Trader Joe's Handcrafted Chocolate Raspberry Tamales Wrapped In Corn Husks

Chocolate.

Raspberry.

Tamales.

Two of those words go perfectly well together. A marriage made in heaven. The third, not so much. You hear "chocolate" and "raspberry" and it's all like





But then you add "tamales" and it's all like



So one naturally approaches a Frankenstein-like product such as this with some trepidation.

I chose to steam mine, using the vegetable steamer accessory on my rice cooker. The package does have microwave directions, but they're kind of complicated, involving steps to be sure the things don't dry out too much, so I thought steaming would be easier and less likely to go wrong.

The result is OK, but not great. The chocolate is not candy chocolate, but more, well, sort of cakey, though an unusually dense and moist cake. Maybe more like soft chocolate cookie dough. Pretty good.

The raspberry part was the real disappointment. It's like one little schmear of raspberry filling in the center--far too little.

The corn husks definitely add a flavor of corn to the whole proceedings, which is unexpected but not unpleasant. Corn and chocolate are not tastes I'm used to experiencing simultaneously, but it's not bad. I wouldn't say they mesh as nicely as chocolate and raspberry, but there's no overt clashing.

I think these would be virtually impossible to eat without utensils. Use a fork, and there's no mess at all.

But really, they need much, much more raspberry. That's their major deficiency. Fix that, and you'd have something really quite interesting and appealing. As they are, well, I'm glad to scratch them off my list of odd things to try, but I'm not lining up to get more.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Roasted Root Vegetable Ravioli

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

This ought to be better than it is, what with the several different vegetables and two kinds of cheese. But it's just kind of bland and dull. I can taste some cheese if I try, but it's not prominent enough. I get a vague sense of veggies, but if I didn't see bits of carrot, I would never be able to guess what they were from the flavors.

It's not terrible, but it's disappointing.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Nina's View

These should be pierogies. If they tasted better, they'd be pierogies. The Blandification Committee has had its way with what ought to be a delicious root-vegetable dish of pillowy comfort-foodness.

I think these would probably go over well with kids. But give me the previous Beet Ravioli instead, any day.

Trader Joe's Organic Spicy Spinach Blend

This is day five of New Products Week. 


This bagged salad is a brand-new thing at Trader Joe's. See the company's description of it here.

I like it. I mixed it with a bag of TJ's Organic Butter Lettuce and Raddichio, plus half a bag of TJ's shredded carrots. (Note: Review of the latter is pending. I tried to find my review of the former, and was surprised to discover that it doesn't exist, either published or in yet-to-be-published form. This is odd, because it's one of the products that I buy most regularly--almost a bag a week. How did I overlook it? But I'm not going to bother now, because it's identical to the regular Butter Lettuce and Raddichio, except organically sourced. I can't tell the difference, and for non-meat, non-dairy products, I really don't care about the difference between organic and non-organic. I grab whichever one I see first, or whichever looks fresher.) This is the same as my usual salad recipe, except with this new product taking the place of Organic Power to the Greens. Less often I combine the lettuce/raddichio and carrots with TJ's Organic Herb Salad Mix.

The result was a fine salad, with close to zero work. It's just as tasty as my usual blend, but even prettier, because this new product's ingredients have a wider variety of shades of green, so there's a lot more eye-pleasing color. The "spicy" part of the title is an overstatement. Sure, the mustard greens deliver a touch of zing, but not nearly as much as the herb salad blend. Really, you can't go wrong with any of the three, though I do think they all need to be combined 50/50 with a predominantly lettuce bag for maximum palatability. Maybe it's my mainstream Midwest upbringing, but to me it ain't a salad if lettuce isn't the main ingredient.


Will I buy it again? 

Yep. One trial has earned it a place in the regular line-up. I like the basic formula that I've evolved. I think I'm going to try to keep a regular rotation among this, the herb salad mix, and the Power to the Greens. I like them all about equally well, and I think that little bit of variety will be good for both my health and my interest in keeping a decent amount of greens in my diet.


Nina's View

This salad is Nina Approved. It is pretty and tasty.

Trader Joe's Due Canestrelli

This is day four of New Products Week. 


I believe that this is a new Trader Joe's product. I saw it for the first time at the check-out aisle about three weeks ago--not the "new items" shelf. But searching for comments about it, I found nothing prior to November/December 2015.

These cookies remind me of the sugar wafers I used to love as a kid. However, the wafer part is thinner and much less grossly sweetened, while the chocolate part is richer.

Overall they didn't do much for me. Perfectly acceptable, but nothing outstanding.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Nina's View

Texture: good.

Flavor: mixed. The chocolate is not too sweet, which I like. But it also tasted stale, and had a bit of "bloom," which suggested it had not been stored properly or was past its prime.

I did not care enough for these to have any interest in trying them again.

Trader Joe's Sun-Dried Tomato & Cheese Sourdough Toasts

This is day three of New Products Week. 


I saw these on the new-items shelf at the Asheville Trader Joe's, having heard nothing about them. (In fact, I still have not seen any reviews or other comments about them online.) But even with no advance knowledge, there was little doubt in my mind that I would like them. I don't think you can put sourdough bread, cheese, and sun-dried tomatoes together in a way that I would not like. The only question was: How much would I like them?

The answer: A lot. (Or, just to annoy my friend Dan in Minnesota, a ton.) I could have eaten the whole bag in one sitting. The reasons I didn't were (1) Nina was here and sharing them, and (2) they were a pre-dinner appetizer, with lots of food yet to come.

I love the flavors. I love the texture--super crunchy. I love the piece-to-piece variation; some are thicker or thinner, larger or smaller, more or less cheesy, more or less toasted, but all scrumptious.

They're so damn good that they may join my Top Ten list. But sometimes my initial enthusiasm for a new product is not borne out by repeat experience, so I'm going to hold off for now, and revisit that question after a sufficient cooling-off period and a re-tasting or two.

I'm sure there are lots of interesting things one could do with these culinary-wise (Nina instantly had some ideas), but I have a hard time believing that there is any preparation or combination that I would like better than I do just eating them plain, as they are, right out of the bag.


Will I buy it again? 

Damn straight, Skippy.

Nina's View

This is a rare case where I totally and utterly and completely disagree with Bob. Usually, my disagreement is a matter of a degree— maybe I like something much more or dislike it much less. Sometimes I have a broader experience of a food type and can therefore compare it to a standard exemplar in a way which Bob cannot.

In this case, however, I wish to dump out a huge heaping wheelbarrow of NOPE on this product.

Crunchy? Yes. TOO CRUNCHY. Your gums will bleed.

Sourdough? Yes, BUT NOT IN A GOOD WAY. In fact, everything in these crackers tastes sour, including the cheese and sun-dried tomatoes.

Cheese? Yes, but back-of-the-tongue nasty cheese. Mostly burnt, too.

Sun-dried tomatoes? Yes, sort of. Little red bits with very little flavor, and that which there is, is kind of stale and off.

I think Bob's affection for this product is a classic example of priming. Bob knows he likes the ingredients, therefore OF COURSE he will like this product. If I blindfolded him and told him they were crackers made of spelt, dried okra, and tofu—well, I think he'd like them a whole lot less.

Trader Joe's Cranberry Gingerbread Granola

This is day two of New Products Week. 


This is a seasonal variant of the excellent Coconut Cranberry Granola. It's OK, but not nearly as good as the product from which it is derived. I like ginger, but here it doesn't work as well as the coconut.


Will I buy it again? 

No. Skip this, and buy the similar box that's next to it on the shelf.

Trader Joe's Coins Of The World

This is Day one of another New Products Week. 

I blame society. It's everybody else's fault for not educating me.

You see, I had never heard of Hanukkah gelt. I didn't know that chocolate coins wrapped in gold and silver foil was a thing you give children to celebrate that holiday--until I brought this little bag of them home from Trader Joe's, thinking it was some sort of Christmas thing, and my half-Jewish girlfriend set me straight. I have known the basics about Hanukkah since learning the dreidel song in grade school. But nobody filled me in on chocolate coins. You can learn more about the evolution of this tradition here.

Anyway, mark the Trader Joe's version for children only. Anybody who has a little more sophistication to his chocolate tastes will reject them. It's cheap, waxy milk chocolate. A Hershey's bar is better.


Will I buy it again? 

No.


Addendum 

I discovered, after writing the above, that this is actually not a new product. I Googled it to see if anybody else had written a review, and found this comparison test of 13 different chocolate coin products--from 2005. I was deceived by the fact that my local TJ's had it on the new-items shelf. It is seasonal, but not new. So New Products Week is already a lie. Apologies.