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.

Trader Joe's Spicy Honey Sauce

So there's this viral protein bowl thing Sonia told me about the other day. Apparently, it's all the rage on TikTok and all the TikTok ripoffs like YouTube Shorts and Facebook Reels and the young fitness gurus love it for its high nutritional value and low carbs and flavor. It involves lean ground beef, avocado, sweet potato, cottage cheese, and hot honey.

When she first listed the ingredients, I was kinda like: "You just named five things that don't go together in any way whatsoever." And she was just like: "They all say it's good and I wanna try it." You know me, I'll try just about anything once. So she made it and we tried it and it's just amazingly good.

She heated the beef on the stove top and spiced it up with some taco seasoning. The sweet potatoes received some garlic powder, paprika, sea salt and olive oil before roasting at 400° for about a half hour. Then you stick it all in a bowl with roughly equal quadrants of the above-mentioned beef and sweet potato, cottage cheese, and avocado. You'll have a beautiful white, brown, green, and orange mosaic of flavors. And then it all gets topped with Mike's Hot Honey, Bees Knees, or Trader Joe's Spicy Honey Sauce...or Trader Joe's Organic Spicy Honey Sauce.

Of course you can make a vegetarian version by omitting the beef...or a vegan version by omitting the beef and cottage cheese. Or you could sub tofu for the animal products. Whatever floats your boat.

It's creamy, salty, savory, sweet, and a little spicy. If anything, I wish it were a tad spicier. And by that, I mean I wish this spicy honey were spicier. It's got a little kick, for sure, but I could go a notch or two higher on the spice-o-meter.

The organic spicy honey is three bucks. This product is five bucks. Yes, you read that right. The organic product is cheaper than the non-organic product. Go figure. I guess it's because there's more sauce in this 12 oz bottle as opposed to only 8 in the other one. This product is definitely currently available—generally speaking, of course. Not sure about the organic version.

Sonia and I would buy again. Kosher. It was on an end cap at our TJ's last time we went, but it'll probably wind up with the other condiments. Do not refrigerate, even after opening. It is real honey, after all. Sonia gives Trader Joe's Spicy Honey Sauce eight and a half stars. I'll throw out eight out of ten.

Bottom line: 8.25 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Maple Brown Butter Almonds

These almonds remind me a lot of Trader Joe's Cinnamon Sugar Almonds in terms of texture, the quality of the nuts, and the thickness of the candy coating. If anything, the overall flavor is just a tad richer here, boasting sweet maple and rich brown butter. It's quite satisfying.

I'd heard nothing but good things online about this snack, and no wonder. They're really much more tasty than you might assume by just glancing at the packaging. The buttery maple candy flavor brings just the right amount of pizzazz to the snack, turning ordinary whole almonds into something that could quell even the strongest of sweet tooths.

The sea salt on these nuts combines with the rich butteriness in a way that reminds me of Trader Joe's Salted Maple Ice Cream. Yes, the flavor is that indulgent. It's not a far cry from what you'd get if you took Trader Joe's Butter with Brown Sugar and Maple Syrup and sautéed almonds in it.

They're delicious on their own, but they'd work great for baking applications also. As is, I think they're a little too big to serve as an ice cream or yogurt topping, but you could always chop them up in a food processor and toss them in with your favorite creamy dessert.

$3.99 for the 8 oz resealable bag. Kosher. Would buy again. I give Trader Joe's Maple Brown Butter Almonds eight and a half out of ten stars. Sonia gives them nine out of ten.

Bottom line: 8.75 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Autumnal Harvest Soup

So I guess people were using Trader Joe's Autumnal Harvest Pasta Sauce as a base for soup and really loving it. Word on the street is that TJ's heard about it and developed their own soup inspired by the pasta sauce by the same name. Don't confuse the red creamy autumnal pasta sauce with Trader Joe's Autumnal Harvest Alfredo Sauce. That stuff was weird and bland but I'm pretty sure it's not around anymore.

At any rate, this soup is tomato-based, but it's also bursting with big chunks of butternut squash, onions, celery, and carrots. There's pumpkin puree and butternut squash puree, too. Garlic, parsley, rosemary, and sage help round out the flavor profile and yield a surprisingly tasty, hearty soup.

We heated ours on the stovetop and made just over half the jar for our video review. We both enjoyed it quite a bit. It's savory and a little sweet—nowhere near as sweet as Trader Joe's Pumpkin Bisque, to be sure. It tastes "harvesty," if that's even a word. It should be. "Harvestacular" might be more accurate.

It's surprisingly chunky, filling, and none of the veggies were particularly stringy, which is always a plus. We'll easily finish the jar in a day or so, just the two of us. It's finally soup season here in the Upper Midwest, and cooler temperatures always put Sonia and me in the mood for dishes exactly like this one.

$4.99 for the 25 oz reusable glass mason jar. Would buy again. This is the best fall soup we've seen from Trader Joe's since the Harvest Chili we looked at seven years ago. Nine out of ten stars from Sonia for Trader Joe's Autumnal Harvest Soup. I'll give it eight out of ten.

Bottom line: 8.5 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Butternut Squash Risotto

We're looking at another authentic Italian import today. This time, it's butternut squash risotto. It's actually the second butternut squash risotto product we've reviewed from Trader Joe's, the first being a low carb riced cauliflower version from five years ago.

Like its predecessor, this risotto has real butternut squash, cheese, and Italian spices. It's nice and creamy, smooth, and savory, too. We think the overall flavor is stronger with this product since it's got real rice in it.

The sauce blend seems a bit better in this instance, as well, for reasons I can't quite put my finger on. Maybe it's just because it's truly Italian. It feels thicker, creamier, and cheesier.

We ate ours with some arugula to give it a bit of extra texture. The flavors worked well together, too. The nuttiness of the greens complemented the cheesiness of the risotto and gave the dish a nice earthy undertone. We're quite sure it would go great with chicken or fish or pork if that's your thing. It would make a fine side dish or even a standalone meal.

We heated it on the stovetop, but the microwave is fair game, too. Instructions say to heat on medium for 6-7 minutes. Ours took 15-16 minutes. Hey, it's still much faster than making it from scratch.

$4.49 for a pound of imported risotto. Product of Italy. Found in the frozen section. We'd both buy it again. Sonia gives Trader Joe's Butternut Squash Risotto eight and a half out of ten stars. I'll go with seven and a half on this one.

Bottom line: 8 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Chocolate Mousse Pumpkins

Not much needs to be said about these happy morsels. They're better than most pre-packaged vending machine snack cakes, but not like worlds better. People rave about them online like they've never had chocolate candy or chocolate cake before. Available only during the fall season, these pumpkins have been around year after year for quite a while—at least a decade, if not longer.

If you miss them this autumn season, have no fear. The exact same product reappears for the holiday season in the form of chocolate mousse presents. And then again around Easter as Chocolate Mousse Eggs. And then again later in the spring as Chocolate Mousse Flowers. There's also a larger cake version around Valentine's Day called For The Love of Chocolate Mousse Cake.

The BEST product in this line by far, however, are the Raspberry Mousse Cakes, available in the spring and summer. That raspberry buttercream gets me every time. I, personally, think they're head and shoulders better than all these chocolate mousse cakes.

That's not to say these are bad. They're perfectly tasty, noshable, and fun. I think they're better when the ambient temperature is warm. I've eaten them plenty of times when it's super cold outside, and I feel like you really want them to be soft, moist, and supple. I haven't tried microwaving them for a couple seconds yet, although I'm tempted.

I've heard some people actually freeze them and eat them cold and solid. I can't see how that would work, but I guess I'd try it at least once. They're usually best when you eat them immediately after purchase. Don't wait until the best by date. Don't refrigerate them. Just pop 'em in your mouth in the car on the ride home and wash 'em down with some chocolate milk.

$3.99 for six little pumpkin shaped chocolate mousse cakes. Found with the baked goods. Kosher. Would probably buy again. We've been all over the place when scoring these things. I feel like they're worthy of seven and a half stars today. Sonia agrees.

Bottom line: 7.5 out of 10.