Ryan Hall says September is going to be abnormally hot for most of the USA. If you're like Sonia and me that means it's still tropical popsicle season. Apple, pumpkin, and sweet potato can wait a few more weeks until the air gets a bit cooler. But if you're one of those poor, misguided individuals that just has to get your PSL on the moment the kids are back at school, then sit back, relax, and click play on our Ultimate Fall Foods Playlist on YouTube. Or take a gander at some classic written reviews of fall stuff—much of which has already returned to Trader Joe's—right here on our blog.
For the rest of you, we're here to tell you that Trader Joe's Pineapple Coconut Bars are refreshing and tasty, and they've got pretty decent ingredients and non-threatening nutritionals. At just 90 calories per bar, I'd say they're worth checking out.
They're pretty pineapple forward. That might be our biggest complaint. The coconut cream gets overshadowed by the pineapple juice concentrate in the flavor profile. Sonia wishes there were coconut shavings throughout the bar to add more coconut flavor and some texture. I don't disagree.
The coconut adds a nice thickness to the texture and a greater level of creaminess than I expected. These are not just frozen juice popsicles. They're sweet and smooth, and they really hit the spot for any "beat-the-heat" type situation. I just wish the actual coconut flavor were there in a bigger way. It's not really a piña colada vibe. It's more like PINEAPPLE with a whisper of coconut cream.
There is something undeniably satisfying about eating a frozen treat when it's 95 degrees outside and the humidity is doing its best to turn you into a damp towel. These are particularly good for that kind of weather because they're not so heavy or rich that you feel like you've made a terrible mistake halfway through eating one. Grab a couple, sit outside, and pretend you're on a tropical island instead of standing in your backyard watching your neighbor mow his lawn.
Sonia and I would both buy Trader Joe's Pineapple Coconut Bars again. $3.79 for six individually-wrapped popsicles. Gluten free. Kosher. Vegan. I'll throw out eight stars once again. The beautiful wifey will spring for eight and a half.
Bottom line: 8.25 out of 10.
I've always been an adventurous eater. A lot of it was because of some food sensitivities I had when I was younger. I was constantly being fed alternative grains, milks, meats, and what my friends considered "health food." Some of it was definitely delicious...and some of it was downright disgusting.
But eating, for me, was all about the discovery of new things. While my friends stuck with old standbys, I was drinking goat milk, rice milk, and oat milk decades before they were cool. I was eating bison burgers while my peers were eating McDonald's for the fourth time in a week. As far as grains were concerned, wheat was forbidden by my parents for most of my childhood. I ate rice bread, millet bread, and pancakes made with amaranth flour, among other things.
Even so, I'd never even heard of foods like seitan and tempeh until I befriended a group of vegetarians and vegans while living in Wilmington, NC in my early twenties. They introduced me to dishes that included tofu and soybean-based tempeh. I can still count on one hand the number of times I've had tempeh since then, but I'll never forget my first time trying it. I liked it. Didn't love it—but I liked it.
Apparently, Trader Joe's Sweet Chili Tempeh Chips are made with black-eyed peas rather than soybeans. That's just fine with me. I just realized two things while researching basic info about tempeh: 1) tempeh is fermented and uses a "starter culture" somewhat akin to sourdough and 2) tempeh is a traditional Indonesian food—and this product is indeed imported from Indonesia.
That said, these are very tasty chips. They're gluten free, they come in a resealable bag, and they're surprisingly spicy. There's definitely a sweet chili flavor not unlike your typical sweet Thai chili sauce, although not quite as syrupy sweet. Underneath, there's a good bit of saltiness and the earthy, nutty essence of black-eyed peas.
They're crispy and crunchy and remind me a bit of other bean-based chips—like traditional chips or crisps but denser and a bit more hearty. There's a faint dusting of powdery garlic and paprika on the surface of the chips and they're just mildly oily, too. They've got coconut oil but I wouldn't say any coconut shows up in the flavor profile in any meaningful way.
$3.49 for the 3 oz resealable bag. Gluten free. Product of Indonesia. Sonia and I would buy this again, but we fully recognize this is a product that won't be for everyone. If spicy chips made with black-eyed peas sound intriguing, we say give 'em a try. I can't imagine these will be at Trader Joe's forever, but I wouldn't be upset if they were. Eight out of ten stars from both Sonia and me for Trader Joe's Sweet Chili Black-Eyed Pea Tempeh Chips.
Bottom line: 8 out of 10.
