Trader Joe's Amarena Cherry Goat's Milk Cheese

Growing up, there were a bunch of food allergies in my family so we avoided many common foods like cow's milk dairy products. We'd frequently buy goat's milk and goat's milk cheeses from local farmers as alternatives.

Oddly, it seemed we only ever bought savory goat cheeses. It wasn't until after I tried a few varieties of Trader Joe's chevre cheeses many years later that I learned to appreciate goat cheese as a sweeter dessert-style cheese. Even unusual combos like jalapeño and honey chevre became fast favorites of mine, garnering some of the highest scores we've ever bestowed upon TJ's products in the entire 15 year history of this blog.

If anything, this amarena cherry goat cheese tops them all. It's absolutely delicious. Somewhere between a cherry flavored cream cheese and cherry cheesecake, this spread is rich, creamy, yet not over-the-top sugary. It's got a great balance of the goat cheese and sweet-tart cherry flavors.

It's perfect on crackers or sourdough just by itself. We also tried adding some real fruit preserves, and it worked great that way, too. It's a seasonal product that will disappear pretty soon if it hasn't already, but it will reappear next year around early February if history repeats itself. It IS still available at our nearest Trader Joe's location as of the writing of this post.

$2.99 for the four serving package. Product of Canada. Sonia just wishes they sold a larger package of the stuff. This one will be gone in no time flat, and we'll have to wait almost a year to buy some more. The nutrition info is pretty reasonable, too, considering how scrumptious the product is. Nine and a half out of ten stars from Sonia for Trader Joe's Double Cream Amarena Cherry Goat's Milk Cheese. I'll throw out an exceptionally rare perfect ten out of ten on this one.

Bottom line: 9.75 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Sourdough Boules

Apparently "boule" is (one of) the French word(s) for "ball." Some places say it's pronounced "bool" and other say "bool-eh," so I don't even know. I say "bool" in the video. If that's wrong, I'm sure someone will call me out on it.

These are big roundish loaves of crusty sourdough and we turned ours into bread bowls. They were pretty good taste and texture-wise, and they retained the soup quite well. We just wish you could taste that tart sourdough flavor a bit more. We particularly enjoyed the crusty outer portion of this bread.

I've had my share of bread bowls with soup and I'd say this one is better than average. I'm glad Sonia cut the indentations for the soup because I'd have probably mangled the things beyond recognition. And the "lid" makes the perfect dunkable for the soup.

$2.99 for two big bread boules, found with the breads and baked goods. The best by date on our bag was just two days after we purchased it, so we had to eat them fast. Would buy again. We'll both go with seven and a half stars out of ten for Trader Joe's Sourdough Boules.

Bottom line: 7.5 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Shishito Crisps

Okay, this calls for an historical Trader Joe's dried, crispy, snackified veggies recap. The first ones I ever recall seeing were Trader Joe's Contemplates Inner Peas. I liked those pretty well. Sonia and I both enjoyed Trader Joe's Kale Chips. We thought the Broccoli Florets were okay. And I was a fan of the Crispy Crunchy Okra while Sonia was not. Most recently, we looked at the Oven Dried Bell Peppers. Bell peppers are among our favorite veggies in existence but strangely, we were not enamored with the dry version very much.

Enter: Trader Joe's Shishito Crisps. Once again, the ingredients are simple: just the titular veggies, rice bran oil, and salt. While I've heard of shishito peppers, I don't believe I've ever had them, and I'm not familiar with their flavor at all. Hey, there's a first time for everything.

First thoughts? They remind me of zombie fingers. They're brittle, crunchy, salty, and lightly oily. There seem to be three different colors in the bag: green, brown, and yellowish—with the green color being by far the most common. The taste? Maybe somewhere in between a bell pepper and a poblano pepper. I'd say the spice level is in between a bell and poblano as well—that is to say: not very spicy but not completely devoid of spice. After eating a few, there's an interesting residual warmth that's very pleasant.

They're not as flavorful as I was hoping they'd be, but the faint peppery taste combined with the rice bran oil produces enough sapidity to keep me interested. They'd go great with soup. Or a salad. Or soup and salad. I'd say these rank just above the aforementioned dried bell peppers and just below the crunchy okra in the annals of Trader Joe's crispy veggies.

So let's say I give these seven out of ten stars. Sonia is on board for the same. That's a "not bad" score for Trader Joe's Shishito Crisps from both the beautiful wifey and me. Product of Thailand. I think we paid about three bucks for the bag. Wait. Two hundred calories for the whole thing? Shoot. If I could learn to cultivate an eight out of ten star appreciation for this product, I'd drop the pounds like nobody's business.

Bottom line: 7 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Lemon Mini Sheet Cake

Ah, lemon desserts! Lemon desserts are another one of those categories of food that we're quite passionate about. Lemon, in general, is a magical thing. It's good for the skin, heart, kidneys, and digestive system—not to mention it can be used as a natural household cleaning product—plus, it's absolutely delicious.

We've seen too many lemon-flavored products from Trader Joe's throughout the years to recount every one, so we'll focus on just a few highlights: Trader Joe's When Life Gives You Lemons Make Ice Cream was insanely tart and lemony, and I loved it, personally. Trader Joe's Lemon Zest Madeleine Cookies might have been Sonia's favorite lemon product from TJ's of all time. And we both enjoyed Trader Jacques' Lemon Meringue Tarte, although we haven't seen it around in quite a few years.

How does Trader Joe's Lemon Sheet Cake compare? Sonia's certainly more fond of it than I am, but I can't say too many bad things about it. The cake part is oddly dry to me, and it could use more lemon flavor in my estimation. However, the icing saves the day. The cream cheese-based frosting for all of these Trader Joe's sheet cakes is rich, sweet, and flavorful, and this product is no exception.

There are little bright yellow zest bits on the icing and lemon juice throughout the product, which I did enjoy, although I wouldn't have minded even more of both. The icing seems a tad more lemony than the cake to me, but it's also sweeter, richer, and more flavorful in every way. I do tend to be an icing guy when it comes to cake, though.

Despite my affinity for sweet lemony things, I think I like both the pumpkin and vanilla sheet cakes just a wee bit more than this one, although it's nothing to complain about. I don't know if any product will ever compare to Sonia's love for that pumpkin spice sheet cake, but she definitely enjoyed this one more than the vanilla bean variety. We still have yet to look at the yellow and chocolate ones.

$5.49 for the six serving dessert, found with the baked goods. Sonia will go with eight and a half stars. I'll throw out seven and a half for Trader Joe's Lemon Flavored Mini Sheet Cake.

Bottom line: 8 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Cheesy Bagels

Growing up in South Central Pennsylvania, I didn't really eat bagels much. I mean, you could buy them at the grocery store, but my family generally didn't. Furthermore, they weren't an intrinsic part of the food culture out there in cow country.

When I went to college, I was excited to see bagels in the dining commons, where I could eat them every day. I thought they were great. The kids from North Jersey, Connecticut, and New York City were less enthused, frequently proclaiming that "Pennsylvania bagels aren't good." Except the language they used was much more colorful than that and involved words that have no place on a family-friendly blog such as this one.

Subsequent trips to the city would indeed prove that New York knows how to do bagels in the same way that Philly knows how to do cheesesteaks and Chicago knows how to do deep-dish pizza. All that to say, I'm far from an expert, but I love me a good bagel once in a while.

That said, store bought bagels rarely compare with anything fresh from a bakery or deli, but once in a while a decent product comes along. And while these aren't the best bagels I've ever had, they're pretty tasty if you like asiago cheese. That funky asiago essence really starts wafting through the kitchen once you fire up the toaster, and there's no turning back from there.

They are indeed soft and doughy on the inside and chewy on the outside. The asiago flavor is fairly dominant but not overpowering. There's a subtle wheat and barley taste as well. I enjoyed them with cream cheese the most, but they were fine with just butter in my opinion. Sonia liked them quite a bit, too, trying them with cream cheese, butter, and some seasoned chicken cold cuts for protein.

$3.49 for four pre-sliced bagels. Kosher. Would buy again. We'll go with eight out of ten stars from both Sonia and me for Trader Joe's Cheesy Bagels.

Bottom line: 8 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Crispy Potato & Poblano Pepper Tacos

Visually, these remind me of tacos dorados or fried tacos, although it's been many years since I've had them—the size, the crispy and slightly oily outer tortilla, and the way they're folded tightly so you can barely see what's going on in the middle. If you want a fast food reference, the two for a buck Jack in the Box tacos are similar.

Obviously, the filling is significantly different here. Instead of your typical beef and cheese taco with lettuce and what have you, we've got mashed potato and shredded poblano pepper instead of meat. Sonia says it's similar to a Mexican meal called "tacos de papa," the specifics of which vary from region to region in Mexico.

To me, the execution of Trader Joe's Crispy Potato & Poblano Pepper Tacos leaves a little to be desired. The filling in our six tacos was anything but uniform. The first one I tried barely had any pepper. The second one I grabbed actually had more poblanos than potatoes. The one without many peppers was quite bland, as you might expect. The one with a bunch of poblano had a nice peppery kick to it, but it was fairly one-dimensional flavor and texture-wise.

Fried potato chunks would have worked better than mashed potatoes I think. They're "meatier" in texture and they have more flavor, too. A larger variety of veggies would be in order as well. The peppers are a good start, but a taco needs a handful of different textures. Sonia thinks the peppers and potatoes by themselves are fine in this instance. I suppose we could have added our own lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and sour cream if we wanted.

Surprisingly, the beautiful wifey also likes the flavor. I think it's okay. It's just lacking something—not necessarily meat. A corn and bean salsa would have gone a long way. Maybe some cheese, too.

In its current format, I would think this product would stand as "vegan," although it isn't labeled as such. $4.99 for six potato tacos. Product of Mexico. Sonia would buy Trader Joe's Crispy Potato & Poblano Pepper Tacos again, while I would not if it were up to me. If they wind up in our freezer again, I'll eat one or two, but I'll dress it up with something for sure.

Sonia's score: 8 out of 10.

Nathan's score: 6 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Salted Caramel Swirl Danish

They say you are what you eat. And you don't get a nice doughy physique like mine by eating a low-carb diet, that's for sure. I'm a certified breadhead. A carbivore. A lover of pastries and baked goods. It's a good thing I'm not skilled at baking or I'd weigh like 400 pounds.

That said, I might go easy on a product just because it's a sweet, bready Danish. But I also might be harsh on it because my standards are unusually high. It's a double-edged sword.

If you're in it for a typical sticky bun Danish pastry type thing, then I think you'll like this product. If you're in it for the salted caramel custard, then you might be a bit disappointed. There's not like a glob of actual custard in the middle of the bread or anything like that. There's just a thin glaze of it in between layers of the pastry. I might not be up-to-date with my Danish bun lingo, but when I see the words "custard style filling" I think there's a giant cache of yummy pudding somewhere in the breading that you could eat with a spoon. That's not the case here.

Trader Joe's Salted Caramel Swirl Danish does indeed have a caramel-esque flavor, which is nice. It's not particularly salty in our opinions, but that's just fine by us. Our specimen was never dry, not even after heating in the air fryer. They give optional heating instructions for the conventional oven only on the packaging. Who pre-heats their oven to 350° to put something in it for two minutes??

At any rate, the air fryer worked pretty well and the product remained soft and fresh-tasting. It's honestly almost as good just straight out of the package. So if you're on your way home from TJ's and you need that pick-me-up, this product is totally fair game at room temperature. It's a little sticky and messy, so have some wet naps nearby.

$3.99 for three big Danishes. Product of Denmark. And look at that: if you eat the entire package, there's actually fewer calories than if you just eat a single Danish. 390 calories for one pastry or 117 for the whole thing. Oh wait. Part of the nutrition info is hidden behind the little flap on the wrapper. Yeah. I guess that's 1170 calories per package. Boo. Eight out of ten stars from me for Trader Joe's Salted Caramel Swirl Danish. Sonia will go with eight and a half.

Bottom line: 8.25 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Beef, Bean & Cheese Burrito

We're tough graders here in general, and we might be extra demanding when it comes to Mexican food. Sonia grew up with it, and we've both been exposed to a wide gamut of comida Mexicana from food trucks to trendy restaurants to best-kept-secrets to holes-in-the-wall to run-of-the-mill fast food joints. We may not be certified connoisseurs, but we're Mexican food enthusiasts at the very least.

Burritos? This ain't Trader Joe's first day at the burrito rodeo, that's for sure. Unfortunately, not many of their pre-made refrigerated burritos have been particularly memorable in my humble opinion. I'll throw out an honorable mention or two just so you know I'm not a hater: Trader Joe's Vegetable Samosa Burrito was interesting and tasty, and we liked the Roasted Turkey & Sweet Potato quite a bit, too.

Again, their other burritos haven't been awful, just...not memorable. Unfortunately, this burrito will fall into that category for us, as well. Sonia says Trader Joe's Beef, Bean & Cheese Burrito is basically what you'd get if you'd open a can of Hormel Chili and stick it inside a flour tortilla. I don't disagree, though I will assert that it tastes just a shade better than that.

Visually, it's unappealing. It's just a lumpy brown mush on the inside. There are very few discernible veggie chunks and what little cheese is in there gets lost in the sauce. Portions of the tortilla came out nice and crispy from the oven, but other sections were a tad leathery and hard to cut with a fork.

The spice blend is pleasant. There is a nice beefy flavor with notes of cumin, onion, and chipotle. There are plenty of pristine pinto beans with a nice taste and texture.

Still, there's nothing that would make me ever want to reach for this product again when you consider all the other myriad burritos at your fingertips. At least with a Burrito Supreme from Taco Bell, you're getting everything you get here plus fresh tomato chunks, lettuce, sour cream, and hot sauce.

$4.49 for the single serving burrito. Wouldn't buy this one again. Six out of ten stars from Sonia. Six and a half out of ten from me for Trader Joe's Beef, Bean & Cheese Burrito.

Bottom line: 6.25 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Brownie Truffle Baking Mix

In today's exciting episode, Nathan takes to the kitchen to bake brownies! What kind of unmitigated disaster will unfold in this misadventure? Click the video below to find out.

Surprisingly, Mr. Rodgers managed to make a decent batch of brownies despite his lack of culinary skills or understanding. Sonia supervised the whole operation like a helicopter parent patrolling a bratty pre-teen at a middle school make out party. 

Good thing, too. Nathan's not good at mixing, stirring, cracking eggs, or following instructions. Come to think of it, he's not good at much other than shoving sweets into his chubby face.

Alright. Enough with the self-deprecation. I get a little punchy when I have to write a few paragraphs to fill up space when the review is entirely contained in the YouTube video. I mean, this is really just placeholder text. I'm simply trying to make it a tad more interesting than your typical lorem ipsum.

Have I succeeded? Well, you've made it this far into this non-review, so I guess so. Thanks for reading this schlock. You should have just clicked the video to begin with. I digress.

Trader Joe's Brownie Truffles are easy to make, they have a nice dark chocolate flavor, and instead of edible fungi like you might have expected, they have robust chocolate chips all through them. We might buy this product again. $3.79 for the mix which produces 16 servings of brownie truffles. Wouldn't they be truffle brownies rather than brownie truffles?

Bottom line: 7.5 out of 10.

Aperol Aperitivo and Martellozzo Prosecco

Ever since Sonia saw Lily Collins downing multiple Aperol Spritz beverages on Emily In Paris, she's wanted to try the trendy Italian drink. So needless to say, she was excited when she spied Aperol Aperitivo on the shelves of our nearest Trader Joe's store. She also snagged an Italian Prosecco on the same shopping trip, though neither is TJ's store brand, obviously.

The only other things you need to make an authentic Aperol Spritz are ice cubes, some seltzer water or club soda, and an orange slice. We already had those on hand, although I'm pretty sure you could find any or all of the ingredients at just about any Trader Joe's—except the booze, of course. Did you know alcohol is only sold at TJ's in 14 states?

At this point I should also note that an Italian Spritz doesn't have to be made with Aperol. There are other brands like Campari and Pronto which are popular here in the States as well as Europe. I know Joe carries Pronto, and it's a bit cheaper than the Aperol.

I can't say what a Spritz tastes like when made with those other brands, but I can tell you that an Aperol Spritz is refreshing, citrusy, and unique. The finished product is a beautiful shade of light orange, and you can smell the fruity flavors wafting from the glass. Of course, you can make it sweeter by adding more Prosecco or more citrusy by adding a bigger orange wedge or less potent by simply adding more sparkling water. I used just a tad more wine than Aperol and a fairly large splash of Polar water because I like my drinks on the fizzy side. Of course, Prosecco has some carbonation of its own but not enough to offset the stillness of the aperitivo.

By itself, the Aperol is mildly bitter and strong. It's got an orange flavor, but there are also notes of grapefruit as well as something herbal or floral. It is considered a "bitter," but I'm told that it's actually sweeter than most other popular aperitivo brands.

$26.99 for 750 mL of Aperol Aperitivo, 11% alcohol by volume, imported from Italy. $8.99 for the Martellozzo Prosecco, 10.5% ABV, also dall'Italia. Would buy both again. Eight out of ten stars from both Sonia and me for the Aperol Spritz and its constituent ingredients.

Bottom line: 8 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Mini Mushroom Tartelettes

If you've been around for a while, you'll know I not only have a slight food sensitivity to mushrooms, but I really don't like their taste or texture either. And if you've been reading for a very long while, you'll remember Sonia had a very similar allergy in years past but she's mostly outgrown it. She's much more eager to take a shot at shrooms and feast on fungi these days, so she picked up this appetizer at Trader Joe's a couple months ago—which we recently rediscovered at the back of our freezer.

Considering I just straight up don't like mushrooms, I gotta say: this appetizer is oddly good. I mean, this product is case in point for why I try things that I "know" I don't like. The cheese, the buttery crust, the spice blend all help, but even the mushrooms taste nice here. There's a savory meatiness to them that I really enjoyed. Also, surprisingly, they're not very oily. Buttery? Perhaps. But not greasy or oily.

Sonia raved about this product. She inhaled 9 out of the 12 pieces in a single sitting—something quite uncharacteristic for her. It took a good half hour of her saying "Try them! You have to try them!" before I even took a single bite. She particularly enjoyed the flakiness of the breading, the creamy cheese blend, and the onion and garlic flavors underneath the mushrooms. She baked our batch in the oven, but I'm sure the air fryer would have done just as well.

$5.49 for 12 mini tarts. Sonia would buy them again in a heartbeat and I would attempt to overcome my disdain for mushrooms and eat half the package next time. Sonia gives Trader Joe's Mushroom Tartelettes nine out of ten stars. I'm still shocked at how much I liked them, so I won't contradict her on this one.

Bottom line: 9 out of 10.

Trader Joe San Soyaki

A quick internet search will reveal that Trader Joe's is just about the only place that sells "soyaki" sauce. Plenty of other folks are peddling bottles of teriyaki with sesame seeds as a primary ingredient. It seems fairly self evident that "soyaki" is a mashup of the words "soy" and "teriyaki," but if regular teriyaki has soy in it anyway, then wouldn't all teriyaki be soyaki? Seems to me that the sesame seeds are the things that make this product unique, but I guess "sesameyaki" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

Trader Joe's Soyaki is bursting with the umami flavor of soy sauce, but behind it there's a surprising amount of cane sugar sweetness along with garlic and ginger purees. You can taste sesame, vinegar, and tamari, and the whole thing is nice and savory. There are enough sesame seeds that they not only provide a bit of nuttiness to the flavor, but they add some texture, too.

My instincts would gravitate towards poultry or fish as the perfect pairings for this sauce, but I suppose steak wouldn't be out of the question. We used our soyaki as a marinade for salmon and it was scrumptious. We served it with rice and salad, and it was just perfect for dinner.

I hear it goes quite well with tofu as well, so if you're prepping a plant-based meal you're in luck because Trader Joe's Soyaki is certified vegan. It's also kosher. $3.99 for 21 oz. Would buy again. Eight out of ten stars from both Sonia and me for Trader Joe's Soyaki Sauce.

Bottom line: 8 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Medium Roast Coffee K-Cups

This is only our second K-Cup review on this blog, but it looks like we've reviewed in the ballpark of a dozen other types of coffee throughout the years. As per my usual, I'll let the beautiful wifey do most of the evaluating and analyzing since she's much more into coffee than I am. So my contribution to this post shall be the following compilation of those other Trader Joe's brand coffee reviews:

Trader Joe's New Orleans Style Coffee with Chickory

Trader Joe's Chocolate Hazelnut Ground Coffee

Trader Joe's 100% Kauai Coffee Beans

Trader Joe's Autumn Maple Coffee

Trader Joe's Decaf French Roast Instant Coffee

Trader Joe's Bourbon Barrel Aged Coffee

Trader Joe's Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate

Trader Joe's Coconut Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate

Trader Joe's Organic French Roast Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate

Trader Joe's Pumpkin Spice Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate

Trader Joe's Black Cold Brew Coffee

Trader Joe's Cold Brew Coffee Bags

Your guess is as good as mine as to whether any or all of the above are currently available, but at least you know we've sampled our fair share of TJ's java over the past decade and a half. Sonia likes this one at least as much as any of the others. $5.49 for 12 K-Cups. If you'd like to know her specific reasons for liking this one (beyond just convenience and reasonable price) you'll just have to click on the video review below.

Bottom line: 9 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Four Cheese Scalloped Potatoes

Not to be confused with Trader Joe's Scallopini Potatoes, which is a frozen dish available exclusively around Thanksgiving and Christmas, this cheesy potato product comes refrigerated and is still available currently at TJ's, though it, too, is marked as "seasonal." It comes in a plastic tray with a thin film covering, and they actually want you to bake the product right in the tray. Peel back a corner, plop the tray on a baking sheet, and throw the whole thing on the center rack at 375° for 25 minutes and you've got a steaming hot side dish ready to rock and roll.

This isn't the first product we've reviewed that came in an "ovenable" tray, but I'm not gonna lie, this one smelled a bit like burning plastic at the end of the heating process. There was no discernible melting going on, but the odor was a bit off-putting. The fact that the product itself wasn't exactly bursting with flavors of its own didn't help matters much.

When I read the words "Four Cheese," I expect a rich comfort food flavor that's heavy and bold in the best ways possible. There's nothing offensive about the taste of this product but if I'm honest, it just didn't do it for me. If not more cheese, it would have benefited from a more potent spice blend with onions or garlic.

The texture of the potatoes was a bit firmer than I'm used to with this type of dish—it's almost as if they weren't cooked long enough. On a more positive note, the cheese wasn't overly oily or greasy. I liked that there were shreds of leeks throughout the dish, although I would have appreciated a lot more of them.

In the end, it's a convenient side dish that's innocuous enough and quite easy to prepare, but there's better packaged scalloped potatoes out there. Would not buy this particular product again. $5.99 for the 3.5 serving package. Six and a half stars from Sonia for Trader Joe's Four Cheese Scalloped Potatoes. Five and a half stars from me.

Bottom line: 6 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Organic Couscous

Neither Sonia nor I grew up with couscous at all. I remember they served it in the dining commons at college once in a while. Some of the international students I knew would get moderately excited about it, so I decided to give it a whirl. It's not bad. It's a great substitute for rice or orzo, it has an interesting texture, and it goes great with Mediterranean meals.

Apparently couscous is indigenous to North Africa. It's usually a little buttery and salty, sorta fluffy texture-wise, and is a decent source of protein. The beautiful wifey and I have had pearled couscous several times, including the couscous formerly known as Trader Joe's Israeli Couscous. I prefer pearled, personally. The grains are larger and a tad firmer. We had some recently with one of our Hello Fresh meals that came with the ingredients for a garlic butter sauce. That might have been the best couscous I've ever had.

Sonia prefers the regular kind, and she's particularly enthused that this product is organic. She whipped up a batch in our latest video, posted below. It required only butter, salt, and water. The entire process took less than 10 minutes, and the results were pleasant but mostly unmemorable by my reckoning. Sonia ate some plain while I tried it with a Mediterranean style chicken and garbanzo salad.

$1.79 for 12 oz. Sonia would buy Trader Joe's Organic Couscous again, while I'd seek out the pearled kind before repurchasing this particular item. Six out of ten stars from me. Eight out of ten stars from the beautiful wifey.

Bottom line: 7 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Calamari Pieces in Olive Oil

All things considered, Trader Joe's Canned Calamari Pieces in Olive Oil are a better introduction to the magical world of edible squid than Trader Joe's Crispy Battered Calamari, despite what my initial instincts would have told me.

This product is just a tad chewy, but it's head and shoulders above the fried version, texture-wise. Both products have a pretty nice flavor in my opinion, but I think this one might just edge out the competition in terms of taste, as well, despite the crispy battered goodness coating the other product.

The tin contains 2.82 oz of bite-sized squid pieces, sourced off the coast of Spain. They're packed in olive oil and salt, and they're ready for consumption straight out of the can. Apparently the species is known as "jumbo squid" or Humboldt squid. They're much larger than the normal little squids but not as big as the giant ones that can attack submarines and eat unsuspecting swimmers in the open ocean.

I tried them plain and also on a simple arugula salad. Looking forward to trying them with Spanish rice and maybe in a pasta dish. If you've got any other ideas, let us know in the comments.

$3.99 for the single serving can. Would buy again. Eight out of ten stars from me for Trader Joe's Tinned Calamari Pieces in Olive Oil. Sonia will go with seven out of ten.

Bottom line: 7.5 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Cranberry Clementine Sparkling Water

This might be the best flavored water yet from Trader Joe's. None of the flavors I've had are terrible, but this one stands out as being particularly refreshing to me. That subtle rush of citrusy orange...the whisper of tart cranberry...the perfect level of bubbly carbonation...it's really darn good all the way.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think this flavor is available year round, unlike the two most recent flavors we've looked at: Green Apple and Winter Sangria, both of which I'm fairly certain are seasonal. Not even sure if they have the Watermelon Lemonade at all still. 

Sonia says this one reminds her a bit of the San Pellegrino Aranciata flavor, which is more expensive and harder to find. Well, it's harder to find if you're going to Trader Joe's regularly, anyway, and I suppose you can order it online, but this Trader Joe's flavor is just about as tasty and sourced domestically as opposed to being imported from Italy.

$3.49 for 8 cans. What the heck happened to 12 packs? These water companies have us paying more for eight cans of water than we ever paid for 12 cans of soda. It's not just TJ's, it's Bubly, it's Waterloo, it's Aha, it's Polar. It's pretty much everybody. I think La Croix still sells 12 packs at a few places but they started doing the eight pack thing, too. I digress. Sonia and I give Trader Joe's Cranberry Clementine Sparkling Water eight and a half out of ten stars. We would definitely buy it again.

Bottom line: 8.5 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Squiggly Noodles with a Spicy Garlic Sesame Sauce

Can you believe it's been over a year and a half since we reviewed the original Trader Joe's Squiggly Noodles? Neither can I. The general consensus was that they were nothing to complain about, but also nothing to write home about. On their own, they weren't very exciting, but they made a great base for a larger Asian meal with veggies and/or meats.

Since reviewing the original squiggly noodles, we've also tried numerous flavors of Momofuku brand noodles. They are indeed quite similar, but there were certain flavors that we enjoyed more than others. Sweet & Spicy was among our favorite styles of Momofuku, and likewise, I think ratcheting up the spice level might also help with the overall flavor of Trader Joe's brand. So spicy squigglies have to be a step in the right direction from their predecessors, or so I'd assume.

Packaging-wise, they're very similar. The originals were clad in bright red while these spicy ones come in a black cellophane outer wrapper. Once again, there are four individual packs in the bag and the total price is $4.99. Interestingly enough, the spicy noodles pack a bigger punch in the calorie department, boasting 460 per serving as compared with the original squigglies coming in at 310 per serving. We've also got more sugar, more overall carbs, more protein, and more fat with the spicy version. That's a significant deviation as far as nutrition info is concerned.

And after taking a bite, I can tell you that, yes, the extra calories and carbs do indeed translate to more flavor. It's a much more exciting taste than the original squiggly noodles. It's not super spicy, heat-wise, but it brings a rich garlic soy flavor. It's got a punch for sure, but it's not a mouth-searing chili type spice. It's much more filling than the original and also much more satisfying in my opinion.

These function as a standalone meal much better than the other squiggly noodles from Trader Joe's, but we still added some egg for extra flavor and protein. If you wanted to throw in chicken or beef, bok choy, cabbage, mushrooms, carrots, or spinach, I'm sure any of those would blend seamlessly with the noodles and sauces here.

I gave the original squiggly noodles six out of ten stars and Sonia gave them seven out of ten. She's disappointed that these "spicy" noodles aren't really all that spicy, but she agrees that the overall flavor is a step in the right direction, and she also likes that these are cheaper than the Momofuku brand. She'll give these seven and a half out of ten stars. I'll go with eight out of ten. We would buy Trader Joe's Squiggly Noodles with a Spicy Garlic Sesame Sauce again.

Bottom line: 7.75 out of 10.