Now before we get started looking at Trader Joe's Greek Style Chicken Salad, we have to remember the ghosts of chicken salads past and put this all in perspective. Trader Joe's was once home to the two best chicken salads I've ever had: Trader Joe's Curried White Chicken Deli Salad and Trader Joe's Wine Country Chicken Salad, neither of which I've seen in quite a while. At some point, the curried chicken salad underwent a repackaging and renaming and became a slightly different product called simply Trader Joe's Curry Chicken Salad. I'm told it wasn't even close to that aforementioned Curried White Chicken Deli Salad, though I did not sample that version of it and can not provide confirmation of those allegations.
Likewise, at least one report came in years after the fact that the Wine Country Chicken Salad underwent a similar disappointing change near the end of its life cycle at Trader Joe's. Basically what I'm saying is that I've never had chicken salad that good before or since. I'm not saying those selections were healthy in any way. On the contrary, they packed a surprising amount of fat and calories for a food that's often thought of as light and reasonably healthy—particularly the curried offering. But my goodness, if they weren't delicious...
Anyhoo, this is one of the few chicken salad offerings that's caught our eye in recent years and we're here to tell you it's tasty, but it's not exactly the Homer's Odyssey of the chicken salad world. There's plenty of good and plenty of meh and if you want the nitty gritty, please read on.
What's working? There's a fair amount of quality white meat chicken, though the chunks could be bigger. They're more like wispy shreds of chicken as it stands. There's a nice salty vibe throughout the mix, though it's not over-the-top briny or thirst inducing. The spice blend including onions, garlic, parsley, black pepper, and dill provides a nice Greek undertone. The olives and artichoke hearts add a pleasant touch providing some hearty veggies and tender, meaty earthiness.
The sundried tomatoes are about the only element Sonia and I are split on. I found them to be too big, too intrusive, and a tad too chewy, while Sonia thought they worked just fine. She's far more into tomato than I am, although I can throw down with sundried tomatoes in some contexts.
Still, we both found the product lacking that WOW factor. We both wanted feta cheese. Who makes a Greek chicken salad without feta? A few crumbles of the delectable Mediterranean brined curd cheese might have pushed this product over the top into greatness. As it stands, it's worth a try but not legendary.
$5.49 for the 10 oz tub, found near the refrigerated salads, cheeses, and hummus type things. Might buy again. Seven and a half stars from the beautiful wifey for Trader Joe's Greek Style Chicken Salad. I think I'll follow suit.
Sonia and I are 100% in agreement that Trader Joe's Root Beer Float Bars are a better summer buy than the recently-reviewed Trader Joe's Root Beer Float Pieces. These are cold. They provide more refreshment. Their taste is closer to that of an actual root beer float. The candy pieces melt in the heat. They're a tad too sweet. They don't taste quite enough like root beer.
The only point I'll give to the root beer pieces that I can't give to these popsicles is the novel presence of popping candies. The cookie chunks fizz like real soda. I kinda wish they'd put Pop Rocks or whatever we're calling them in these fun frozen treats. Sonia disagrees. She hates fun.
Just kidding. She's a girl and girls just wanna have fun, after all. I guess we just differ on what constitutes fun occasionally. For example, I love roller coasters. I think they're a blast and a half. Sonia? Not so much. She'll get on a kiddie coaster once in a while but she's terrified of the big rides. Okay, now I'm getting off track.
Back to the popsicles. I mean, these aren't just popsicles. They're also ice cream bars. They're the best of both worlds. Vanilla ice cream on a stick surrounded by frozen root beer. That's a fun idea. That idea's so summery, it should be illegal to keep these in your freezer and consume them in any season but summer. That's why TJ's takes them away come fall time. The root beer pieces go away around then, too, but they don't seem as summery to me.
Usually I'm cursing at Trader Joe for making half his inventory seasonal, but with these, it makes sense. There's a nice balance of sweet, earthy root beer and creamy vanilla bliss. The first bite kinda tastes more like root beer but once you get further down the bar, it seems like there's a plethora of vanilla ice cream.
$3.79 for six bars. Kosher. Found in the frozen section, duh. We'd buy these again next summer for sure—or maybe even on our next TJ run. But there's probably too many other new treats to try to make room in our freezer bags for these. I dunno. We'll see. Eight and a half stars from the beautiful wifey for Trader Joe's Root Beer Float Bars. I'll go with eight out of ten on this one.
