Trader Joe's Creamed Multi-Floral New Zealand Honey

So apparently, an earlier iteration of this product was the subject matter of a lawsuit in which Trader Joe's was accused of misleading consumers by stating that their product was "100% manuka honey" when in fact only 60% of the pollen used in making the honey came from the manuka plant.

From what I understand, the court ruling favored Trader Joe's and did not penalize them, but it certainly looks like they took steps to prevent any further litigation by relabeling the honey as "multi-floral" instead of simply "100% manuka." Also, the ingredients list now reads just "honey" whereas the prior product listed "manuka honey" as the sole ingredient.

I find it hilarious that traderjoes.com states that their New Zealand honey is similar to manuka honey but tastes "less medicinal." LOL. They're not holding a grudge or anything.

Anyway, you'll pay upwards of thirty bucks for most authentic manuka honey, but this one pound jar will only run you $3.99 at Trader Joe's. We called around and it's not available at every location but some stores still have it in stock as of the time of writing this review.

Speaking of a review, you're probably wondering how this product tastes. It's delicious. It has the typical sweetness of any other honey, but there are floral notes, herbal notes, and I'd swear there's something nearly fruity in the flavor profile—like an essence of apricot or something like that. Very interesting.

And even more unique than the flavor is the texture. The honey is "creamed." Apparently that just means that it's been whipped into a fluffy consistency. It's like there are bunches of teeny tiny honey crystals mixed into a normal liquid honey. I honestly like it better than the syrupy texture of run-of-the-mill honey.

As mentioned above, this product will run you four bucks. It is indeed a product of New Zealand. We'd buy it again. Nine out of ten stars from both Sonia and me for Trader Joe's Creamed Multi-Floral New Zealand Honey.

Bottom line: 9 out of 10 stars.

Trader Joe's Teriyaki Mushroom Mini Bao Buns

There are only two sets of heating instructions on this bag and one of them involves a steamer, which we don't have, so we opted for the microwave this time. Just plop three of the miniature bao buns on a plate lined with parchment paper—that's right, they want you to put parchment paper in the microwave—sprinkle with water and cover, heat on high for one to two minutes. Ours took about 1:50 to reach the perfect temperature and texture.

The buns came out soft, supple, and slightly moist. The "meat" of this dish features oyster, king oyster, and shiitake mushrooms. Sonia is a fan, while I...um, I just don't really like mushrooms. The filling has carrots and onions and a tasty spice blend that includes garlic, ginger, and soy sauce among many other ingredients.

Honestly, I think I really would have loved this product if it contained anything other than mushrooms. I did taste it though, and all the elements are high quality and most folks would probably enjoy it. One drawback: it doesn't come with a dipping sauce. We experimented with a couple different condiments in the video below including soy sauce and yangnyeom sauce.

$4.79 for nine bao buns. Vegan. Product of Vietnam. Sonia would buy again. She'll give Trader Joe's Teriyaki Mushroom Mini Bao Buns nine out of ten stars and I'll sit this one out, score-wise, due to my bias against mushrooms.

Bottom line: 9 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Yangnyeom Sauce

What I knew about yangnyeom sauce before purchasing this bottle from Trader Joe's: zero, zip, zilch, nada.

What I know about yangnyeom sauce now that I've tried it: it's a Korean-inspired product that's got a lot of robust flavor and sass. It's slightly sweet, slightly spicy, and surprisingly not very thick—thinner than your average American barbecue sauce. It goes great with fried chicken and it's absolutely delicious.

Sonia took the opportunity to whip up a Korean hot chicken pizza. We documented the whole thing on video and put it up on YouTube, as we are wont to do these days. It involved pizza crust, cheese, chicken nuggets, cilantro, and this yangnyeom sauce instead of your typical tomato sauce.

It was tasty. We'd absolutely buy this product again and we'd make that Korean hot chicken pizza again, too. Next time we might even follow the instructions and buy all the legit ingredients. At any rate, this sauce gets our seal of approval and an official induction into our Trader Joe's product hall of fame known as "The Pantheon."

$3.99 for the 15.5 oz bottle. Kosher. Not actually from Korea. Both Sonia and I give Trader Joe's Korean Style Yangnyeom Sauce nine out of ten stars.

Bottom line: 9 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Blood Orange Mochi

This mochi flavor is absolutely superb. If you enjoy sweet-tart citrus desserts, then this treat is for you. We've got the typical stretchy rice-based shell that we've seen many, many times before from Trader Joe's and other fine mochi retailers—in this case, it's a lovely shade of orange. And on the inside, we've got pink ice cream flaunting the delightful flavor of blood oranges.

It's such an interesting balance of intense orange and creamy sweetness. This might be my favorite flavor of mochi ice cream to date. I really wanted to down the whole box in one sitting. Since I'm not a complete monster, I saved half for my lovely wife. She enjoyed them at least as much as I did.

The box will run you $4.99 for six mochi. That comes to about 84¢ per ice cream ball. Considering how scrumptious they are, that's not a bad value. Gluten free. Kosher. Would definitely buy again. This product is marked with that "Limited Time" label on TJ's website, so I wouldn't sleep on it unless you want to wait until 2026 to try these. Nine out of ten stars from me for Trader Joe's Blood Orange Mochi. Sonia will go with nine and a half.

Bottom line: 9.25 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Amarena Cherry Goat's Milk Cheese

Growing up, there were a bunch of food allergies in my family so we avoided many common foods like cow's milk dairy products. We'd frequently buy goat's milk and goat's milk cheeses from local farmers as alternatives.

Oddly, it seemed we only ever bought savory goat cheeses. It wasn't until after I tried a few varieties of Trader Joe's chevre cheeses many years later that I learned to appreciate goat cheese as a sweeter dessert-style cheese. Even unusual combos like jalapeño and honey chevre became fast favorites of mine, garnering some of the highest scores we've ever bestowed upon TJ's products in the entire 15 year history of this blog.

If anything, this amarena cherry goat cheese tops them all. It's absolutely delicious. Somewhere between a cherry flavored cream cheese and cherry cheesecake, this spread is rich, creamy, yet not over-the-top sugary. It's got a great balance of the goat cheese and sweet-tart cherry flavors.

It's perfect on crackers or sourdough just by itself. We also tried adding some real fruit preserves, and it worked great that way, too. It's a seasonal product that will disappear pretty soon if it hasn't already, but it will reappear next year around early February if history repeats itself. It IS still available at our nearest Trader Joe's location as of the writing of this post.

$2.99 for the four serving package. Product of Canada. Sonia just wishes they sold a larger package of the stuff. This one will be gone in no time flat, and we'll have to wait almost a year to buy some more. The nutrition info is pretty reasonable, too, considering how scrumptious the product is. Nine and a half out of ten stars from Sonia for Trader Joe's Double Cream Amarena Cherry Goat's Milk Cheese. I'll throw out an exceptionally rare perfect ten out of ten on this one.

Bottom line: 9.75 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Mini Mushroom Tartelettes

If you've been around for a while, you'll know I not only have a slight food sensitivity to mushrooms, but I really don't like their taste or texture either. And if you've been reading for a very long while, you'll remember Sonia had a very similar allergy in years past but she's mostly outgrown it. She's much more eager to take a shot at shrooms and feast on fungi these days, so she picked up this appetizer at Trader Joe's a couple months ago—which we recently rediscovered at the back of our freezer.

Considering I just straight up don't like mushrooms, I gotta say: this appetizer is oddly good. I mean, this product is case in point for why I try things that I "know" I don't like. The cheese, the buttery crust, the spice blend all help, but even the mushrooms taste nice here. There's a savory meatiness to them that I really enjoyed. Also, surprisingly, they're not very oily. Buttery? Perhaps. But not greasy or oily.

Sonia raved about this product. She inhaled 9 out of the 12 pieces in a single sitting—something quite uncharacteristic for her. It took a good half hour of her saying "Try them! You have to try them!" before I even took a single bite. She particularly enjoyed the flakiness of the breading, the creamy cheese blend, and the onion and garlic flavors underneath the mushrooms. She baked our batch in the oven, but I'm sure the air fryer would have done just as well.

$5.49 for 12 mini tarts. Sonia would buy them again in a heartbeat and I would attempt to overcome my disdain for mushrooms and eat half the package next time. Sonia gives Trader Joe's Mushroom Tartelettes nine out of ten stars. I'm still shocked at how much I liked them, so I won't contradict her on this one.

Bottom line: 9 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Medium Roast Coffee K-Cups

This is only our second K-Cup review on this blog, but it looks like we've reviewed in the ballpark of a dozen other types of coffee throughout the years. As per my usual, I'll let the beautiful wifey do most of the evaluating and analyzing since she's much more into coffee than I am. So my contribution to this post shall be the following compilation of those other Trader Joe's brand coffee reviews:

Trader Joe's New Orleans Style Coffee with Chickory

Trader Joe's Chocolate Hazelnut Ground Coffee

Trader Joe's 100% Kauai Coffee Beans

Trader Joe's Autumn Maple Coffee

Trader Joe's Decaf French Roast Instant Coffee

Trader Joe's Bourbon Barrel Aged Coffee

Trader Joe's Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate

Trader Joe's Coconut Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate

Trader Joe's Organic French Roast Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate

Trader Joe's Pumpkin Spice Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate

Trader Joe's Black Cold Brew Coffee

Trader Joe's Cold Brew Coffee Bags

Your guess is as good as mine as to whether any or all of the above are currently available, but at least you know we've sampled our fair share of TJ's java over the past decade and a half. Sonia likes this one at least as much as any of the others. $5.49 for 12 K-Cups. If you'd like to know her specific reasons for liking this one (beyond just convenience and reasonable price) you'll just have to click on the video review below.

Bottom line: 9 out of 10.

The Art of Trader Joe's

It's hard to put my finger on all the things that drew me to Trader Joe's in the first place. Do they have delicious foods? Of course. Do they have reasonable prices? Yes. Are the employees enthusiastic and friendly? Check. Are there exotic choices from around the world that are hard to find in mainstream grocery stores? You know it.

But there's also an ambience to each location that draws in the quirkiest of customers, seekers of novel experiences, and appreciators of fine art. It's not just the product packaging. It's not just the signage in the stores. It's everything about the Trader Joe's experience that draws us back over and over again.

And this new book by Julie Averbach nails that intangible appeal with such depth and expertise that I might not have thought it possible prior to opening up my copy of The Art of Trader Joe's. It's written in such a manner that it's accessible to even casual Trader Joe's shoppers and fans of whimsical illustrations, but the mind-blowing insights the author weaves into each and every page put it on the same level as a doctoral thesis in art history.

Each chapter is laden not just with photographs of actual Trader Joe's art installations, package designs, and store signs, but also pictures of the famous artworks from around the world which may have inspired them in the first place. It's carefully curated into categories such as "Victorian Cartoons," "Famous Art References," and "Pop Culture."

Julie Averbach traveled to more 150 TJ's locations throughout 20 states as part of her research. Sonia and I have been to Trader Joe's in 26 states, but Julie's got us beat on total number of locations by a good bit. Add to that her general knowledge of art and art history, and she's got the credentials to pull this off—but honestly, I never thought I'd be quite as impressed with this publication as I am now that I've started reading it.

It would make an ideal gift for any art lover or Trader Joe's shopper, or it could function as a coffee table book that's sure to impress guests and start conversations. I'll be reading it from cover to cover. Sonia is a professional graphic designer and lifelong art buff—watch our video review to hear her reaction to this book.

The book retails for $29.70 in paperback or $42.45 in hardcover on Amazon. You can also pick up copies at the world famous Strand Book Store in NYC or various other retailers on the east coast. Please check out theartoftraderjoes.com for more details. It would be hard to give this book anything short of a perfect score. This is one of my favorite Christmas gifts this year. The Art of Trader Joe's gets ten out of ten stars from both Sonia and me.

Bottom line: 10 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Thanksgiving Stuffing Popcorn

Can you believe it's been over nine years since the debut of Trader Joe's Turkey & Stuffing Kettle Chips? Took them long enough to do a popcorn version.

But it was well worth the wait. They got this product right. Conceivably, it will be too salty for some. Unlike the recently reviewed Crunchy Pops, which were very salty with not much flavor otherwise, these fluffy popcorn kernels are bursting with the taste of onion, black pepper, parsley, thyme, and other classic Thanksgiving stuffing seasonings.

$2.99 for the 5 oz bag. Kosher. Would buy again. Trader Joe's Thanksgiving Stuffing Seasoned Popcorn is obviously seasonal, so if you're as big a fan as we are, stock up while you can.

 

 

Bottom line: 9.5 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Jumeokbap

Neither Sonia nor I had ever heard of jumeokbap before. It's a Korean dish that usually involves a "rice ball." In this case, they're more like rice pyramids. But anyway, there's usually some veggies and beef mixed in with the rice. In this case, we've got vegan beefless bulgogi—a product we reviewed not that long ago—along with carrots, green onions, and cabbage.

This product comes with three individually sealed pouches, one pouch per serving. You simply snip the corner of the pouch and microwave for 1.5 to 4 minutes, depending on the number of pouches you're heating. Take the product out of the pouch and you're done. Quick and easy.

There are tiny pieces of bulgogi throughout the product. They're much easier to chew that way, but by the end of our meal, we both agreed that more of the delicious fake meat would have improved the dish. The overall flavor was excellent.

$4.99 for the three servings. Vegan. Product of South Korea. Found in the frozen section. Would buy again. Eight and a half stars from me for Trader Joe's Jumeokbap. Nine and a half stars from the beautiful wifey. 

Have I mentioned we're doing videos now? Sonia looks darn good for 45, doesn't she?

Bottom line: 9 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Hashbrowns

POE-TAY-TOES. Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew. You can make hash browns out of 'em, too. Taters really are versatile. Quick question, though: is "hashbrowns" one word or two? Seems Trader Joe's can't make up their mind on the issue. We reviewed a Shredded Hash Browns product many years ago, and back then it was a two word phrase whereas now it's a single compound word.

Not that this is a new item. In fact, this iteration may pre-date that shredded offering mentioned above. It's been around for a long time because it's an excellent product. I'm finally enthusiastic enough about it to give it a solid review thanks to the advent of the air fryer. Heated on the skillet, these morsels are good. Heated in an air fryer, these morsels are great.

They're crispy, slightly oily, and full of delightfully hearty potato flavor. These are some of the best hashbrowns Sonia and I have ever had. We've purchased this product a few times over the years. Not sure why we didn't review it sooner.

To circle back to the question I asked in the opening paragraph of this review, I'm just going to go out on a limb and say that "hashbrowns" taste better when they're spelled as a single word, so we should all just spell it that way from now on. $2.79 for ten potato patties made with Idaho potatoes, found in the frozen section. Twenty-eight cents per hashbrown? That's a ridiculously good value. Nine out of ten stars from the beautiful wifey and me for Trader Joe's Hashbrowns.

Bottom line: 9 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Everything but the Bagel Cheddar Cheese

This everything but the bagel phenomenon is getting out of hand. Why can't we just put classic EBTB on our own cheese, Trader Joe? You don't trust us to do it properly? I suppose it's nice to have it pressed right into the wheel already. It would be tedious to sprinkle the proper amount on every single bite of cheese, wouldn't it? Some of these products were better than others, but I know it was convenient to have it pre-applied to a few other things throughout the years:

Trader Joe's EBTB Greek Yogurt Dip

Trader Joe's EBTB Nut Duo

Trader Joe's Everything Ciabatta Rolls

Trader Joe's EBTB Smoked Salmon

Trader Joe's EBTB Potato Chips

Trader Joe's Everything Bagel Chips

Trader Joe's EBTB Crackers

Ridiculous, right? Anyway, TJ's keeps making them and we keep buying them, so there's no end in sight. Today we're looking at cheddar cheese. Pretty hard to mess that up, right?

We tried it plain first just to see what we're working with here. It's good. I thought, if anything, the EBTB wouldn't be strong enough and I'd want more of it. It's pretty well-represented here, honestly.

There's a significant garlic element in the EBTB cheese. Fortunately, Sonia and I absolutely love raw garlic, black garlic, cooked garlic, garlic butter, garlic mayo, garlic bread, and...well, you get the idea. I'd be wary of eating this during a work lunch since it might make your breath a tad funky.

Other than that, have at it. Provided you like cheddar cheese as well as the garlic and onion vibe you get from EBTB, I can't imagine people disliking this product. It makes plain old cheddar cheese seem super gourmet. Sonia and I will try this with chicken, pasta, sandwiches, and melted over veggies.

It's some of the best tasting cheese I've had in a long time. I give Trader Joe's Everything but the Bagel Cheddar Cheese 9 out of 10 stars. Sonia will give it a perfect ten. $4.99 for the 8 oz wheel.

Bottom line: 9.5 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Sweet Potato Habanero Hot Sauce

Cranking out review after review, day after day, week after week gets old after a while. Sometimes, I just lose inspiration and don't want to post on this blog at all. And then I'll fix breakfast or lunch and open up a TJ's product I haven't tried yet and it just absolutely blows me away and suddenly I remember the spirit that instituted this site in the first place.

That's what happened here. This sauce is delicious. I thought for sure it was going to be a repeat of last year's Chunky Garlic & Jalapeño Hot Sauce. For the life of me, I can't see what the fuss is about with that stuff. But this? Have you tried it? Holy cow. It's sweet like a sweet potato and spicy like a habanero pepper.

It looks just like the aforementioned garlic and jalapeño sauce, except that one was red and this one is an unappealing brownish-greenish color. I still wouldn't call this one "chunky," but it has tiny bits of veggies floating around in it much like its predecessor. But the flavor? Oh man, this has a wonderful bright zing to it and a burst of flavorful heat. It's got a significant amount of kick, but it's not over the top either. White vinegar is the number one ingredient but it's well-balanced with sweet potato and habanero deliciousness.

So far, we've tried it with eggs, chicken, and beef. We've used it in tacos, chili, and omelets, and it works quite well in every case. This is my new favorite hot sauce and quite possibly my new favorite condiment, period.

It might be a seasonal item. After all, sweet potato is a fall flavor. I better stock up if that's the case. If you don't like spicy foods, you might wanna sit this one out. It's also conceivable some folks will find it too sweet. Otherwise, I can't recommend it highly enough. The beautiful wifey loves it as well.

$2.99 for 5 fluid ounces. This looks like a pantheon product all the way. Let's go with nine out of ten stars from Sonia and me on Trader Joe's Sweet Potato Habanero Hot Sauce.

Bottom line: 9 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Caramelized Onion & Bell Pepper Turkey Patties

I might be the odd man out here, but I'll generally gravitate toward a turkey burger before I'll choose the more common and more traditional beef patty. Same for Sonia. If we're going to eat red meat, we'd both prefer buffalo (bison) burgers before beef, but those aren't exactly ubiquitous, so it's largely moot point.

All that to say, we love turkey burgers and have had many throughout the years. See: Trader Joe's frozen turkey burgers. I assumed these would be, like, my favorite thing ever since I'm also a big fan of caramelized onions and bell peppers. And while I did enjoy the veggies mixed right into the meat, I felt like there was something just slightly off that I couldn't quite put my finger on at first.

Meanwhile, the beautiful wifey raved about her burger. She said she was shocked at how much she loved it. She was originally thinking of adding seasoning during the heating process, but I talked her out of it, noting that for the purpose of review we should taste them sans fixins, at least at first.

She was amazed at how not bland the burgers were, embracing the onions, peppers, and interesting seasoning blend, though we both did note that the caramelized onions mentioned on the packaging didn't show up visibly in the burgers nor in the flavor profile in any meaningful way. We had the burgers with cheese, mustard, arugula, and pretzel buns in the end, both deciding that any additional seasoning was unnecessary.

After the fact, I did a bit of recon and checked out traderjoes.com to see if they mentioned what kind of turkey meat was used. Sure enough, they specify on the website that these turkey burgers are made of 100% thigh meat, though it's not specified on the product label. I've mentioned before that I'm a white meat and poultry breast kinda guy. Turkey burgers where white and dark meat are mixed work quite well, too, in my humble opinion. This dark meat only stuff doesn't taste quite as good to me.

Also, wtf is "cultured onion juice"?

TL;DR—I like the veggies cooked into the patties but I don't like that they're made of only dark meat. Sonia absolutely adores Trader Joe's Caramelized Onion & Bell Pepper Turkey Patties.

$5.99 for four patties, found in the refrigerated section.

Sonia's score: 9 out of 10.

Nathan's score: 7 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Pumpkin Spice Mini Sheet Cake

And NOW it's time for the pumpkin spice parade to proceed. Sheet cake with cream cheese icing and some pumpkin puree, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger doesn't sound too outlandish to me. Sounds like a downright delicious fall flavor, in fact.

And it is. Remember that vanilla bean sheet cake? Of course you do. There's also a lemon one we haven't tried yet. Anyway, it was pretty tasty thanks to the generous amounts of sweet vanilla icing on top. We've got just about that same amount of cream cheese-based frosting here and a very similar soft, moist texture.

The pumpkin spices are nicely blended, not too strong and not too subtle. The pumpkin puree gives the cake a distinctly squash-ish vibe underneath the indulgent dessert flavors. It works the same way pumpkin pie works, but you know, more bready than that, like a classic pumpkin roll except flat instead of cylindrical and swirly. The cream cheese frosting is sweet and tangy, buttery and velvety. There's a generous amount of it on the cake. I thought Sonia would say there's too much, but she raved about it. She and I agree that the overall effect is satisfying, scrumptious, and distinctly autumnal.

$5.49 for the six serving dessert, found with the other baked goods. We would buy Trader Joe's Pumpkin Spice Mini Sheet Cake again. Eight out of ten stars from me. Perfect ten from Sonia?? I didn't see that coming. Wow.

Bottom line: 9 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Taiwanese Green Onion Pancakes

Below, you'll find another video review featuring both the beautiful wifey and me.

I'm not sure if I put the nutrition info anywhere in the video, so I'll drop it right here.

$2.49 for 5 green onion pancakes actually imported from Taiwan. Vegan. We would definitely buy Trader Joe's Taiwanese Green Onion Pancakes again.

Bottom line: 9 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Mini Shrimp Bao

Sometimes I'll rack my brain for a few minutes trying to think of some little anecdote or clever story to serve as a segue into my review but all I can think about is how freaking amazing and delicious the product at hand really is. This is one such occasion. These shrimp bao are scrumptious, convenient, and very reasonable, cost-wise.

Just 45 seconds in the microwave had each pair of bao buns piping hot, soft, and nearly perfect in the texture department. The serving suggestion on the box recommended putting cucumber slices and julienned carrots on the buns. We just so happened to have both already chopped up and ready to rock and roll right in our fridge the day we ate these. The box also wanted cilantro, but it's rare we have that on hand. Still, the crisp veggies added the perfect complement to the shrimp meat and soft, fluffy wheat-based bao buns.

There's just a mild to moderate amount of spice in both the shrimp patties and the included lemongrass lime chili sauce—which is excellent just in and of itself. Sonia and I agree that we'd buy the sauce by the bottle for sure. It's like a good sweet Thai chili sauce but with an unexpected citrusy element and perhaps not quite as thick in terms of consistency.

The shrimp flavor, the array of spices and seasonings, and the subtle savoriness of the steamed buns was one of the best combos I've tasted in a while. Sonia and I plowed through the entire box in one sitting for dinner one evening. I've seldom had appetizers this good even at sit-down Asian restaurants.

$4.99 for eight spicy shrimp bao. Product of Vietnam. Don't confuse this item with Trader Joe's 6 Spicy Shrimp Bao from a dozen years back or so. That one wasn't very good. This one will go in the Pantheon. Perfect ten stars from the beautiful wifey. Nine out of ten from me for Trader Joe's Mini Shrimp Bao.

Bottom line: 9.5 out of 10.