The Trader Joe's Product Discussion Thread (S/D)

oh yeah, those are gross and slimy
these noodles are really good -- strongly recommend for easy weekday dinners that make enough leftovers to eat for lunch the next day.

I remember when I worked at Starbucks and an old man deferred to the coffee as "Cacka COffee!" he was sure ornery

metropolis coffee is the only kind i've had that tastes notably better than the stuff i get from TJs

This shocks me. TJs coffee is OK in a pinch, but we have a wealth of awesome options. Intelligentsia, Metropolis, my fave Bridgeport ...

btw, TJ's frozen pho is gross.

Ok ok ok Intelligentsia is good too. Never had Bridgeport!

Frozen pho is sad.

starbucks coffee might be ok if they didn't burn it

/starbuckscomplaintrobot

― your native bacon (mh), Tuesday, 4 September 2012 19:57 (41 minutes ago) Permalink

you would think so, but you'd be wrong

/itallsucks

i've had some TJ's coffee at the in-laws' and its pretty dire imo! but maybe it was the particular blend i had. there's lot of good coffee in l.a. to be had, so i just buy up bags from various places around town. right now i'm having some coffee home-roasted by a friend, he gets his beans from around the world and roasts them in his garage.

metropolis coffee is pretty amazing, maybe my favorite.

i don't think people buy TJs coffee because they think it's the best coffee or equal to intelligentsia/metropolis/etc, they buy it because it's drinkable coffee at half the price of intelligentsia/metropolis/etc (and doesn't require a trip to a separate store)

^^^ that's why we sometimes buy it, even though we prefer Intelligentsia.

exactly
i also value expedience in coffee since i already shop at like 4 difft stores on a weekly basis

I don't know any of the other brands mentioned here but I have never bought coffee at a separate store before except that one time I went to the Grand Cent Market for it. But yeah, at no point in my normal routine am I anywhere near a coffee specialty store.

yeah same. costco has no good coffee, and I no longer have time to make separate trips every week to a good place. Although now there's a place by work with counter culture for $13/lb which is not terrible (TJ's cans are I think 12 oz so you have to add 33% to the price to compare)

I think someone I know is involved with Kitten Coffee--should I buy from them?

SOmetimes I long for STarbucks Sulawesi - but the cost is astronomical and I am very frugal these days

TJ's breakfast blend was like $6 for 12 oz?

CAfe Bustelo rings up at 4$ a 12oz. Sulawesi was like 13$ a 16oz last time I checked

oplus great package design
http://cafebustelo.com/media/upload/product/CafeBusteloCan_png_384x384_crop_upscale_q100.jpg

tostado y molida para el gusto hispano

oops molido

SIEMPRE FRESCO!

I buy locally roasted coffee from my grocer *nose in the air*

:)

I like those Starbucks via's in a pinch.

I've never tried them but work has such godawful pigswill I am thinking of having some at my desk for emergencies

They are pretty good, but if you are using a standard sized USA coffee mug, I recommend half a packet unless you like tachycardia and teeth grinding.

lol

and the quickened digestion, if you know what I mean

Die a Ree Ahyh?

Has anyone else found the TJ's meat to be weird? I've gotten their *high-end* steak a few times and more recently their pork loin and pork roast, and it all has the same unnatural consistency, where the meat almost tastes like it was injected with something to make it moist, and the fat feels like it's glued on.

chicken is fine, never got any other meat there. actually seems to be the only place you can get inexpensive chicken breast that is not so enormous you can't cook it properly.

i got 3 kinds of jerky (buffalo, beef, and turkey) this week and i have already eaten them all. i always think their coffee sucks whenever i make the mistake of buying it.

Yeah the chicken is totally fine and decent. It's just the steak and pork I've had problems with.

pineapple juice is bomb as fuck.

I like the buffalo jerky but there are like 3 pieces per bag and it's, what, $5.99 or something? Yikes.
Has anyone seen the flower pepper at their local TJs? I'm afraid that it's gone ;_;

Was kind of weirded out to see there are TJ's boiled eggs in a bag. Or any boiled eggs in a bag for that matter.

It's kind of disturbing to see them in bunch out of the normal context like that. It reminds me of David Sedaris saying that in France, he bought peanut butter in a tin can, which made it unappealing for him. I've worked at restaurants where they came in 5 gallon buckets, packed in water, which was very strange and off-putting, but not reasonably so.

man, that might rival precooked bacon in the laziness department

I'm too lazy to go find lex's post about failing at boiling eggs, but it exposes the privilege behind your judgment.

his well-known kitchen acumen

I'm just saying, would you deny him an egg?

Seriously though, I know consumers of pre-peeled eggs and the like are easy targets, but I'm not ashamed to say that I've bought pre-cooked bacon, frozen pre-cooked rice, etc. Sometimes I want to use my time doing things besides peeling eggs, and there ain't no shame in that game.

Sorry, not trying to be confrontational w/ you, mh. I'm being a little defensive b/c there probably is a little shame in my game!

I buy pre-cooked food for camping! (That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.)

Oh, I buy pre-cooked things all the time but usually at a grocery store with a deli where they presumably boil their eggs on-site and so on.

The tj beef does have an odd taste
My wife can't stand it so I usually stick with chicken and sausage
Pork and lamb tasted ok

I've never noticed anything odd about TJ's beef.

Steaks ime don't know about hamburger meat/roasts

I've bought those pre-cooked (heat and eat) rice bags before, which is silly because you're probably paying like 4x as much per oz, but they're kind of convenient for work or for nights where you say "oh shit, forgot to start the rice"

I do homemade pre-cooked, frozen rice. It's nice having rice at the ready any time, with no cookware to clean up. The only time I eat rice that I just made is when I'm fixing a big batch to freeze. Now that I'm thinking about it, virtually all of the cooking I do these days is making my own convenience foods. Or doctoring up store-bought convenience foods.

you're our very own sandra lee!

actual laughs

tell us about yr tablescapes

The cats sit on it and leave their asshole stamps, nothing fancy.