I wasn't expecting much from this product, but it's surprisingly sweet and chuggable. It's not boring like plain coconut water and it's not quite as thick as your typical coconut milk. It's actually coconut water blended with tiny bits of coconut meat. I was bracing myself for something terribly chalky consistency-wise, but it actually comes off as creamy and smooth despite the pieces of coconut.
At $2.69 for just 8 oz, it's on the pricey side. But as usual, you get what you pay for. This product is imported from Thailand and is made from Nam Hom coconuts—apparently a highly sought after variety—and it shows.
Many specimens I've seen online are pink. Even the ones on TJ's own website show a very pink liquid in the bottle. The description on the packaging says the product "may take on a rosy hue." Ours stayed decidedly white for some reason. I'm fine with that. Sonia is too. Eight out of ten stars a piece for Trader Joe's Organic Coconut Smoothie.
Alrighty then. That's another unscripted video review down at the bottom of this post, so I'm just throwing out some bullet points about the product for you folks that enjoy my demented written ramblings or don't do YouTube for whatever reason...
The noodle rolls were very delicate by my estimation. They really wanted to stick to my pan and the shrimp even fell out of the rolls in a couple instances. There were plenty of shrimp and veggies, but there wasn't enough flavor. The bag even says to serve them with soy sauce or dipping sauce (not included). It was Trader Joe San Soyaki to the rescue. They were quite bland on their own.
$3.99 in the frozen section. Product of Vietnam. Listed as "Limited Time" on traderjoes.com. This item isn't awful, but we would not buy it again. Six and a half stars from me. Five and a half stars from Sonia for Trader Joe's Shrimp Noodle Rolls.
I guess it wasn't such a crappy idea after all. Trader Joe's Chocolate Covered Elephant Dung Espresso Beans are BACK for a limited time only. They're boasting beautiful new 10th Anniversary Edition artwork and the same rich, earthy essences they did back in 2015. Even though we weren't exactly fixated on the funky flavors of the first edition, we did pick up this repackaging just for a trip down memory lane.
The pachyderm poopoo packs a potent punch and underneath, the coffee and cookie butter blend to provide sweetness and stimulation. I don't think the precise caffeine content of this product has ever been determined or published, but this Limited Edition release has me buzzing right now.
The collectible, reusable box and 20 servings of espresso beans featuring 100% certified organic elephant feces is yours for just $4.99, found in the candy aisle. Yes, it's gone up a buck, but hey, a decade of inflation will do that. Again, we gave the original a "not bad" score. It's really not our favorite snack in the world, but we've made it our duty...ahem, our doody to purchase and review all things TJ's just for you, our loyal readers.
Cuteness is not generally the first thing I look for in a snack. If it's there, I guess it's a bonus. I won't not eat something because it's cute. It's just not very high on my list of priorities in terms of acquiring, preparing, and eating food.
And despite the fact that cuteness might be the first quality of these little nocciolini that jumps out at you, it's certainly not the only thing they've got going on for them. They've got simple ingredients: sugar, hazelnuts, and egg white. They're not super indulgent, containing only 10% of your RDA for fat, 3% for saturated fat, and 6% for carbs, respectively. And at $2.69 for an Italian import, they won't break the bank either.
But most of you are probably wondering how Trader Joe's Nocciolini Tiny Hazelnut Meringues taste. Well, if you like hazelnuts, you're probably not gonna hate these. They're about the same size as hazelnuts, they're crunchy like hazelnuts, and they taste a heck of a lot like hazelnuts.
So why not just eat some hazelnuts instead, you ask? If you've got a sweet tooth, these are a shade sweeter than your typical hazelnut. If you're someone who's gotta have dessert after a meal, these would certainly fit the bill with their crunchy cookie texture and fun round drop shape. And I don't know if I'd say they're more versatile than hazelnuts, but you could do interesting things with them like decorating cakes or cupcakes or even tossing them on top of yogurt, ice cream, or gelato.
I must admit, I was unimpressed at first, but these tiny hazelnut meringues are growing on me pretty quickly. They stick to my teeth a little, but the flavor is quite pleasant and there's virtually no aftertaste. Sonia likes 'em a lot. She'd buy again for sure, but once again, she wishes they were sold in a larger pack. Let's go with seven and a half stars from me on Trader Joe's Nocciolini. The beautiful wifey will throw out nine out of ten.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
