I've said it many times: I'm a carbivore. Not necessarily proud of that. It's just a fact I love breads, pastries, cereals, and all manner of grains. I'm also oddly fond of garlic. I wasn't particularly enamored with it as a kid, but as I've grown old, I've come to appreciate its essence not only baked into Italian style dishes but also raw garlic for its potent medicinal properties and pungency.
If anybody knows how to make garlic bread, it's the Italians. And not only do we have a uniquely Italian product title with this item, but it is, in fact, an Italian import. So far, so good.
Bake at 425°F for 12 minutes on parchment. Done. The verdict? It's garlicky. It might even be too garlicky for some. Obviously, it's not raw garlic since it's been baking in the oven for the past dozen minutes or so. It's a decent roasted garlic flavor that I can appreciate. No, the garlic flavor isn't the problem here.
The cheese flavor is so subtle I wasn't even sure it had cheese until I looked at the ingredients. It's more like a thin layer of an oily garlic paste on a stiff slab of wheat bread. It's not crispy like Texas toast, but nor is it super soft. It's almost like the slightly chewy dough from a slice of New York style pizza but without any tomato sauce and practically no cheese.
It's not a terrible product, but it seems like it's missing an ingredient or two. Paired with a pasta dish, some marinara sauce, or a bowl of cherry tomatoes, it would be passable. The presentation is unique and interesting, but if you're playing the odds, you'll get better garlic bread from the local mom and pop's Italian restaurant.
Probably would not repurchase. Four bucks for two of Trader Joe's Garlic Gondolas, found in the frozen section. Six out of ten stars from me. Six and a half from the beautiful wifey.
Can you believe that despite reviewing more than 2,250 Trader Joe's brand food products that we've never looked at their classic peanut butter cups? We've reviewed multiple types of almond butter cups and even sunflower seed butter cups but never their tried and true milk chocolate or dark chocolate peanut butter offerings.
Time to change that. I know I've purchased their milk chocolate peanut butter cups at least once or twice many years ago, but I don't think I've ever even tried this product. I've heard nothing but good things. Let's dive in.
Sonia loves that the layer of chocolate surrounding the peanut butter isn't very thick. She loves dark chocolate but thinks a lot of peanut butter cups are ruined by drowning out the flavor of the peanut butter with too much chocolate. I love that the peanut butter is super creamy and sweet. There's even a hint of vanilla in the mix which works to balance out the rich dark chocolate.
The texture and firmness of the shell is just about perfect, and the flavor combo couldn't be better. We can see why this product has been around for so long. It's a big tub with 35 or 36 peanut butter cups. It'll last you a good long time I would think, although that depends on how big your family is I guess.
$4.99 for 16 ounces of dark chocolate and peanut butter bliss. Kosher. I definitely want to try the milk chocolate peanut butter cups again next time, but we would repurchase this product at some point. Eight and a half out of ten stars from Sonia. Eight out of ten from me.
