Trader Joe's Pink Peppercorn Fontina Cheese

Yes, I know this cheese has been out for a number of months now and everybody and her sister has already reviewed it online. We aren't the fastest to get to the new items here on WG@TJs but I don't know of many reviewers who've looked at 2,600 Trader Joe's products. Slow and steady has worked for us for the past 16 years and there's no end in sight.

Hot take: I like Trader Joe's Pink Peppercorn Fontina Cheese. There are lots of cheeses from TJ that I hear a buzz about and then I try them and I'm like, "What's the big deal?" but this one is pretty tasty. You've got high quality fontina cheese as the base. It's creamy, nutty, and mild with a subtle sweetness. Then there's the pink peppercorn. It's peppery, pungent, and punchy. In fact, I could see some people saying the peppercorn flavor is too prevalent.

Apparently, pink peppercorn is a completely different plant from black peppercorn, which is the only kind of peppercorn I was familiar with prior to this product. I mean, this tastes extremely similar to black peppercorn to me. It's got a nice spicy kick, which is exactly what I was in the mood for today. I think it balances the smooth, creamy butteriness of the cheese in a fun and zesty way.

Sonia and I have only tried it on crackers so far and by itself, but we are eager to try melting it into a gourmet grilled cheese or shaving it over warm crostini, pasta, or roasted vegetables. Because fontina is such an exceptional melting cheese, letting those bright peppercorns bloom across a pan of garlic bread, an omelet, or a rich flatbread seems like an absolute no-brainer for our next round.

$6.99 for a 7 oz wheel of cheese. Available for a limited time only. Would buy again next year. Sonia and I are both on board for the same score: eight out of ten stars for Trader Joe's Pink Peppercorn Fontina Cheese. Happy Friday the 13th.

Bottom line: 8 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Maple and Sweet Potato Flavored Sandwich Cookies for Dogs

For those of you who are dog people, you totally get it. If people have sandwich cookies, then our furry friends should, too. It's pretty simple. We want to share everything in our lives with our four-legged family members.

And for the past 13 and a half years, that's what Sonia and I have done. We woke up with Alfred and Sadie and ate breakfast together. We'd take them outside to play in the yard, weather permitting. We played with them in the living room. We tossed their squeaky toys while we watched TV. We all slept in the same room. Sonia and I both even work from home, so the four of us have been together pretty much all day, every day for such a long time.

Sadly, that all changed last week. Our little boy Alfred crossed the Rainbow Bridge. And again, for those of you who are dog people, you totally get it. It's devastating. It's just as hard and in some ways harder than losing a person that's close to you. Here's our Instagram post about it. He was 14 years and 2 months old, and we'll never forget him.

So unfortunately, he never got to try Trader Joe's Maple and Sweet Potato Flavored Sandwich Cookies for Dogs. Sadie will be scoring this one solo. Both he and Sadie did, however, get to try the Three Dog Bakery brand sandwich cookies: Lick 'N Crunch. They had the Birthday Confetti variety. That product retails around $4.50 - $5 depending on where you pick it up while Trader Joe's fall-themed offering will run you $2.99.

TJ's product contains fewer cookies of course, but that makes perfect sense to me. Unless you have tons of dogs or really enormous dogs that eat a lot of cookies, the Three Dog Bakery product seems impractically large. Neither of the dogs went nuts for the Three Dog Bakery sandwich cookies. Sometimes they'd eat them happily, other times they'd outright reject them.

With both brands, we had to break the sandwich cookies up for our very small dogs. We'd twist them open just like an Oreo and then snap the cookie in half, if not in quarters. In both cases, things got a bit messy with the creamy filling smearing on our hands and sometimes the floor. They both seemed to like the Three Dog Bakery cookies less and less as time went on. I mean...maybe they were getting stale near the end..?

Upon Sadie's first taste of Trader Joe's Maple and Sweet Potato Flavored Sandwich Cookies for Dogs, she promptly spit it out. She rubbed her tongue on the roof of her mouth several times and gave me a confused look. Sonia encouraged her to try it again, so she did. It may be an acquired taste, but it only took two tries to acquire it. After that second attempt, Sadie came running back to me for another bite of delicious sweet potato sandwich cookie.

She ate about one full cookie and kept asking for more. We cut her off at that point until later. Subsequent rewards were again met with skepticism from Sadie. She'd play with the cookie a bit and look at it as if to say, "I don't know if I really like this." But then eventually she'd eat it and come over to ask for another bite.

It's a cute product and we might buy it again for Sadie next fall. $2.99 for 12 sandwich cookie dog treats. Available for a limited time. Sadie gives this product seven and a half out of ten paw prints.

Bottom line: 7.5 out of 10.

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Scroll through our pet treats search label here on the blog to read about some of Alfie's favorite treats. Or check out our Trader Joe's Brand Dog Treat Reviews Playlist on YouTube to see our adorable pups eating pumpkin cookies, Christmas treats, Better Than Leftovers, and dozens of other TJ products.

In Loving Memory of Alfred S. Rodgers, the little boy in a dog suit
September 2012 - November 2026

10 out of 10 stars for Alfie, my best friend