Saturday, September 30, 2017

Roundup

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


10 cheap Trader Joe's chocolate treats

24 of the best healthy Trader Joe's snacks

17 awesome desserts from Trader Joe's

Trader Joe's pumpkin products

Taste test of three Trader Joe's gluten-free pastas

New vegan food for fall at Trader Joe's

10 Trader Joe's comfort foods for fall

Your favorite Halloween decor this year may be from Trader Joe's

Trying to park at Trader Joe's (funny 3-minute video)

Trader Joe's fall staples hit the shelves

3 new Trader Joe's desserts to drool over

Comparing prices at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's



Best tweets of the week:













And finally, here's this week's cute cat in (or almost in) a Trader Joe's grocery bag:

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Friday, September 29, 2017

Trader Joe's Apple Cider Jam


Good jam, but with a somewhat deceptive name. Yes, there's apple cider in it, but you'd have no way to know this from tasting it. After all, apple cider is just unfiltered apple juice, so it tastes like...apples. Putting it in apple jam doesn't change much.

What makes this product different from most apple jams has nothing to do with the cider. It's the addition of a medley of what we now consider traditional autumn spices: cinnamon, cloves, etc. So you know what would be a more accurate name? "Apple Pie Jam." And I'd argue that that would be not just more accurate, but also more intriguing. It's jam that tastes like apple pie filling. Who would not want to try that?


Will I buy it again? 

 Yes.
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Thursday, September 28, 2017

Trader Joe's New Zealand Grass Fed Sharp Cheddar



Excellent white cheddar, though I wouldn't describe it as "sharp." It's definitely more flavorful than most, but without that, I dunno, "edge" of slight harshness that gets called sharpness in cheese. I guess I'd call it "mellow," without being bland or boring. It's soft and non-crumbling, making it easy to slice thin or thick.

Really, if I weren't already totally enamored with a couple of others, this would become my default white cheddar. It's just a notch below them, but head and shoulders above most of the genre (including the similarly named New Zealand Organic Cheddar).


Will I buy it again? 

 Yes, though less often than my trio of favorites, Extra Sharp Canadian, Mull of Kintyre, and Lite Sharp Celtic.
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Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Trader Joe's Sparkling Island Colada Spring Water


I've complained that some of the other products in this new line have too little flavor. This one, conversely, has too much. Where's Goldilocks when you need her?

The label lists only "natural flavors," without disclosing what they're supposed to be. But neither Nina nor I could discern anything but strong coconut--and to me it tasted strongly artificial, more like "coconut" than coconut.


Will I buy it again? 

 No. While some of the others have been underwhelming, none has actually been unpleasant--until now.
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Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Trader Joe's Low Fat Tuscano Marinana Sauce


I went to grab another can of my newly-beloved green-can marinara sauce when I spotted this next to it. It's apparently not new, as I find it archived in old online Fearless Flyers at least as far back as 2012, yet somehow I had never noticed it before.

It's not nearly as good as its shelfmate. It's chunkier, which I don't care for. But more importantly, it's just bland and boring. It has no zing to it.

It is lower in fat than the other one (presumably because of less olive oil), but the trade-off is more sugar and salt:


Note that this one does have added sugar, while the green-can version does not.


Will I buy it again? 

 Nope.
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Monday, September 25, 2017

Trader Joe's Super Lemony Lemon Bites



I find reviews of this product dating back to 2013, so apparently it's nothing new, but I somehow never noticed it on the baked-goods table at my local Trader Joe's. I know that their bakery products are made regionally, and vary from one part of the country to another, so maybe it's new to my area.

Anyway, the first I knew about it was when Nina texted me a picture of her empty container, with this message: "Gone in 2 days. Best lemon-flavored dessert ever. I now weigh 400 lbs. I understand if you need to break up with me."

So of course I bought my own batch on my next TJ's run, so that we could both weigh 400 pounds. Except that that won't be happening, because I didn't love them nearly as much as Nina did.

They definitely have an admirable quantity of lemoniness, including that distinctive lemon sourness, which is unusual in baked goods. But I thought it was overbalanced by sweetness. The icing in particular seemed a bit much.

Also, you'd better be able to eat the whole bunch in two days, like Nina, because they dry out something terrible if left any longer than that. It's probably due to a high ratio of cut-surface area to volume in these small morsels.


Will I buy it again? 

 Not for myself. But when I want to push Nina up to 500 lbs., I'll buy her a few more boxes.
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Saturday, September 23, 2017

Roundup

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


How to make your favorite Trader Joe's products at home

8 Trader Joe's foods I always keep in my freezer

Winning the grocery wars

What Trader Joe's figured out about work culture

Unhealthiest snacks at Trader Joe's

15 vegan Trader Joe's items

21 whole-food plant-based items at Trader Joe's

10 foods to put Trader Joe's Everything Bagel seasoning on

Target wine versus Two Buck Chuck

Marinate your Trader Joe's cheese

The annual pumpkin products are here



Best tweets of the week:









And finally, here's this week's cute cat in a Trader Joe's grocery bag:


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