Hello. My name's Nathan and I love Trader Joe's. My wife Sonia does too. She's a great shopper, has excellent taste, and knows good value when she comes across it. As many of you know, Trader Joe's is unsurpassed in the world of good-value grocery stores so we spend a lot of our time and money there. Although the store fairly consistently delivers great taste with its own unique line of food products, there are definitely some big-hits and unfortunately, there are some misses...
In the summer of 2010, after doing a couple of internet searches for reviews of TJ's food items, Sonia discerned an apparent dearth of good, quality reviews for the store's offerings. So at her suggestion, we decided to embark on a journey of systematically reviewing every Trader Joe's product, resulting in the blog you are about to read...
A few months into our Trader Joe's rating adventure, an old college friend, Russ, who unbeknownst to me had been following our TJ's blog, decided that I had been slacking in my blogging duties (which, of course, I was) so he decided to contribute his own original TJ's reviews to the blog thus enhancing it, making it more complete, and adding to it a flavor of his own. He and his wife Sandy were a part of our team for nearly 12 years but decided to part ways in November 2022.
In the summer of 2010, after doing a couple of internet searches for reviews of TJ's food items, Sonia discerned an apparent dearth of good, quality reviews for the store's offerings. So at her suggestion, we decided to embark on a journey of systematically reviewing every Trader Joe's product, resulting in the blog you are about to read...
A few months into our Trader Joe's rating adventure, an old college friend, Russ, who unbeknownst to me had been following our TJ's blog, decided that I had been slacking in my blogging duties (which, of course, I was) so he decided to contribute his own original TJ's reviews to the blog thus enhancing it, making it more complete, and adding to it a flavor of his own. He and his wife Sandy were a part of our team for nearly 12 years but decided to part ways in November 2022.
Now it's just the beautiful wifey and me plowing through Trader Joe's product line once again. Oh—don't forget our puppers Alfred and Sadie doing occasional dog treat reviews too. Woof!
We hope you enjoy reading What's Good at Trader Joe's!
We hope you enjoy reading What's Good at Trader Joe's!
Can you compile reader's choices? That would be great.
ReplyDeleteHi! Great site! Can you verify if pomegranite molasses is currently available at trader joe? if u happen to have a pic of it to make it easy to find, that would be great !
DeleteNathan & Team -- can you also have a section on "Discontinued but Loved" products? As you may know, periodically Trader Joe's will discontinue products. It may be due to poor selling, but also due to issues with sourcing. I've seen about 4 different products that were favorites of mine get axed. One of them was Wasabi Mayo, which was actually brought back for a while, then discontinued yet again. I think it was due to a lack of awareness. A TJ's employee turned me onto it and I never would have tried it otherwise. Unfortunately I was smitten and had gone through 3 jars when suddenly I learned of the discontinuation. I wonder about how many people were also dismayed. Perhaps this blog could be a conduit towards getting some discontinued TJ's products brought back... or to help start a petition. :-)
ReplyDeleteA little birdie told me wasabi mayo has been spotted in Wash. DC Trader Joe's just today!
DeleteBoth excellent ideas. At this point, we just focus on trying and reviewing as many products as possible. They best way to indicate which products are most loved by readers is for those readers to leave comments to that effect. Likewise, readers often leave comments that a particular item has been discontinued. It would be virtually impossible to keep an accurate log of which products are currently available since TJs discontinues and reinstates products at the drop of a hat. People do leave comments on reviews of discontinued products saying "Please bring it back!" or something along those lines. Not sure how much attention TJs pays to this blog or any others like it, but I would think if enough people are begging for a product to return that TJs would consider it...also try contacting TJs directly through their website and requesting the reinstatement of particular products.
ReplyDeleteHi! I run an Trader Joe’s Instagram fan page, @itstraderjoes! I love the idea of your blog. Would you be interested in partnering up for a new posts and sharing each other’s accounts? I love Trader Joe’s products!!
ReplyDeleteHi, anyone remember the raspberry wedding muffins from 10 or so years ago ?
ReplyDeleteThe BEST!
DeleteI am obsessed with your blog! Thanks for sharing!!
ReplyDeleteTrader Joes has been a store that produced products that were high quality, small packages, and good price and used healthy ingredients. Have been shopping at Joes for over a decade
ReplyDeleteSlowly this started to change, most likely under profit pressures, to substitute better ingredients with one not as good.
An example, the healthy sunflower and safflower oils were change to the genetically modified canola oil
There is only one humus in the store that does not use canola. Almost any fried product has canola at Joes
Today i saw two new products, one is the large frozen pretzels and small French rolls. They both use rapeseed oil. Rapeseed oil is poisonous by nature. It has to be treated to remove the poison. The rapeseed was genetically modified to remove the poison, turning it into canola oil, by Canada. Even when they state “organic canola oil”, the seeds have their origin from the poisonous variety
Can trader Joe, not stand up to their vendors to use a high quality product and not be driven by maximum profit???
Any chance we can connect about working together on your programmatic ads revenue piece? Great site by the way :)
ReplyDeleteI live about 5 miles from traders Joe's and I went to buy some Srircha seafood potstickers and when I got there I learned that they had discontinued it. Please please please bring them back or where else can I buy them?
ReplyDeleteWhere can I buy it. It's no longer at tj's.
ReplyDeleteI would love to see reviews of the new queso fundido, jicama wraps (maybe they're better than the sticks? - supposed to be good taco shell alternatives), the kale gnocchi, cold brew latte dessert bars, and the keto fudge bites please. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteCan't believe you've never reviewed Trader Joe’s Cranberry Orange Relish, available every November and December.
ReplyDeleteGood suggestion. Thanks!
DeleteHi! Great site! Can you verify if pomegranite molasses is currently available at trader joe? if u happen to have a pic of it to make it easy to find, that would be great !
ReplyDeleteReply
Just found this blog... and I feel like this is one of those moments where you find a REAL internet gem. Thanks to Russ and Nathan and everyone that puts their time into keeping this blog running. We're still reading!!
ReplyDeleteThat's very encouraging to hear. Thanks for the kind words, GG!
DeleteI'm excited to have found this blog! I found it looking for a copy cat recipe for TJs discontinued Bacon Cheddar Ranch!
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