Trader Joe's Tropical Smoothie Blend

I've always been a fan of smoothies. They're a great way to get tons of fruit in your diet without even consciously feeling like you're "trying to eat healthy." If you add yogurt or fro-yo, you're getting probiotics up in the mix, too. Vitamins, minerals, fiber, hydration, antioxidants...and they taste sweet and creamy. If you make 'em right, they're almost like milkshakes.

Trader Joe's Tropical Smoothie blend is around currently in November for some strange reason, along with a good handful of other decidedly summery products. That's why starting today, WG@TJ's will be doing SUMMER IN NOVEMBER for the next seven days! Yay. You've heard of Christmas in July? Well this is kinda like that except not.

Anyhoo, this tropical smoothie comes pre-mixed, flaunting the flavors of pineapple, mango, coconut cream, banana, and passionfruit. It's sweetened with agave syrup and there's nothing in the ingredients that shouldn't be there—no HFCS, no artificial colors, no seed oils. Just tropical fruity goodness.

Simply mix one cup of the smoothie blend with some water, milk, or yogurt, and you're in business. We used some plain yogurt and a bit of water with ours. Of course, you can use non-dairy milks or yogurts if you're lactose intolerant or vegan.

The mix is fairly mango and pineapple forward with that creamy coconut milk type flavor underneath. It's sweet but not cloyingly sugary. It actually tastes like it's made of real fruit...because it is. Of course the passionfruit is there, but it's well understated compared to the other tropical fruit flavors. Banana adds some thickness to the texture, and maybe a bit of sweetness and starchiness.

I downed my whole glass in a matter of a couple minutes while recording our video review. I'm eager to finish the bag. This gets a thumbs up from both me and the beautiful wifey.

$3.99 for three servings of a very palatable and healthy smoothie mix. Kosher. Would buy again. Our specimen had a stamp noting that it was a product of both Costa Rica and Peru. Sonia and I will both give Trader Joe's Tropical Smoothie Blend the same score: eight and a half out of ten stars.

Bottom line: 8.5 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Harvest Chocolate Collection

So this is basically just the Chocolatissimo Harvest Collection, but now it has Trader Joe's brand name on it. Straight outta Belgium, we've got nine fun fall-themed candies with different combinations of chocolate and fillings. Let's take a look at each one.

Yellow & Brown Corncob - This one's a milk chocolate shell with crispy hazelnut praline filling. Good. The middle is like Nutella but with tiny crunchy bits. One of the better ones.

White Apple - I'm a fan of white chocolate, but I thought this specimen was weird. The filling is milk chocolate we think, but for me, the odd flavor of the shell kinda ruined it. Sonia thinks the whole thing tasted more like milk chocolate than white, but she was okay with it overall.

Orange Pumpkin - Milk chocolate shell with a creamy hazelnut praline filling. Pretty good.

Dark Walnut - This one looks like a real nut. I think the filling here is almond praline. It's a nice dark chocolate shell. It's not too bitter and it mixes well with the filling.

Brown Leaf - Milk chocolate shell and a gooey caramel center. The filling is very smooth and runny—almost wants to be a liquid. It's nice and salty, too. I think this one was our favorite.

The Black and White Walnut - It's two races of flavor living side by side in harmony. Both white and milk chocolate shells, both white and milk chocolate fillings. Decent. Sonia thinks she tastes the white chocolate more in this case than in the white chocolate shelled apple. Crispy filling.

Dark Brown Pumpkin - If you like dark chocolate, you'll like this one. Both shell and filling are smooth dark chocolate.

Dark Apple - It's just milk chocolate filling inside a dark chocolate coating. Not bad.

Green and Orange Corncob - Almond praline filling inside chocolate—not sure if it's milk chocolate or dyed white chocolate. This one's okay.

$5.49 for nine imported chocolate candies. Might buy again if I needed a fun contribution for a fall get-together or party. The quality of the chocolates isn't the best I've ever seen, but they have a cute fall theme and you never know what filling you'll find inside your candy. Seven and a half stars from Sonia for Trader Joe's Harvest Chocolate Collection. Seven out of ten stars from me.

Bottom line: 7.25 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Pumpkin Spice Espresso Martini

I certainly don't think this is the finest representation of pumpkin spice that I've ever sampled, but as far as coffee plus pumpkin spice goes, it's definitely up there in my book. The competition hasn't exactly been stellar by my estimation, but that's just me. People love their pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin coffee, and pumpkin cold brew. Am I missing something? Even Sonia seems less than impressed by many of Trader Joe's pumpkin spice + coffee offerings.

But let's look at this pumpkin spice espresso martini in particular. Sonia and I both enjoyed this beverage a little more than we enjoyed the original Trader Joe's Espresso Martini. It seemed sweeter to both of us—just a tad more dessert-esque than its predecessor. The pumpkin spice flavor was pretty decent, neither overpowering nor underrepresented.

We both thought the actual coffee flavor was less pronounced than the original espresso martini since pumpkin spice is the main event in Trader Joe's Pumpkin Spice Espresso Martini. In my humble opinion, that's a good thing. Sonia would have been fine with more coffee flavor, but she's also a big fan of pumpkin spice, so she was okay with it as well. There was no actual pumpkin or squash flavor as far as I could tell. It's a pumpkin spice product rather than an actual pumpkin product.

Like Trader Joe's regular Espresso Martini, we both wished this one had some kind of cream or milk flavor. Of course, we could have added our own cold foam or creamer or whatever, but the beverage seems to lack creaminess just straight from the bottle. It lacked the foamy, frothy fluff on top that some espresso martinis seem to have, no matter how much or how hard we agitated the bottle before pouring.

$9.99 for the 375mL bottle. 20% alcohol by volume, made with vodka, espresso, vanilla, and pumpkin spice. My guess is that it's only sold in Trader Joe's locations that sell hard alcohol, and it will be done for the season soon if it's not already. We would maybe buy again in the future at fall time. Both of us will score this one a little higher than the plain espresso martini. Seven and a half stars from Sonia. Seven out of ten stars from me.

Bottom line: 7.25 out of 10.