Trader Joe's Lemon Flower Cookies

I'm on record saying lemon is an excellent summer flavor at least once or twice on the blog. If I had to pick a season other than summer when lemon snacks can shine bright like the sun, the obvious choice would be spring. There are bright yellow flowers everywhere in the springtime...and serendipitously, lemons are bright yellow, too.

In the tradition of Trader Joe's Raspberry Hearts, these are seasonal shortbread sandwich cookies with fruit flavored filling. This time it's lemon instead of raspberry...which most of you probably figured out already. The shortbread is once again high quality, fresh, crumbly, and sweet, and the jam is delectably lemontastic.

I was pleasantly surprised with the level of lemonosity in these yellow yum-yums. I generally have to complain that Trader Joe's lemon products aren't lemony enough. These cookies might not be the most lemon-laden treats I've ever tried, but they pack a pungent punch of citrus satisfaction.

Sonia is hit or miss with lemon sometimes, but she genuinely enjoyed these flavorful flowers. Once again, they are two typical shortbread cookies stacked on top of one another with a layer of lemon lusciousness in between the two cookies, which yields a fairly fat cookie. If the beautiful wifey and I have one complaint about these, it's that they're too tall. We'd prefer flat shortbread cookies with lemon filling baked into them somehow.

But that's being picky. These are great sweet, tart, buttery cookie treats, and yes, we'd both buy them again. $5.99 for 18 cookies. Four and a half stars from Sonia. Four stars from me for Trader Joe's Lemon Flower Cookies, found in the baked goods section.

Bottom line: 8.5 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Organic Vanilla Bean Paste

For some crazy reason I was thinking this would be, you know, a paste. It's not. It's a syrup. In case you were wondering, yes, this is my first vanilla bean "paste" purchase. I realize Trader Joe's didn't invent this stuff. But a paste is somewhere in between solid and liquid. This is just a sticky fluid with bean bits in it. I dunno, man. That's my story and I'm sticking to it: vanilla bean paste is a syrup, not a paste. I'll die on that hill.

Not that it matters. It's still thick. It's still yummy. It's like vanilla extract but sweeter, thicker, tastier, and beanier—with way less alcohol flavor. Yes, it's much thicker than vanilla extract but not so thick that you'd call it a paste. But whatevs.

Apparently all vanilla bean "paste" is like this. It's very much on par with chocolate syrup in terms of thickness and sweetness, but with a distinctly vanilla aroma and essence. I guess it's kinda odd to review chocolate syrup and vanilla syrup in such a short span of time, but hey, what's done is done.

The best part about this product: the little vanilla bean specks. You can change regular boring vanilla ice cream to vanilla bean ice cream with just a teaspoon or two of this stuff. Or add it to smoothies, coffee, whipped cream, overnight oats, French toast, or cake mix. We did all of the above. Well, not the cake mix. Not yet. If there's any of this bottle still left in two months, I'll request a birthday cake with vanilla bean paste in the batter.

Five bucks for a tiny bottle of potent vanilla, complete with beanage. Comparable bottles from other brands apparently go for $20-$25. I like it. Sonia likes it. We would buy Trader Joe's Organic Vanilla Bean Paste again...even though it's clearly a thick syrup, not a paste.

Bottom line: 8.5 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Peas & Carrots Sour Gummy Candies

This is, like, totally the worst way to get your vegetables. But hey, there is some spirulina in there for color. So maybe that counts, right?

I don't think these candies are very sour at all. The carrots have some of that "sour sugar" on the outside but are otherwise just normal sweet gummy candy. Sonia says the peas are sorta kinda approaching an acceptable level of sourness but not quite attaining it. They're the opposite of the carrots: their insides are sourer than their stiff outer shell.

Made of mainly glucose syrup and sugar, the texture of the candy is hard to describe. The carrots are softer than the peas. It's a mouthfeel similar to that of Sunkist Fruit Gems, slightly different than your run-of-the-mill Sour Patch Kids or Swedish Fish—firm but gelatinous at the same time. Sonia says they're more dense than your average gummy candy.

The peas have an almost plasticky outer layer. The outside part almost feels like one of those old school glossy gumballs. The insides are soft and slightly chewy, and they taste moderately tart I guess.

$1.29 per 3 oz bag. Bring back the Ts & Js, TJ's. Sonia and I both like the Sour Scandinavian Swimmers more than these. I'm not saying I wouldn't eat a few peas and carrots if I had low blood sugar and somebody tossed me a bag of these guys, but neither Sonia nor I would buy these again. Two and a half stars from me. Three stars from Sonia for Trader Joe's Peas & Carrots Sour Gummy Candies.

Bottom line: 5.5 out of 10.