Trader Joe's Vanilla Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate

Sonia is definitely more the coffee person in our house, and she most definitely appreciated Trader Joe's Vanilla Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate more than I did. I don't have any major problems with it other than I think it's a bit stingy with the vanilla flavor. The beautiful wifey thinks it's just about right in terms of the boldness of the coffee and the balance of vanilla.

Of course, you have to dilute the coffee. It wants two parts water or milk or milk alternative and just one part concentrate. And most folks will want to add sweetener of some kind. We used Trader Joe's Vanilla Cold Foam (review upcoming) and we also tried it with plain old brown sugar. It worked either way.

The concentrate itself was smooth and surprisingly mellow for such a dark-looking brew. No weird aftertaste, no burnt bitterness, just a solid cup of cold coffee that tasted decent and perked us right up. Sonia especially liked how easy it was to customize depending on her mood and caffeine needs.

See also Trader Joe's Maple Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate

Trader Joe's Pumpkin Spice Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate

Trader Joe's French Roast Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate

Trader Joe's Coconut Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate

and Trader Joe's Original Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate

$8.99 for the bottle. It's kosher, shelf-stable until opened, refrigerate afterwards. Makes eight 12 oz cups of coffee. Sonia would definitely buy it again. I'll throw out seven out of ten stars for Trader Joe's Vanilla Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate. Sonia gives it eight and a half out of ten. You should pay more attention to her score since she's way more into java.

Sonia's score: 8.5 out of 10.

Nathan's score: 7 out of 10.

Trader Giotto's Italian Tomato Pasta Sauce Trio

Ten bucks gets you three tomato-based pasta sauces imported from Italy. Trader Giotto's Italian Tomato Pasta Sauce Trio is a limited-time release made with Pugliese tomatoes, and it features 1) a puttanesca sauce with olives, capers, and anchovies 2) a datterino cherry tomato sauce and 3) a tomato and roasted vegetable pasta sauce. Both Sonia and I liked the puttanesca sauce best, but we'll break down our observations of all three tomatoey toppings.

So...puttanesca is a funny word. The first part of it is quite similar to a not-so-nice word in Spanish that Sonia and I are familiar with, but the root word is also used in Italian. Apparently, the sauce is, in fact, referring to a style of cooking associated with women of ill repute. There are many theories floating about that attempt to explain the sauce's origins and its scandalous name, but both the beautiful wifey and I found it to have the most pleasant and interesting texture and flavor.

It's the heartiest of the three if only by virtue of the chunks of veggies floating through the mixture. There are plenty of green Chalkidiki olive slices and Kalamata olive slices, along with tiny bits of anchovies. I didn't notice any capers in our jar, but they are listed in the ingredients. The flavor is very salty and pungent. Like the other two, it's got plenty of tomato flavor, but it's the richest, earthiest, most complex flavor by a good margin.

Next up, we've got a sauce that's highlighting a particular species of cherry tomato known as the datterino. I thought for sure the beautiful wifey would enjoy this one the best since she's an outspoken tomatophile. I felt like this had the most pure, bright tomato flavor of the three sauces, but since I'm not really a fan of raw tomato, I didn't really gravitate towards it. Surprisingly this is also Sonia's least favorite of the trio, citing a one-dimensional flavor profile as its weakness. "It feels too plain," she stated. I don't disagree.

Finally, the Italian Tomato and Roasted Vegetable Pasta Sauce. This one actually tasted like roasted veggies and had a nice garlicky essence underneath everything. The zucchini, eggplant, and peppers definitely added to the flavor and the texture of the sauce, though we both think it could have benefited by doubling or tripling the amount. For both of us, this was the second best sauce in the pack.

None of the sauces were particularly thick in terms of the density of the liquid, but each had a nice natural tomato flavor and an authentic Italian spice blend. We'd pick this product up again just for the variety and the value. $3.33 per jar is a decent price point for a true European import and the presentation is nice. It'd make a decent gift. Let's get to our final scores for Trader Joe's Italian Tomato Pasta Sauce Trio.

Trader Giotto's Tomato Puttanesca Sauce with Olives, Anchovies & Capers: 7.75 out of 10.

Trader Giotto's Italian Datterino Cherry Tomato & Roasted Garlic Pasta Sauce: 7 out of 10.

Trader Giotto's Italian Tomato & Roasted Vegetable Pasta Sauce: 7.25 out of 10.