, it was in fact raw red Argentinian shrimp #TraderJoes

Spoiler alert: I ate raw shrimp 😂 #Confessions

— Jenn Mecks (@jomecki) March 10, 2019

When you play #whereswaldo aka where’s the end of the line in #traderjoes on this Sunday episode of #nyc #chronicles in #brooklyn pic.twitter.com/6Ye9h5TUbQ

— Bx3 (@Btimestwoo) March 10, 2019

Going to #TraderJoes reminds me of the scene in #TheLionKing when Simba’s dad gets trampled.

— Denise (@SantaBeezy) March 12, 2019

My local #TraderJoes has been out of salted peanut butter filled pretzel bites for the last FIVE days 🥜 🥨 🧂

To state the obvious, it’s been a rough week 😔

— Matt Volm 🦚 (@MPetrieVolm) March 12, 2019

Bit into a #traderjoes pizza that had a latex glove baked inside. @TraderJoesList #unsanitary #chokinghazard pic.twitter.com/cksMJZJKna

— Nilanga Amarasinghe (@ThisIsNils) March 14, 2019

And finally, here's this week's cute cat in a Trader Joe's grocery bag with his Trader Joe's cereal.

Trader Joe's 3 Cheese Vegetable Ravioli

Trader Joe's just keeps churning out new variations on a familiar theme. This time, they've stuck mushrooms, Swiss chard, kale, and three Italian cheeses inside the ravioli.

There were 12 pieces in the plastic container. One of them tore open partially during cooking, as I tried to separate two that were stuck together, but it didn't spill out all of its contents as I've seen happen before.

The texture was fine, as always. The contents left something to be desired, though. I tasted almost nothing but cheese. Now, for me this is kind of a good thing, because I tolerate but do not love mushrooms. For Nina, though, it was a letdown. She wondered what's the point of featuring mushrooms if they're not going to be prominent and really wonderful. And, she added, kale does not belong in ravioli. This is a scientific fact.


Will I buy it again? 

No. I'd stick with this one, or this one, or this one.

Trader Joe's Organic Spicy Avocado Hummus

Nina bought this.

It's a little too spicy for my taste--and kind of one-note-heat-spicy, not complex, interesting spicy. The avocado is not nearly as prominent as you'd expect, given that it's the feature that's really unusual and unexpected in hummus.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Another Trader Joe's supplier self-outs on Twitter

This is an occasionally recurring phenomenon that I will always find interesting and worth documenting. Trader Joe's is famous for locking its suppliers into iron-clad secrecy contracts. Yet in spite of that, once in a while one of them just can't resist the temptation to boast that they're the company behind a TJ's product. I always wonder what the reaction is at TJ's headquarters.

Here's the latest, with the newest "spotlight" cheese of the month (which I have purchased but haven't tried yet):

I replied to the tweet with a question. If they answer, I'll update this post.