All right, fall fanatics. Here's a limited time seasonal product review for you. Trader Joe's Cinnamon Bun Non-Dairy Oat Creamer is back by popular demand for the autumn 2026 season. I'm pretty sure this is the third annual appearance of this nondairy cinnamon roll flavored creamer. It's sweet and scrumptious and makes plain old coffee taste like a freshly baked cinnamon roll.
For just two bucks, you get 16 ounces of this oat-based kosher vegan coffee additive. The sugar and oats combine for a pastry-esque essence that does bring at least the suggestion of a real cinnamon bun. The spices are warm and aromatic and not overbearing in any way.
It's silky and smooth—just thick enough you can froth it up a bit. There's some pea protein in the ingredients, but it doesn't show up in the flavor profile, thank goodness. It's agreeable enough with coffee, but I suppose you could have it with tea or even cold brews. The beautiful wifey liked putting a splash or two on her oatmeal.
If I'm going to have coffee, I still prefer traditional dairy creamers, but I must admit this stuff isn't bad. I grew up with alternative milks and have had plenty of oat milk and nondairy foods and desserts throughout the years. This is great for folks with many dietary restrictions: it's dairy-free, lactose-free, gluten-free, kosher, and vegan. If you're sensitive to seed oils, you might wanna sit this one out.
As many of you know, my wife Sonia is the resident coffee aficionada and is, predictably, far more into this product than I am, so we'll just let her score this one solo. She would buy Trader Joe's Cinnamon Bun Oat Creamer again. She'll throw out eight and a quarter stars for this buzzworthy alternative to conventional coffee creamer.
More popsicles? Yes. Summer doesn't end until September 22 and it's still friggin' hot. In no way is pumpkin spice appropriate just yet...unless we're talking about Trader Joe's Pumpkin Spice Sheet Cake. That's good enough to eat anytime.
Trader Joe's Passion Fruit Guava Bars are still available at our local TJ's as of the time of writing this review, but I know they're already done for the season at many locations. I'm thinking we'll see them again next year, but then again, we're talking about Trader Joe's, so your guess is as good as mine. They really hit that passionfruit and guava hard this summer. I hope some of those fun items return for 2027.
And I think there were some tarts we missed this time around, but hey like I said, there's always next year...maybe. At any rate, I like these tropical popsicles almost as much as the recently-reviewed Trader Joe's Pineapple Coconut Bars. At $2.99 for the box, this product is a little cheaper overall, but you're only getting four bars as opposed to six. Each bar is bigger, however, yielding a slightly greater overall net weight.
I really enjoyed the creamy texture of the aforementioned pineapple coconut bars, but here there's guava puree in the top section, which does render a thicker liquid than juice. The guava section (the top) is a pinkish color while the bottom part is orange-colored passionfruit juice. They're very similar in flavor, but if you pay attention, there is a slight difference. The guava part is a bit sweeter, and the passion fruit is a little more tart.
There's something kind of fun about getting two popsicles in one here. It's like Trader Joe's couldn't decide which tropical fruit to go with, so it just said, "Screw it, do both. Two tropical fruits are twice as nice." It's a happy little reminder that summer isn't over yet, despite the pumpkin spice industrial complex trying its darnedest to convince us otherwise.
Three bucks for four bars. Kosher. Vegan. Sonia gives Trader Joe's Passion Fruit Guava Bars eight out of ten stars. Like I said, I'd repurchase the pineapple coconut bars before these, but they're certainly not bad. Seven and a half stars from this guy.
Ryan Hall says September is going to be abnormally hot for most of the USA. If you're like Sonia and me that means it's still tropical popsicle season. Apple, pumpkin, and sweet potato can wait a few more weeks until the air gets a bit cooler. But if you're one of those poor, misguided individuals that just has to get your PSL on the moment the kids are back at school, then sit back, relax, and click play on our Ultimate Fall Foods Playlist on YouTube. Or take a gander at some classic written reviews of fall stuff—much of which has already returned to Trader Joe's—right here on our blog.
For the rest of you, we're here to tell you that Trader Joe's Pineapple Coconut Bars are refreshing and tasty, and they've got pretty decent ingredients and non-threatening nutritionals. At just 90 calories per bar, I'd say they're worth checking out.
They're pretty pineapple forward. That might be our biggest complaint. The coconut cream gets overshadowed by the pineapple juice concentrate in the flavor profile. Sonia wishes there were coconut shavings throughout the bar to add more coconut flavor and some texture. I don't disagree.
The coconut adds a nice thickness to the texture and a greater level of creaminess than I expected. These are not just frozen juice popsicles. They're sweet and smooth, and they really hit the spot for any "beat-the-heat" type situation. I just wish the actual coconut flavor were there in a bigger way. It's not really a piña colada vibe. It's more like PINEAPPLE with a whisper of coconut cream.
There is something undeniably satisfying about eating a frozen treat when it's 95 degrees outside and the humidity is doing its best to turn you into a damp towel. These are particularly good for that kind of weather because they're not so heavy or rich that you feel like you've made a terrible mistake halfway through eating one. Grab a couple, sit outside, and pretend you're on a tropical island instead of standing in your backyard watching your neighbor mow his lawn.
Sonia and I would both buy Trader Joe's Pineapple Coconut Bars again. $3.79 for six individually-wrapped popsicles. Gluten free. Kosher. Vegan. I'll throw out eight stars once again. The beautiful wifey will spring for eight and a half.
When I look at the title of this product, I think of that old 311 song "All mixed up, don't know what to do/ Next thing you turn around and find the person is you." Anybody else? Just me? That song was probably before your time if you were born in the last 30 years or so.
As far as the ice cream goes, I like it. I like Trader Joe's All Mixed Up quite a bit, actually. I want to LOVE it, but there are just a few things about it that I have slight reservations about. But let's be positive and look at all the things that are working here.
First off, I'm glad they went with a vanilla ice cream base. Vanilla is the obvious choice when you're doing something weird and complicated, where the mix-ins are providing most of the flavor and interest. Those of you who've been reading for a while know that I love peanut butter and peanut butter-based desserts. There is an actual peanut butter swirl in here as well as mini chocolate peanut butter cups. Both elements are well-represented and balance out the vanilla sweetness with a rich, savory nuttiness.
I like the pretzels, too. They provide a nice carb-o-riffic crunch and a bit of brittle breadiness. I am not, however, a fan of the candy coating around the pretzels. To me, it's unnecessary to add a confectionery coating to something that is already highly indulgent and intensely sweet. It's like a Buddy the Elf move. There's a reason normal people don't add frosting to vanilla pudding.
The chocolate and vanilla creme sandwich cookie bits are fine but totally unnecessary IMO. The pieces are quite small for the most part, so they didn't really influence my enjoyment of the peanut butter elements either way. Similarly, the rainbow sprinkles are inconsequential aside from some potential visual appeal—if you're into that sort of thing.
I would have leaned into the peanut butter and pretzel elements and not messed around with sandwich cookies, candy coatings, and jimmies if it were me, but then we'd basically have Trader Joe's Chubby Hubby, which I'd be totally fine with. However, it's peanut buttery enough as it stands, so I'll give it a decent score.
$3.99 for the pint. Kosher. I would buy it again while Sonia would not. Eight out of ten stars from me for Trader Joe's All Mixed Up Ice Cream. Sonia likes the peanut butter in the ice cream, as well, but she thinks it's way too busy overall. She prefers simpler desserts in her old age. Seven out of ten stars from her.
Trader Joe's Basil & Garlic Monterey Jack Cheese just sounds delicious, doesn't it? I wouldn't have minded more garlic, but nevertheless this is one tasty product. There's a surprising amount of basil flavor. It almost tastes like pesto...but it's cheese.
It also contains actual roasted garlic puree. My goodness. Why didn't someone think of that sooner? I mean, maybe somebody did, but this is the first I'm hearing of it. There is a reasonable amount of garlic flavor, but I think they could have amped it up, personally. But then Sonia and I are both oddly fond of garlic. Raw garlic. Roasted garlic. Black garlic. You name it. I think pureed garlic is a good choice for this cheese. Big chunks of garlic might have made the texture a bit funky.
We threw this cheese on our Italian subs with beef bresaola and turkey pepperoni. It was perfect. We put slices on our chicken burgers, too. Again, perfection. It adds not only the creamy, buttery milkiness of Monterey Jack, but also the peppery bite of basil and the umami herbaceousness of garlic. It worked on grilled cheese, in omelets, and on salads.
There’s something almost unfair about putting basil and garlic into Monterey Jack. Monterey Jack is already one of those cheeses that seems genetically engineered to get along with everybody—it’s mild and creamy and generally just happy to be here. Then along come basil and roasted garlic, giving the whole thing an Italian makeover. It’s like Monterey Jack went on vacation to Italy, came back wearing linen pants, and now won’t stop talking about how much better everything is over there. And honestly? I’m okay with it. This cheese has personality without becoming one of those aggressively flavored cheeses that tastes like somebody emptied the spice cabinet into a vat of dairy.
I went through a pepper jack phase some years ago, but I've since grown out of it. Let the days of basil jack begin. Five bucks for ten slices. Kosher. Would buy again. Sonia and I both give Trader Joe's Basil & Garlic Monterey Jack Cheese eight and a half out of ten stars.
Never been a huge fan of plain potato chips. I'll nibble on one or two if I want something salty, but I generally find them boring. I'll eat barbecue flavored chips all day long. Or give me something with onions or chives and some kind of sassy sauce—like Trader Joe's Ridge Cut Horseradish Chips.
That said, Trader Joe's Deli Sandwich Style Potato Chips are some of the best "plain" potato chips I've ever had. They have a "vegetarian deli style seasoning" on them. Neither Sonia nor I really know what that means, but we like the flavor of these chips quite a bit.
They're fried in vegetable oil, and they have a nice rich—almost buttery—feeling to them. "Milk" is actually listed in the ingredients. Not sure how common that is in potato chips, but it works here somehow. There's a modest vinegar flavor underneath the potato and oil, and Sonia likened these to salt & vinegar chips. I thought they tasted very similar to Trader Joe's Chips In a Pickle, but with noticeably milder pickle flavor. There's even a hint of mustard in the mix.
They're quite crunchy, but they're not obnoxiously hard. That butteriness lends itself to the mouthfeel just a bit, too. They're a little oily, but not in a bad way. These are honestly an outstanding companion to any deli style sandwich.
$2.99 for the 7 oz bag. Kosher. Would buy again. Trader Joe's Deli Sandwich Style Potato Chips are "plain" chips that are absolutely not plain. That flavor is rich, zippy, and uncommon. On the video review, upon first taste, I gave these chips seven and a half stars—a very good score for me for potato chips, but I think I'm going to have to raise that to match the beautiful wifey's score of eight out of ten. These are definitely "really darn good" potato chips.
Trader Joe's Hard Cooked Eggs will run you $3.49 for six eggs. They're found refrigerated near the other egg products and they come in a resealable bag. Obviously, you're paying for the packaging and the convenience since TJ's basic eggs are usually in the ballpark of three and a half bucks for a dozen.
The eggs in our bag were unblemished—nice smooth whole hard-boiled eggs. None were broken or pierced. There's a small amount of moisture in the bag, as you'd expect. There is a cautionary note on the packaging indicating there may be shell fragments in the product, but we found absolutely none in ours.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume that just about everyone reading this knows what a hard-boiled egg tastes and feels like, so I guess we'll skip over the part where I describe the flavor and texture to you. We ate a couple straight out of the bag and then Sonia made egg salad with the rest. See pic. Yes, those are Trader Joe's Pickled Red Onions in the egg salad. Yummy.
We hard boil our own eggs. I like eggs just fine and the beautiful wifey is downright obsessed with them. We just wanted to check out this product and assess the quality and value because that's what we do here. Been doing it for 16 years—in fact August 16th will mark the 16th anniversary of this blog exactly. Not gonna stop any time soon.
If you've got $3.49 burning a hole in your pocket and a hankering for hard-boiled...er hard-cooked eggs, there's no reason not to buy these. It's obviously cheaper to make them yourself, but if you're short on time or just plain lazy, these will do just fine. Would be a nice item to take on a picnic or road trip. Kosher. Sourced from cage free hens. Purchased on August 2 with a "best by" date of September 23. Eight out of ten stars for Trader Joe's Hard Cooked Eggs.
During our initial taste test, Sonia likened Trader Joe's Coconut Cashew Candy Clusters to the Girl Scout classic: Samoas. I guess it's a fairly obvious comparison. Both have coconut, caramel, and chocolate. The most obvious differences are that these have cashew nuts like another recently-reviewed candy offering from TJ's and these come in a "cluster" format rather than neat, uniform circular cookies.
It's been a hot minute since I've had a box of Girl Scout Cookies, but I'd say these are significantly sweeter than Samoas. Honestly, they're a little too sweet for me. I'm glad Trader Joe's went with milk chocolate rather than dark chocolate for once, but the presence of several different types of sugar and caramel pushes these happy morsels way past the mark in my opinion. I mean, the nuts themselves are "coconut cashews" that already contain cane sugar. It's sugar on sugar on sugar with a whisper of nuttiness.
Also, Samoas have an actual cookie element that adds structural stability. These candies are much gooier. There is a slight crunchy element in the mix which I assume is the coconut cashews. It almost feels and tastes like little pieces of toffee, but I don't see mention of toffee in the ingredients. Not my favorite texture in the world, either.
Still, most folks will find these palatable if not downright delicious. I would have gone absolutely mad for these in my younger years. These days, I'm looking for something a little more balanced, a little more restrained. I would have liked significantly more coconut flavor and cashew flavor. Furthermore, this summer heat makes candy like this a sticky mess. The chocolate and caramel melt instantly upon contact with fingers and hands. Makes me want to put on latex gloves before reaching into the bag.
But even grumpy old men can appreciate super sweet chocolatey candy once in a while. As long as I only eat one or two pieces at a time and wash them down with a swig of milk, I'll easily put a dent in the bag. With a little help from the beautiful wifey, we'll polish off the 6.3 oz package in a few days. Thankfully, it's resealable so we don't have to eat the whole thing at once.
$4.99 for the five serving bag. Kosher. Probably wouldn't buy this one again, personally, but there are plenty of people out there who rave about it. Sonia gives Trader Joe's Coconut Cashew Candy Clusters seven and a half stars. Once again, I'll go with seven out of ten.
Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Covered Cashews are the latest in a very, very long line of random things covered in dark chocolate. Don't believe me? Other things they've covered in dark chocolate throughout the years include:
Okay, that last one may have involved an element of creative license, but all the others have been totally real, actually-available products at Trader Joe's at one point in time. And that's just a short list off the top of my head. There have been dozens and dozens more that aren't even listed above. Thankfully, most of them have disappeared never to return.
This product falls nearer the top of the list than the bottom I think, in terms of overall edibility. I love me some cashews. Thankfully, these cashews are nice and soft and creamy. They're nothing like the oddly hard and crunchy cashews we found in the Garlic Butter Nut Mix. It may have something to do with the well-above average temperatures we've been having, but I feel like these were among the softest cashews I've ever had. They're very high quality and taste great.
Unfortunately, most of that natural cashew flavor is drown out by copious quantities of dark chocolate. Even Sonia agrees. She'd prefer a greater nut to chocolate ratio. Also, I'd prefer milk chocolate—though I'm quite certain I'm in the minority on that point. And I must admit that as dark chocolate goes, this stuff isn't particularly bitter. I just generally prefer milk chocolate to dark chocolate, but I'm consistently outvoted when debates arise. After all, milk chocolate makes your teeth rot out while dark chocolate is a healthy superfood rich with antioxidants. I digress.
The resealable bag is nice. Nuts are expensive, so five bucks for a 6 oz bag is fine I guess. They're kosher. They're salty and sweet. They're perfectly snackable. Sonia would buy them again. I won't hate on Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Covered Cashews any more than I already have. If you like dark chocolate covered things and cashew nuts, you'll most likely enjoy these quite a bit.
As much as I love novelty and uniqueness, there are certain things a consumer should be able to rely on year after year, decade after decade. I was raised on two outstanding potato chip brands, both with outstanding barbecue flavor offerings. The first you've likely heard of: Utz. Based in Hanover, PA, they offer a widely-available sweet and mild barbecue potato chip that's easy to appreciate and much more interesting than a plain potato chip in my humble opinion. Some Redditors speculate that this Trader Joe's product is simply Utz in disguise.
The other barbecue chip I loved as a kid was Gibble's, made right in my hometown, Chambersburg. Fried in lard rather than vegetable oil, Gibble's offers a much richer flavor with a hearty crunch.
Trader Joe's BBQ Flavored Potato Chips have a softer, lighter crunch more similar to the Utz chips I know and love. They have a good bit of sweetness to them, but there's also a subtle hint of bite thanks to the presence of onion, garlic, paprika, black pepper, cinnamon, and clove. That's quite a spice blend for a simple potato chip.
But back to the reliability factor for a moment. These are the fourth or fifth barbecue chip we've seen from TJ's over the years, but most of those previous iterations aren't available anymore. If you've been shopping at Joe's for a long time, you'll no doubt remember Trader Joe's Hickory Barbeque Potato Chips. Those were a mainstay in our pantry for years and years.
In 2013, we saw Trader Joe's imitate the popular PopChips with their Barbeque Popped Potato Chips. I REALLY liked those, but of course, they vanished just as quickly as they appeared. Later, we saw a strange potato and corn snack with barbecue flavor. And in more recent years, we've had the Carolina Gold BBQ Potato Chips which I believe, shockingly, are still currently available. I like those a bit more than my erstwhile blogging colleague that penned that review seemed to, although I have to say I like these a bit better than the Carolina dealies despite being on record saying I prefer ridge cut potato chips.
$2.99 for the 10 oz bag. Pretty decent value. Kosher. Gluten free. Would buy again. Fingers crossed they keep these around for a while...or at least bring back those wannabe PopChips. Eight out of ten stars from the beautiful wifey for Trader Joe's BBQ Flavored Potato Chips. I'll think I'll match her score this time.
The first thing that jumps out at me about Trader Joe's Gnocchi is the value: it's only two bucks...and it's imported from Italy. We're talking four servings of authentic Italian gnocchi for $1.99. And it did indeed provide two separate meals for two adults in our case. That's pretty mind-blowing in terms of cost-effectiveness and affordability.
The second thing that jumps out at me about this product is its shelf stable status. No refrigeration required. This bag of gnocchi wasn't even purchased on our last Trader Joe's run—it's from quite a few months ago. The "best by" date is in December of this year. It would have stayed good for the better part of a year. I didn't even know that was possible. You could buy a dozen of these and have them on hand in your pantry to prepare for months and months after you purchase them. That's ultra-convenient.
Just boil for two minutes. Drain. Simmer in your favorite pasta sauce for two more minutes. We decided to bake ours in the oven in a non-TJ's tomato sauce along with some beef sausage, mozzarella, and parmesan cheeses. Came out great.
We added some Trader Joe's Aglio Olio Seasoning as well as some Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute. The whole thing tasted wonderful. The gnocchi is potato-based, so there is a faint potato flavor to it. There's also a hint of sourness from the lactic acid which is added as a natural preservative. It blends quite well with the cheeses, sauce, and sausage.
I'm sure it's not quite as impressive as fresh-made stuff from an Italian restaurant, but the texture of this product is possibly the best gnocchi mouthfeel I've experienced to date. It's "pillowy," just the way good gnocchi is supposed to be. I'd also call it soft, fluffy, and slightly chewy.
If you were lacking the extra ingredients or wanted to keep things uber-simple, these would be fine simmered in some butter or olive oil with just a dusting of sage or your favorite Italian seasoning blend. You could toss them in soup in lieu of croutons or dumplings. I'd even throw them on a salad if I had a bunch of greens begging for carbs of some kind.
Sonia and I would both definitely buy Trader Joe's Gnocchi again. Found with the other pasta products. Product of Italy. Eight out of ten stars from the beautiful wifey. Seven and a half stars from me, losing a couple points because they're not exactly a flavor extravaganza on their own. They do need a bit of help. Also, some folks may find the sour lactic acid flavor off-putting. Still, the value is outstanding.
Cereal is another one of those categories on this blog that probably makes me sound like a Debbie Downer more often than not. It's not that Trader Joe's cereals are particularly bad, it's just that we've seen so many that it takes something incredibly special to really wow us. The most recent cereal to do that was the outstanding Homestyle Cherry Pistachio Pecan Granola just a couple months back. While Sonia and I are not quite as enthusiastic about Trader Joe's Salted Almond Honey Granola, we'll definitely give this one a thumbs up and a positive recommendation—particularly if that cherry pistachio stuff isn't available for some reason.
This cereal has lots of big almond slices. In the video review, I called them "slabs" of almond. I have to say they were pretty generous with the nuts in this case. They're excellent quality and there are plenty of 'em.
The granola is nice. There are very few of those obnoxiously large boulders of granola that you have to use a pick axe to get apart like we've seen a few times in the past. Bonus: there are corn flakes in the mix. Some are floating free and some are fused to the little chunks of granola. There's also rice flour in there. Not sure where that comes into play to be honest. Maybe they're flakes of corn and rice..? At any rate, the flavor is more complex than most granolas that only employ oats. This one has oats, corn, and rice. Yum.
The cereal is pleasantly sweet, but not overly so. It tastes vaguely like honey because there is some actual honey in the ingredients list. If I have one complaint, it's that I'd want honey as the primary sweetener in the granola rather than cane sugar. Nothing against good old cane sugar, but this cereal would be more aptly named Trader Joe's Salted Almond Cane Sugar Granola...with a touch of honey.
Nitpick much? Yes. Yes, I do.
Overall, it's a nice neutral, hearty, grainy flavor with an appropriate amount of sweetness. Sonia and I would both buy it again. Kosher. $3.99 for the resealable 12 oz bag. We'll both go with eight out of ten stars on Trader Joe's Salted Almond Honey Granola.
After trying Trader Joe's Original Rolled Corn Tortilla Chips—the ones with chili lime flavor, we knew we had to check out this latest addition to the lineup: Trader Joe's Ranch Flavored Rolled Corn Tortilla Chips.
Right up front, the taste is ranchtastic. And if you've ever enjoyed a certain blue-bagged ranch tortilla chip from a certain major snack company, you'll immediately recognize where TJ's is going here. These taste very similar to Cool Ranch Doritos. There's that familiar tangy, savory, slightly cheesy ranch seasoning that coats your mouth and makes it really hard to stop reaching back into the bag.
But here, there's a little something extra going on. The seasoning blend is superb. There's onion, garlic, black pepper, and parsley all hanging out together, giving these chips a little more depth than just your standard ranch powder. The garlic and onion give them that savory punch, while the black pepper adds a tiny bit of bite. The parsley is a nice touch too, giving the flavor a little bit of freshness in the middle of all that salty snack goodness. These definitely aren't bland ranch chips.
We're aware that Takis has a ranch flavored offering, too, but neither of us have tried Buckin' Ranch Takis. I've heard mixed reviews about that product. Seems like Takis' wheelhouse is spicy stuff, but some folks say they do ranch pretty well, too.
To be quite honest, Sonia and I usually prefer our tortilla chips in the classic flat triangle shape. There's something about the regular tortilla chip that just works. It's lighter, easier to eat, and most importantly: it makes a much better vehicle for dipping.
The rolled shape is fun, but it also makes them feel a little denser and crunchier than a typical tortilla chip. There's a lot of chip packed into every bite. If you're eating handful after handful, that extra density starts to become noticeable. I thought it was my imagination at first, but I kinda feel like these are a tad thicker and harder than their chili lime counterparts.
In the end, the ranch flavor is spot on, the seasoning blend is delicious, and they absolutely hit the spot if you're craving Cool Ranch Doritos while cruising the aisles at Trader Joe's. Sonia and I both prefer crispy, wispy tortilla chips over something this dense, and we'd probably grab the chili lime offering again before this one—but if you're a ranch chip fan, these are absolutely worth a try. Trader Joe's Ranch Rolled Corn Tortilla Chips are fun, flavorful, and a decent addition to Trader Joe's snack aisle. $2.99. Kosher. Gluten free. Seven and a half stars a piece from Sonia and me.
Sonia and I are 100% in agreement that Trader Joe's Root Beer Float Bars are a better summer buy than the recently-reviewed Trader Joe's Root Beer Float Pieces. These are cold. They provide more refreshment. Their taste is closer to that of an actual root beer float. The candy pieces melt in the heat. They're a tad too sweet. They don't taste quite enough like root beer.
The only point I'll give to the root beer pieces that I can't give to these popsicles is the novel presence of popping candies. The cookie chunks fizz like real soda. I kinda wish they'd put Pop Rocks or whatever we're calling them in these fun frozen treats. Sonia disagrees. She hates fun.
Just kidding. She's a girl and girls just wanna have fun, after all. I guess we just differ on what constitutes fun occasionally. For example, I love roller coasters. I think they're a blast and a half. Sonia? Not so much. She'll get on a kiddie coaster once in a while but she's terrified of the big rides. Okay, now I'm getting off track.
Back to the popsicles. I mean, these aren't just popsicles. They're also ice cream bars. They're the best of both worlds. Vanilla ice cream on a stick surrounded by frozen root beer. That's a fun idea. That idea's so summery, it should be illegal to keep these in your freezer and consume them in any season but summer. That's why TJ's takes them away come fall time. The root beer pieces go away around then, too, but they don't seem as summery to me.
Usually I'm cursing at Trader Joe for making half his inventory seasonal, but with these, it makes sense. There's a nice balance of sweet, earthy root beer and creamy vanilla bliss. The first bite kinda tastes more like root beer but once you get further down the bar, it seems like there's a plethora of vanilla ice cream.
$3.79 for six bars. Kosher. Found in the frozen section, duh. We'd buy these again next summer for sure—or maybe even on our next TJ run. But there's probably too many other new treats to try to make room in our freezer bags for these. I dunno. We'll see. Eight and a half stars from the beautiful wifey for Trader Joe's Root Beer Float Bars. I'll go with eight out of ten on this one.
There's just something about a root beer float that screams summertime. You've got the earthy bite of the root beer, the sweet vanilla cream, and the fizz of the soda. They all come together for such a great flavor that's cold and refreshing. And why root beer? I mean, cola floats work just fine. I think it's the way the root beer and ice cream interact to create such a fluffy head of foam. Can a solid piece of candy possibly capture the magic of a real root beer float?
Trader Joe's Root Beer Float Pieces will run you $3.79, and I must admit they're fun and unique. They've got a vanilla cream sandwich cookie for a base which is covered in a root beer flavored confectionery coating. Plot twist: there are Pop Rocks to add fizz, just like actual root beer. Okay, it's "popping candy." But we all know who made popping candy famous.
The vanilla cream in the center is cloyingly sweet. And it's topped with cookie which is topped with more sweet candy. It's a bit over the top in terms of sugary sweetness if you ask me. Part of the brilliance of a root beer float is the balance of flavors. There's definitely some root beer taste in these candies, but the cookie part of the equation overshadows it by a good margin.
Sonia and I like Trader Joe's Root Beer Float Bars popsicles significantly better than these dry candies. Their flavor is much closer to that of a traditional root beer float and the refreshment factor is head and shoulders higher than these sticky sweet candy pieces. These root beer bites definitely have their fanbase—plenty of rave reviews out there if you go looking for them. We'll put 'em solidly in "not bad" territory. The beautiful wifey gives Trader Joe's Root Beer Float Pieces seven and a half out of ten stars. I'll throw out seven out of ten.
It's true that some TJ's products can vary from batch to batch, but my goodness, if our box of Trader Joe's Flakes & Strawberries Cereal was anywhere close to average, then they seriously need to change the photo on the cover of the package. It's straight up misleading to show a bowl of flakes with about eight or nine freeze dried strawberry slices sitting right on top when in reality there are only two or three per bowl, on average.
Sonia's first bowl had none. Zip. Zero. Nada. Zilch. We dug through the bag and manually added some strawberries we found on down the way. Even if you divvy up the berries so there's one in each of your first bites, there are still way more bites with nothing but flakes left over at the end.
In fairness, the flakes aren't bad in and of themselves. They have a nice crunch. They don't get soggy too quickly. We like the wheat and rice blend. They're lightly sweet. Not bad, not bad.
But if we wanted plain flakes, we'd have purchased plain cereal. We're hunting for strawberries here. Enter: Trader Joe's Freeze Dried Strawberries to save the day. I think the price went up on the berries since we published that review, but it's still a very decent product—along with its blueberry counterpart.
The freeze dried strawberries product appears to be the exact same commodity that we find sparsely distributed throughout the cereal. They're thin slices of brittle strawberry, mostly good quality. Same color. Same texture. Same good sweet-tart flavor.
After adding a whole bunch of the extra strawberry pieces, the cereal went from zero to hero. We easily finished our bowls, and a couple days later, the bag. Of course, you could always add fresh strawberries. That would work, too. I mean, you can always dress things up to suit your taste, but when the title of the product advertises strawberries, we're expecting a decent amount of strawberries to already be in the cereal.
$2.99 for the 11.7 oz box. Kosher. Product of Canada. Sonia would like to point out that although we're being a tad critical of this product, it's still better than Special K with Red Berries. Fair enough. Still, we probably wouldn't pick up Trader Joe's Flakes & Strawberries Cereal again for lack of freeze dried berries. Six and a half stars from Sonia. Five and a half stars from me.
