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

io, why don't you come and bake for me one night a week?

j/k, but you need to have more parties (no pressure)

Tried the Dark Chocolate Peppermint Cremes and the Speculoos Cookie Butter Cups (like peanut butter cups but with cookie butter in them) and now I'm certain I'm going to gain shit tons of weight this month.

anything Speculoos, Speculoos all the time

otm

i'm actually surprised by how much i like the lamb kofta meatballs, and i say this as a fan of tj's frozen indian dishes. the masala sauce isn't perfect, but change it to one that is and you could easily see this on a restaurant menu for $10.

ooh good to know

yeah, the sauce could be a little more unctuous and less... clove-y? less sweet? but the meatballs are delicious!

Had apple and Chardonnay chicken sausages and polenta Provençal with spinach and peas for dinner. The sausage was decent but not super exciting but I really liked the polenta with peas as a side.

that polenta is the best.

so idk what's up but the candy cane joe-joe's are pretty gross this year...the cookie part gets kinda slimy and there is too much cream (i need a proper cookie:cream ratio) and the cream is toothpastey. i didn't accidentally buy the gluten-free version or anything either. i ended up sampling some mi-del candy cane cremes at whole foods and bought them instead. more expensive but it's seasonal so i can justify it.

I've had a totally didn't experience with the joejoes. But they are still evil.

Different experience.

It occurred to me after I bought a bunch of boxes at Whole Foods today that Oreo probably makes these too, and they do. That's probably the cheapest option and if anyone knows how to make a sandwich cookie it's them.

Another thing I bought from TJs...the giant danish almond kringle in the pre-made bakery/sweets area. it was amazing.

The mango chips were good too, super crunchy and tart

the giant danish almond kringle is the best thing ever.

my 3-year-old won't eat the candy cane jo-joes

that is basically as harsh a condemnation as you can get

3 year olds shouldn't be eating candy cane joe-joe's

unless the adults are all totally sick of them

funny thing: probably more than a dozen different salsas and not a single one of them is excellent.

True. I like the spicy refrigerated one next to the hummus though.

The medium refrigerated one is good! The salsa especial!

yeah, that's the one I meant! I guess it's not so spicy, huh. I sometimes mix it up in my head with the even thinner Santa Barbara Salsa Taquera I get from Ralph's every once in awhile. I've no love for chunky salsa.

I just want something as good as Green Mountain or Desert Pepper, why is that so hard???

I enjoyed their triple ginger beer and their Porchetta Pork Roast is very good, easy to make, but a bit expensive. On the not-so-great side, we tried cooking up their frozen salmon and it came out very fishy and dry.

The new sriracha and garlic barbeque sauce is pretty bitchin, had a sample of it on meatballs yesterday and grabbed a bottle before i even finished.

That sounds good!

Not good: triple chocolate mini bundt cakes. Taste like a cocoa-flavored fart.

We've become big consumers of the Brioche Toasts, perfect for cheese and crackers!

single-serve porcini mushroom lasagna in the white box: super bland and way too much sauce and has a homogeneous mucous-like texture
beef tenderloin bites: YUM CITY U.S.A.

the giant peruvian inca corn rules. tastes like a cross between corn nuts and fritos.

serving size: 1/3 cup. sooo easy to gorge on these tho.

http://www.traderjoesreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/giantperuvianincacorn.jpg

oh yeah, and the honey sesame almonds are classic and addictive. sesame is my favorite seed, so underrated in american culture.

Yeah, my wife keeps getting those Inca Corns. Kinda somewhere between beer nuts and Fritos, but in a good way, probably slightly better for you too.

o man those things

I can't stop eating those ether but I don't really love them!

sriracha and garlic

but sriracha has garlic in it

they should call it "sriracha and more garlic"

I can't stop eating those ether

i can't stop eating ether either!

the sauce has minced garlic bits in it. i'm a garlic fiend so i love it.

The gingerbread pancake mix is pretty good - I like that it just needs water

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-B5bXohsNv4E/TwOcBz1QiII/AAAAAAAAAcQ/Wuvl3dJr5RQ/s1600/Pastry+Bites+with+Feta+Cheese.JPG

this is soooo good

i need to not buy those because i could very easily eat six of them at once.

i just ate the entire box

!

yeah i would do the same

Unquestionably.

I've never even considered not eating an entire box of those, damn

It's probably more like...put the first 6 in the oven, heat, eat. A couple of hours later, think, man those were really good...and I still have 6 more....

put them all on a huge skewer & pick them off one by one in my pyjamas

Trader Joe's biscotti - the big ones in a bag, almond and chocolate - are the worst baked goods I've tasted in at least a decade. Like compressed sawdust slices with the occasional flavorless almond, a stripe of brown paint on the bottom to represent chocolate.

It's probably more like...put the first 6 in the oven, heat, eat. A couple of hours later, think, man those were really good...and I still have 6 more....

― Orson Wellies (in orbit), Tuesday, January 27, 2015 5:26 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

io has clearly been spying on me.

I'm eating a maple walnut blondie right now...mmm

And apparently the raspberry macaron cake has been discontinued :( you can still buy bite sized pieces as part of the sweet bites box so I hope it comes back randomly like it has done before. Different stores seem to tell me that it's either discontinued or seasonal, hoping it's the latter.

biscotti are pretty easy to make for yourself. the ingredients are simple and the process is pretty straightforward. the hardest thing about them is you need to bake them twice.