We actually reviewed this product 12 years ago. I wrote a terza rima poem about it under the incorrect assumption that the product was pronounced pan-uh-TONE. It's actually pan-uh-TONE-ay. Or something like that...
Anyway, Sonia's score was tragically low for some reason. And yet she kept buying this product year after year. So we decided to do a video about it and amend Sonia's score and throw up some new info and photos.
I can't tell if the product is a victim of shrinkflation or if they just use slightly different ingredients now. But this version has 30 fewer calories than the version from 12 years ago, while the net weight has remained the same at 3.52 ounces—or did they just decide not to update the front of the packaging? I think we paid two bucks even for the one in 2013. This one cost $2.29. Not too bad considering how much everything else has gone up.
It's still imported from Italy. It's still remarkably soft and fresh-tasting bread considering it's shipped halfway around the world, wrapped in cellophane and a box. The "best by" on ours is in April 2026 and we bought it a couple weeks ago. It's still got a ribbon on the top of the package so you can hang it on your tree like an ornament.
Some might say it's just Italian fruitcake, but we think it's a fun, festive, and exotic product. This time around, Sonia and I are both giving Trader Giotto's Panettone Classico eight out of ten stars. Would buy again.
I was pretty young the first time I tried pecan pie. It was around Christmas time. A neighbor and friend of the family that made some tasty nut rolls tried her hand at pecan pie instead that year. Somewhere buried in my foggy memories of Yuletide yore—somewhere in between playing with the dog outside in the snow, sledding down the steepest hill in the town, and helping my dad set up his model train and Christmas village—somewhere in there lies my recollection of that first taste of pecan pie. I remember liking it a lot, but I really can't recall the specifics other than some sweetness and lots of pecans.
From then on, I rarely had pecan pie any time other than Thanksgiving. It was always pumpkin pie for Christmas dinner. But in recent years, Sonia and I have been sampling whatever pecan pie products Trader Joe's offers. Last year, we tried the delightful Teeny Tiny Pecan Pies. They were absolutely scrumptious, convenient, and fun. In years past, we sampled the Chocolate Pudding Pecan Pie. Many of you guys know I'm not fond of slathering all the food in chocolate as Trader Joe's is wont to do, but that was a very interesting and unique dessert.
We even had pecan pie filling in a jar...and some other mini pies from more than a decade ago. Can't say this large pecan pie is the best of the bunch, unfortunately. It's not bad. It's just...not as good as those aforementioned pecan pie products. The crust is very...blah. Just quite...unmemorable. There's too much filling and it's just like an off-yellow gelatin. It's sweet but not very interesting.
On the plus side, there are lots of pecan halves. I don't know if even more pecans could have redeemed this dessert, but it might have helped. I think I just wanted a richer filling mix. The crust could have been a bit more buttery, flaky, and flavorful, too.
It's ten bucks and serves five people. I'm pretty sure we got more than five servings out of it. Well, let's just say you'll get eight. I'd go ahead and recommend two boxes of the teeny tiny pies if you're trying to serve eight people. The teeny tinies are five and a half bucks each. So, for just a dollar more, you'd still have pecan pie for eight people and I think those diminutive doodads are head and shoulders better than this pecan pie.
We'll be nice and give this offering seven out of ten stars. It's found with the baked goods if you're still interested in giving it a whirl. We'd gravitate toward any of those other pecan pie products before purchasing this one again. Bring back that Chocolate Pecan Pudding Pie, please! In the meantime, there's always the Teeny Tiny Pecan Pies.
These two British imports came out a couple months apart, with the hot honey fudge appearing over the summer and the clotted cream following a bit later. Both are still currently available according to traderjoes.com and both were available at our local Trader Joe's as of the time this review was composed. I'm not exactly a fudge connoisseur but these products sound fairly interesting, and British candy is Christmassy enough, so let's get to it.
First up, Trader Joe's Hot Honey Fudge. True to the name, there's a whisper of distinctly honey sweetness. The "hot" part of the equation isn't particularly noticeable on the front of the palate when you first bite into the candy, but rather it creeps up on you and tingles the back of your throat at the finish. I'm surprised how much I like these. The heat isn't overwhelming if you're used to spicy food, but there's enough of a kick to make it quite interesting. I like this candy just a bit better than the other one.
Next, Trader Joe's Clotted Cream Fudge. This one's creamier, sweeter, and richer, and Sonia prefers this one over its spicy cousin. It has a more indulgent flavor, and the flavor isn't a far cry from that of butterscotch. Both fudges are soft and easy to bite into, with a melt-in-the-mouth quality as you chew.
Each box contains 10-12 pieces of fudge and will run you $2.99. We'd buy either one again in the future. They'd make great stocking stuffers for the fudge fanatics in your life. We've also checked out Trader Joe's Maple Flavored Fudge and Trader Joe's English Butter Fudge, in case you're interested.
Sonia will give seven and a half out of ten stars to Trader Joe's Hot Honey Fudge and she'll give eight out of ten to Trader Joe's Clotted Cream Fudge. I'll go with seven and a half for the hot honey selection and an even seven for the clotted cream offering. In the end, they'll both average out to the same score.
Traderjoes.com quotes the beginning of The Big Lebowski in its write-up for this product. I tried to recreate Sam Elliott's epic voice over from the Coen brothers film to the best of my ability in the video review below, so be sure to check it out and hit like and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Fun fact: I wrote my media studies final thesis on The Big Lebowski back around 1999. It was about how the film didn't have any real message or purpose and I argued that it didn't need one. It was super deep and philosophical but I don't have a copy of it anymore so you'll just have to take my word for it.
For those of you unfamiliar, the main character in the film goes by "The Dude." Apparently, it was the inspiration for this cookie. The palm trees behind the confection suggest a Mediterranean climate similar to Los Angeles, which serves as the setting for the film.
But enough about quirky late 90s cinema. How's the cookie? Well, the frosted parts are actually harder than the unfrosted parts, making them extraordinarily rigid. The taste is honestly better than I expected. It's very traditional gingerbread. It's sweet and spicy but not too strong on either count.
As long as you're not expecting anything too soft or extravagant, you probably won't be too disappointed with Trader Joe's Gingerbread Dude Cookie. It dunks fairly well. $2.99 for the very large four serving gingerbread cookie. Product of South Africa. Sonia and I give this item six out of ten stars for the food factor. Just so we don't come off too grinchy, we'll throw out a separate score for the novelty and cuteness factor. El Duderino would make an excellent stocking stuffer.
Some of you are going to look at the 7/10 score at the bottom of this review and be like "I can't believe Nathan and Sonia actually liked these cookies" and others of you are going to be like "Seven out of ten?? These are at least an eleven on a scale of one to ten!" To be fair, we've reviewed over a hundred different kinds of Trader Joe's brand cookies over the past 15 years, the vast majority of which have been crispy, crunchy cookies. So it takes something extra special to get an extra special score on this blog.
So you're saying Trader Joe's Sleigh Ride Cookies aren't extra special, Nathan? Huh? Is that what you're saying?
Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. Unless you absolutely love rock hard, rigid cookies and were pining for ones with bits of smashed up Peppermint Joe-Joe's and candy cane pieces baked into them...in which case, I suppose it's within the realm of possibility that you'll think these cookies are extra special. I wouldn't have asked for such a cookie in a million years. But if Trader Joe's sells it, you bet we're gonna try it.
On the plus side, these cookies are pretty good when dunked in coffee or hot chocolate. They're sweet and minty, crunchy, chocolatey, and you get a lot of cookies for four bucks. Fun packaging design, too.
Negatives? They're too hard, there's too much peppermint, and the overall flavor just isn't that memorable in my opinion. Sonia agrees.
Me? If you want a recommendation for extra special crunchy cookies, there's always the Italian Amaretti Cookies. Oh wait. Trader Joe's didn't bring those back this year. Bah humbug. If you want a rec for peppermint cookies, Sonia and I were both pleasantly surprised with this year's Peppermint Brookie. Hopefully some of those are still around.
So yeah. Four bucks for about 16 cookies. Kosher. Shelf stable for a good six or seven months. I wouldn't buy again. Sonia thinks they'd be nice to take to a party. I guess. Seven out of ten stars from the beautiful wifey and me for Trader Joe's Sleigh Ride Cookies.
It has been absolutely frigid here lately. I guess it's another "arctic blast." Fun. Have already done some snow shoveling with the beautiful wifey this year. It's always nice to duck in out of the cold, sit down by the fire, and warm up with a nice big bowl of ice cream, don't you think?
And not just any ice cream—it's Trader Joe's English Toffee Ice Cream. Finally, an English toffee product I can get behind. It's got a brown butter ice cream base, small toffee pieces covered in chocolate, almond bits, and a caramel-esque swirl. It's extremely buttery, sweet, rich, and indulgent.
Sonia and I are both happy it has a yummy toffee flavor without massive jawbreaking slabs of hard candy. It's mostly smooth, but the nuts and toffee pieces keep it interesting. It's got whispers of chocolate, but not much more than that.
We polished off the whole thing in a single day. It's one of the better holiday ice creams we've seen from Trader Joe's. English toffee is far from my go-to flavor, but it's seasonally-appropriate and this offering didn't disappoint.
$3.79 for the pint. Kosher. Would buy again next year. Eight out of ten stars from both Sonia and me for Trader Joe's English Toffee Ice Cream.
I think the classic Brookie from Trader Joe's was just an instance of getting my hopes up too high before trying a product. I thought the Peanut Butter Brookie was a step in the right direction, and I like this one even more still. But this might just be a case of not having my hopes up particularly high.
Sonia and I are both wary of peppermint desserts. The peppermint can easily overpower the other flavors and ruin a perfectly good treat. Also, the presence of candy canes or candy cane pieces can dampen my enjoyment of a product. Biting right into hard candy isn't an undertaking I'm actively seeking out these days.
Fortunately, the peppermint in this product adds to it rather than detracting from it. It's a sort of sparkly peppermint dust scattered across the top of the brookie—no big rock-hard candy canes. It's peppermint forward, but there's plenty of chocolate brownie and sweet bready cookie in the mix along with it.
The cookie and brownie are nice and soft. We found nuking the dessert for 8-10 seconds made it even softer. Heating it woke up the flavors even more and made it seem creamier, gooier, and even more indulgent.
We like the serving size. We like the texture and flavor. We like the value. This product would stack up pretty well against any traditional grocery store holiday dessert fare. Sonia and I are both pleasantly surprised with Trader Joe's Peppermint Brookie.
$4.99 for eight brookie squares. Kosher. Found with the baked goods. We would buy it again. You'll most likely have a few days from when you purchase it until the "best by" date. Eight and a half out of ten stars from the beautiful wifey. I'll throw out seven and a half stars for Trader Joe's Peppermint Brookie.
The obvious product to compare these happy frozen dessert treats with is Trader Joe's Maple Leaf Ice Cream Sandwiches. We enjoyed those quite a bit. Judging by appearances, they're coming from the same third party supplier up in the Great White North straight to your friendly neighborhood TJ's grocery store.
Like the maple leafs, Trader Joe's Gingerbread Ice Cream Sandwiches come in a fun shape, although the beautiful wifey points out that the leaves were slightly more intricate and aesthetically pleasing. As you might have guessed, the cookie part of these sandwiches is indeed gingerbread flavored. The ice cream, on the other hand, is vanilla bean. I guess they were going for a balance of gingerbread spices with creaminess. It's not like Trader Joe's can't do gingerbread ice cream.
The overall effect is nice. The vanilla sweetness is offset by mildly-spiced ginger cookies. There is a hint of grittiness in the cookies. They're not 100% smooth. However, like their predecessors, they are nice and soft. I think crispy, crunchy cookies might have killed the mood with this product.
$3.99 for four ice cream sandwiches. Product of Canada. Kosher. Would buy again. In the end, we liked these for sure but maybe just a tad less than we liked the maple leaf sandwiches. Eight out of ten stars from me for Trader Joe's Gingerbread Ice Cream Sandwiches. Sonia will throw out eight and a half—just a half star less than what we gave to the leaf sandwiches from each of us.
Let me start off by saying Sonia and I have both been to Paris independently of one another, and while there, we both sampled some crepes from street vendors. We both remember them being shockingly inexpensive, warm, and delicious. They were one of the few things I perceived to be both uniquely French and also within my price range.
They weren't long and thin like these crepes. They were made with a similar-looking dough and folded into roughly triangular shapes and shuffled into a paper sleeve to be carried off and eaten on the go. I don't remember for sure since it was many years ago, but the crepes were filled with generous amounts of a chocolate spread of some kind—it very well may have been Nutella. It was creamy and full of cocoa flavor. The dough they used was amazing. It was buttery, slightly crispy in places, and it just melted in your mouth.
These are a far cry from those Parisian street crepes. The dough is the most intrusive element. Sonia and I both find it to be chewy—totally lacking that melt-in-the-mouth quality. To be fair, these crepes are pre-packaged and stored at room temperature for a number of weeks and then heated (or not) in the microwave. I guess you can also serve them unheated. I'm tempted to see how they turn out in the air fryer but I fear that they might dry out.
The hazelnut filling is chocolatey enough and tastes decent, but there just isn't enough of it. I remember creamy chocolate oozing out the sides of that delectable street food. That's not the case here. There's way more breading than the hazelnut cocoa filling.
There were some frozen crepes from Trader Joe's quite a few years back. We liked those significantly more than these room temperature dealies. Not sure why they disappeared, but that's pretty much par for the course with TJ's, unfortunately.
At $3.99 for six individually-wrapped servings, the cost isn't much steeper than those very inexpensive crepes from France all those years ago, but the quality isn't even in the same ballpark. Kosher. Would not buy again. Six out of ten stars from both Sonia and me for Trader Joe's Hazelnut & Cocoa Filled Crepes.
How in the world do we keep coming up with things to say about pumpkin spice breads, pies, cookies, and cakes year after year, fall after fall, product after product? I have no idea. How many different combinations of breading, pumpkin, and pumpkin spice can Trader Joe's offer? It seems like the possibilities are limitless.
And here we are with another baking mix that can make cakes, loaves, or muffins. We opted for muffins. Why? Well, first of all, I found a fun music track of that "Do You Know the Muffin Man" song in YouTube's audio library which I used in the background for our video review. It's a children's song, I know. But Sonia and I are still kids at heart after all.
Second, we opted for muffins to complete our 2025 pumpkin spice trilogy, consisting of Trader Joe's Pumpkin Bread & Muffin Mix, Pumpkin Loaf, and Pumpkin Spice Snickerdoodle Cookies. We've already eaten plenty of pumpkin spice cakes and loaves recently, but it's been years since we've had Pumpkin Spice Muffins.
Anyway, they're good. I like them a little better than the above-mentioned pumpkin loaf and a little less than the pumpkin snickerdoodles. They're less sweet than either of those other two, but still contain some sugar and pumpkin spices to keep things interesting. They've got real dried pumpkin flakes and plenty of carb-o-riffic goodness.
We made one dozen plain and another dozen with walnuts. I think Sonia and I both prefer the walnut version. Pecans would definitely work, too. The flavor isn't overwhelmingly spicy or sugary or indulgent. It's just a nice lightly sweet pumpkin bread vibe. You can add cream cheese or icing on the top along with Trader Joe's Pumpkin Pie Spice if you want to make them extra sexy.
$3.49 for the mix which made 24 muffins. Kosher. Just add eggs, oil, and water. They used to have a gluten free version for a buck more, but I'm not sure if that one is still available. We'd buy this one again. Eight out of ten stars from the beautiful wifey. I'll give Trader Joe's Pumpkin Bread & Muffin Mix seven and a half out of ten stars.
Can you believe that at two totally separate times in my life, I found myself at a table of friends only to discover that I was the ONLY person at the table who'd ever even TRIED pumpkin pie? I'm not kidding. Both times were in the United States, although, to be fair, not every person at the table in both instances were Americans by birth. But at least two other people at the table in both instances were Americans by birth...and they'd never even tried pumpkin pie!
I got blank stares and comments like "I don't like vegetables in my dessert" or "It just sounds gross to me." I mean what the WHAT? I get it if you had a few bites when you were a kid and noped out because it was too spicy or it didn't have enough whipped cream but I just don't get how'd you'd get to be an adult and never even tasted pumpkin pie. One of these instances was in college and the other was as a young adult in a major US city. I don't know if that makes a difference. I think chances of this type of travesty ever occurring in smaller towns out in the countryside would be far lower than either of the instances I named, but still...this happened to me TWICE. Not once, but twice was I made to feel like a freak because I had regularly consumed pumpkin pie around Thanksgiving time. Weird, right?
Anyway, I love me some pumpkin pie. And even I could count on one hand the number of times I've had a homemade pumpkin pie. Neither of my parents were skilled at baking and neither ever tried their hand at making pumpkin pie. We had some decent bakeries in my hometown that sold products that were pretty darn close to homemade. So we'd just buy those...or the stuff they made at the big grocery stores.
So I'm primarily comparing this product to other store-bought specimens—nothing gourmet, nothing baked up fresh by grandma—just your average, run-of-the-mill grocery market fare. And to me, Trader Joe's offering stacks up pretty well. I'm surprised by the amount of negative comments I've seen online about this product.
Some folks simply say they prefer other big grocery store chain pumpkin pies. Others say it has a cheesecake vibe that's off-putting somehow. More still say it tastes fake. I, personally, don't know what pumpkin pies these folks are eating and comparing TJ's offering to, but I think this is one of the best store-bought pumpkin pies I've ever had. If you've got a store-bought pumpkin pie in mind that you think is hand-down better than Trader Joe's, please let me know in the comments, and I will go out of my way to try it for Thanksgiving or Christmas—if not this year, then some year soon.
Sonia likes this pumpkin pie, too. She didn't grow up eating the dessert quite as regularly as I did, but she's had her share, especially in recent years, and she's a fan of this one. She thinks the density that others find unpleasant is the very reason she likes this one so much. We both agree it's quite yummy, especially with a lot of whipped cream.
$6.99 for a nine inch pumpkin pie, found in the baked goods section. Kosher. Would buy again. The beautiful wifey and I will both go with eight out of ten stars for Trader Joe's Pumpkin Pie.
More freeze dried fruit! More exciting astronaut snacks! More SUMMER IN NOVEMBER action! Do any of you guys remember Trader Joe's Astronaut Thanksgiving? It was never gonna take off even if they had really called it that. But astronaut fruit candy is significantly more promising. Those Freeze Dried Watermelon Spheres blew our minds.
These? They're darn good, too. I think we might have been even more impressed had we tried them before we tried the watermelon candy. It's two great fruit snack concepts being combined: freeze dried fruit, which we've seen many times from TJ's—and candy covered fruit, another slick move straight out of Joe's pseudo-healthy snackin' handbook.
We've got a nice thick layer of "yogurt flavored coating" on the outside of these treats with real freeze dried strawberries on the inside. It makes the outer portions soft and creamy while the insides are crispy and crunchy. Sonia and I both feel that the freeze dried strawberries themselves are what makes this candy unique, so we think it might have been stronger if there were less of the coating and more of the strawberry.
But still, this is a tasty fruit-based snack with a unique texture. The pieces are the perfect size for snacking and they're more satisfying than you might expect. The sweetness level is just about right. I wish they'd stay away from the palm kernel oil and other seed oils, but other than that, the ingredients aren't too threatening.
$4.99 for the 7 oz resealable bag. Kosher. Found with the bagged nuts, fruits, and trail mixes. We'd probably buy again. Eight out of ten stars from both Sonia and me for Trader Joe's Freeze Dried Strawberry Pieces Covered in Strawberry Yogurt Candy Coating.
Next up in our prestigious SUMMER IN NOVEMBER series: watermelon candy. What's more summery than sugary candy? Sugary watermelon candy, that's what. Even Hailey Bieber thinks so. Kinda rando, sure. But hey, when have we not been random here?
This candy is amazing. I guess "amaze-balls" is pretty appropriate here. I mean, the candy is mostly spherical. Texture-wise, it's like astronaut ice cream sorta. I mean, all freeze-dried stuff is like that to some degree. This stuff is crispity, crunchity, and sweet as all get-out. It's also tart. Like, VERY tart. It's some of the best sour watermelon candy I've ever had.
It might be some of the best candy I've had, period. The flavor is so intense, it's difficult to eat more than two or three at a time. There's not a lot of sustenance there. It's mostly just sugar with natural flavors and natural colors.
In fact the first two ingredients are "sugar" and "corn syrup," but NOT high fructose corn syrup, thank goodness. If you're looking for a legit source of protein or a tide-me-over till dinner type snack, look elsewhere. If you want one of the best and most unique sweet and sour candies you've ever had, then this product is a MUST TRY.
There are a bunch of different colors in the bag, but there's only one flavor. That's our biggest complaint. We want more flavors of this stuff. Apple, grape, cherry, lemon...we'd try 'em all.
It's a pretty good buy at four bucks for the resealable bag. The candy is so light and airy, the net weight is only 1.5 oz. But trust me, that's 1.5 oz that's absolutely bursting with flavor. Sonia and I both love this stuff and would absolutely buy it again. Nine and a half stars from the beautiful wifey for Trader Joe's Watermelon Freeze Dried Candies. I'll throw out nine out of ten.
So this is basically just the Chocolatissimo Harvest Collection, but now it has Trader Joe's brand name on it. Straight outta Belgium, we've got nine fun fall-themed candies with different combinations of chocolate and fillings. Let's take a look at each one.
Yellow & Brown Corncob - This one's a milk chocolate shell with crispy hazelnut praline filling. Good. The middle is like Nutella but with tiny crunchy bits. One of the better ones.
White Apple - I'm a fan of white chocolate, but I thought this specimen was weird. The filling is milk chocolate we think, but for me, the odd flavor of the shell kinda ruined it. Sonia thinks the whole thing tasted more like milk chocolate than white, but she was okay with it overall.
Orange Pumpkin - Milk chocolate shell with a creamy hazelnut praline filling. Pretty good.
Dark Walnut - This one looks like a real nut. I think the filling here is almond praline. It's a nice dark chocolate shell. It's not too bitter and it mixes well with the filling.
Brown Leaf - Milk chocolate shell and a gooey caramel center. The filling is very smooth and runny—almost wants to be a liquid. It's nice and salty, too. I think this one was our favorite.
The Black and White Walnut - It's two races of flavor living side by side in harmony. Both white and milk chocolate shells, both white and milk chocolate fillings. Decent. Sonia thinks she tastes the white chocolate more in this case than in the white chocolate shelled apple. Crispy filling.
Dark Brown Pumpkin - If you like dark chocolate, you'll like this one. Both shell and filling are smooth dark chocolate.
Dark Apple - It's just milk chocolate filling inside a dark chocolate coating. Not bad.
Green and Orange Corncob - Almond praline filling inside chocolate—not sure if it's milk chocolate or dyed white chocolate. This one's okay.
$5.49 for nine imported chocolate candies. Might buy again if I needed a fun contribution for a fall get-together or party. The quality of the chocolates isn't the best I've ever seen, but they have a cute fall theme and you never know what filling you'll find inside your candy. Seven and a half stars from Sonia for Trader Joe's Harvest Chocolate Collection. Seven out of ten stars from me.
These almonds remind me a lot of Trader Joe's Cinnamon Sugar Almonds in terms of texture, the quality of the nuts, and the thickness of the candy coating. If anything, the overall flavor is just a tad richer here, boasting sweet maple and rich brown butter. It's quite satisfying.
I'd heard nothing but good things online about this snack, and no wonder. They're really much more tasty than you might assume by just glancing at the packaging. The buttery maple candy flavor brings just the right amount of pizzazz to the snack, turning ordinary whole almonds into something that could quell even the strongest of sweet tooths.
They're delicious on their own, but they'd work great for baking applications also. As is, I think they're a little too big to serve as an ice cream or yogurt topping, but you could always chop them up in a food processor and toss them in with your favorite creamy dessert.
$3.99 for the 8 oz resealable bag. Kosher. Would buy again. I give Trader Joe's Maple Brown Butter Almonds eight and a half out of ten stars. Sonia gives them nine out of ten.
Not much needs to be said about these happy morsels. They're better than most pre-packaged vending machine snack cakes, but not like worlds better. People rave about them online like they've never had chocolate candy or chocolate cake before. Available only during the fall season, these pumpkins have been around year after year for quite a while—at least a decade, if not longer.
If you miss them this autumn season, have no fear. The exact same product reappears for the holiday season in the form of chocolate mousse presents. And then again around Easter as Chocolate Mousse Eggs. And then again later in the spring as Chocolate Mousse Flowers. There's also a larger cake version around Valentine's Day called For The Love of Chocolate Mousse Cake.
The BEST product in this line by far, however, are the Raspberry Mousse Cakes, available in the spring and summer. That raspberry buttercream gets me every time. I, personally, think they're head and shoulders better than all these chocolate mousse cakes.
That's not to say these are bad. They're perfectly tasty, noshable, and fun. I think they're better when the ambient temperature is warm. I've eaten them plenty of times when it's super cold outside, and I feel like you really want them to be soft, moist, and supple. I haven't tried microwaving them for a couple seconds yet, although I'm tempted.
I've heard some people actually freeze them and eat them cold and solid. I can't see how that would work, but I guess I'd try it at least once. They're usually best when you eat them immediately after purchase. Don't wait until the best by date. Don't refrigerate them. Just pop 'em in your mouth in the car on the ride home and wash 'em down with some chocolate milk.
$3.99 for six little pumpkin shaped chocolate mousse cakes. Found with the baked goods. Kosher. Would probably buy again. We've been all over the place when scoring these things. I feel like they're worthy of seven and a half stars today. Sonia agrees.
Nate's Notes: This review was originally published on September 22, 2021. We're bumping it because we did a short video review, which is now embedded at the bottom of the post. This product is only available seasonally at Trader Joe's during the fall time. We like it a lot and we've repurchased it just about every year for the past four years. It's back for the 2025 season as of the time of re-publishing—but probably won't be around for long. Also, the price has increased to $4.49.
Bro...do you even hotteok?
Can't say I can, because I just learned the word tonight when prepping some Trader Joe's Sweet Cinnamon Filled Korean Pancakes. Lol..."Korean pancakes." Call 'em what they are, TJ's. Hotteok. Granted, yes, I along with likely 80% or more of shoppers wouldn't know what that means at first glance, but I'm always down for a little culinary education. Apparently hotteok is a popular Korean street food, filled with all sorts of stuff, in, well, more or less a pancake form. Never saw or heard of them before as I've never been to Korea and that's not much Korean influence around the 'burgh that'd make something even as tasty and tantalizing like this readily available.
All that to say, heck yeah, Trader Joe's sweet cinnamon filled Korean pancakes are pretty good.
Let's take another second to be clear here: I am not qualified in any way, shape or form to claim these as authentic or close to the real thing or for them to even be half as good. I'd actually be fairly and pleasantly surprised if they were. I'm judging these pancakes simply on their own merits, including costing $3ish bucks for 4 of them, and heating them from frozen on my stovetop for just a few minutes. So take as you will.
All that being said, yum. Let's start with the dough. It's delicious and pretty unique for my experience. Even heating right from frozen, with no butter or oil or anything used, the outside gets all browned and crispy and a touch greasy, just like a good comfort food should. Love it. Further in, it's not quite a mochi-esque bite, but in some ways it's close as it's a little chewy but also soft and moist and gooey and oozing out warmth. Looking over ingredients, there's all sorts of stuff in the dough - wheat, sweet potato, rice flour - that come together well into a soft, lightly sweet cake.
The cinnamon reservoir is pretty fantastic too. I mean, it's a lot of cinnamon. Be careful that stuff is ridiculously hot and stays that way for longer than expected. The cinnamon adds a great spice bite that complements the dough really well, making these compact cakes have more punch than expected.
Still, adding a little ice cream or whipped cream or something like that to just really fill it out? That'd be worthy of hashtagging a #chefskiss all over this.
Delicious. We love 'em and I'm glad we got a second bag that I'm already looking forward to busting open. Authentic? Maybe, maybe not...if you know, tell me. But I'm glad that TJ's has introduced me to this particular chunk of the culinary world, and I know I'll be seeking out the real deal if I ever get the chance. Eight and a half stars on Trader Joe's Sweet Cinnamon Filled Korean Pancakes, aka Hotteok.
