Sonia and I both have the same introductory reference point for scones: Starbucks circa the early-mid 2000s. She was partial to the maple oat nut scone while blueberry has always been my go-to. All things considered, I'd have to say these bake 'em yourself petite pastries are comparable to the classic Starbucks offering if perhaps a tad less sweet and less dense. Also TJ's are "miniature" scones, so these are much smaller.
Trader Joe's 12 Mini Blueberry Scones will run you $5.49. They come frozen, and you bake from frozen: 375° for 14-16 minutes. We had ours in for about 17 minutes before it was all said and done.
They came out nice and hot, soft, crumbly, and reasonably sweet. You can both see and taste that there's no sugar glaze on these scones. That's just fine with Sonia and me.
Each specimen had between one and four visible blueberries on the outside of the pastry. On the inside, there were none. The couple of berries you see poking out of the dough are just about all you're gonna get, unfortunately. Each bite with a blueberry is well-balanced, juicy, fruity, and sweet. Each bite without a blueberry is doughy and comparatively bland—not awful. But these bready breakfast bites would be bounds better with beaucoup blueberries.
Have them with tea or coffee. Slather them with blueberry preserves. Serve them with clotted cream. Whip up some powdered sugar frosting. There are plenty of ways to dress up these scones. And honestly, they're quite noshable as is. Trader Joe was just predictably stingy with the fruit—and that's really our only complaint. I guess a resealable freezer bag might be nice, too, in case you don't want to eat all 12 scones at once.
We'd still buy 'em again. Look for Trader Joe's 12 Mini Pumpkin Ginger Scones with the same style packaging come fall. Eight out of ten stars from Sonia. Seven and a half stars from me for Trader Joe's Blueberry Scones.
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.
