Beverages don't get much more summery than this juice blend. It's sweet. It's tropical. It's refreshing. Traderjoes.com even threw us a bone and shared a recipe for a frozen guava daiquiri using this fine product right here.
Wish I could say I've actually made the daiquiris already, but alas, the most exotic thing I've done with it is mix it with orange juice. If you pour the guava nectar into your glass first, the OJ sits on top since it's less dense. It looks a bit like a tequila sunrise. It makes a very pretty and, more importantly, very tasty mocktail.
This nectar tastes extremely similar to the recently-reviewed Trader Joe's Organic Guava Spread, which we really enjoyed. It's like they liquefied the thick, jam-like spread and turned it into a chuggable beverage. This nectar is just a tad thicker than regular juice, but it's not quite as thick as some other fruit nectars I've tried.
Ingredients-wise, we're looking at water, guava puree, and white grape juice concentrate as the top three. White grape juice will generally add a bunch of sweetness to any juice blend, although we do have a bit of added sugar further down the list. It's more than enough sweetness to offset the natural tartness of the guava puree.
We did a beverage roundup/haul/showcase on video with about seven different currently-available Trader Joe's drinks, and I think this was my favorite one of all. Sonia and I have polished off the majority of the bottle in about 48 hours since it's so hot here and this drink really hits the spot in terms of refreshment and quenchability.
$3.99 for the 32 oz bottle. Shelf stable until opened, refrigerate after opening. Certified organic. Would buy again. Eight and a half stars from me for Trader Joe's Guava Nectar. The beautiful wifey will go with eight out of ten.
Cereal is another one of those categories on this blog that probably makes me sound like a Debbie Downer more often than not. It's not that Trader Joe's cereals are particularly bad, it's just that we've seen so many that it takes something incredibly special to really wow us. The most recent cereal to do that was the outstanding Homestyle Cherry Pistachio Pecan Granola just a couple months back. While Sonia and I are not quite as enthusiastic about Trader Joe's Salted Almond Honey Granola, we'll definitely give this one a thumbs up and a positive recommendation—particularly if that cherry pistachio stuff isn't available for some reason.
This cereal has lots of big almond slices. In the video review, I called them "slabs" of almond. I have to say they were pretty generous with the nuts in this case. They're excellent quality and there are plenty of 'em.
The granola is nice. There are very few of those obnoxiously large boulders of granola that you have to use a pick axe to get apart like we've seen a few times in the past. Bonus: there are corn flakes in the mix. Some are floating free and some are fused to the little chunks of granola. There's also rice flour in there. Not sure where that comes into play to be honest. Maybe they're flakes of corn and rice..? At any rate, the flavor is more complex than most granolas that only employ oats. This one has oats, corn, and rice. Yum.
The cereal is pleasantly sweet, but not overly so. It tastes vaguely like honey because there is some actual honey in the ingredients list. If I have one complaint, it's that I'd want honey as the primary sweetener in the granola rather than cane sugar. Nothing against good old cane sugar, but this cereal would be more aptly named Trader Joe's Salted Almond Cane Sugar Granola...with a touch of honey.
Nitpick much? Yes. Yes, I do.
Overall, it's a nice neutral, hearty, grainy flavor with an appropriate amount of sweetness. Sonia and I would both buy it again. Kosher. $3.99 for the resealable 12 oz bag. We'll both go with eight out of ten stars on Trader Joe's Salted Almond Honey Granola.
