Rachel Jones
Each week, I get to go to Trader Joe’s. I don’t just “have to” for my job, but it’s something I get to do that I do not take for granted. Not everyone has a Trader Joe’s nearby, and frankly it’s remarkable that it’s not only my closest grocery store, but it’s also only half a mile from my home. Again, I do not take this for granted. The joy I get from perusing the aisles of the most chaotic grocery store in town is unmatched.
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The only thing better than getting to shop at Trader Joe’s on the regular is bringing all my goods home and giving each new thing I bought this week a taste. And that’s where you folk come in! Yay! Not only do I get to figure out whether or not the products that caught my eye are any good for my sake, but I get to relay it to the masses so you can hopefully be a more informed shopper. It’s better for your wallet and minimizes any confusion for you all. And I get to basically gossip about my beloved groceries to anyone who cares about Trader Joe’s as much as I do. It’s a win-win situation. So let’s get into it, shall we?
- Organic Turmeric Twist Juice
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I’ll admit, I ended up grabbing this from the shelves after seeing it on my socials feed non-stop. I just needed to know if it tasted good if there were all these positive recommendations. And I’m happy to say that I happily sipped the whole thing. It’s a cold pressed juice made with orange, carrot, ginger, turmeric, lemon, and apple juice, so if you don’t like any of those ingredients you probably won’t like this at all. Especially if you don’t appreciate a strong ginger and turmeric flavor, then you should steer clear of this one. But if you like all these flavors like I do then you’ll probably love this juice. To me, it has the perfect level of sweetness (with no added sugars) and the vegetal flavor of the carrot is really balanced out by the bright and refreshing citrus and spices.
- Sparkling Watermelon Juice
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This was set up on a huge display when I walked into my Trader Joe’s so I figured they must be trying to make a favorite more accessible. I thought it must be a hit. It couldn’t be further from that though, unfortunately. It was the most aggressively artificial watermelon taste. It tasted more like a watermelon candy than something labelled as a juice ever should have. If watermelon candy is your thing, then you’d probably have better luck with this drink. But the artificial flavor was unfortunate and the overwhelming sweetness didn’t really help either.
- Oatmeal Cranberry Dunkers Cookies
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We haven’t gone fully down the autumnal pumpkin-spiced rabbit hole yet, but we sure are teasing it with bringing home some transitional pieces and introducing them into our routines. This week, that addition was the cranberry oatmeal cookies. They’re specifically designed for dunking and to me these are the perfect cookie for if you like the idea of biscotti but can’t quit get behind the often poor execution of the grocery store varieties. The oat and cranberry flavor both come through wonderfully in these cookies and the warm spices and white chocolate drizzle made the flavor really well rounded. I’ll be keeping these on hand throughout the fall season.
- Chicken Salad Croissant Sandwich
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After the initial demand for these croissant sandwiches subsided and I was finally able to find these on shelves again I knew I had to try one. If you’ve been following this series you’ll know we’re big fans of the Homestyle Chicken Salad used in this croissant, but that we didn’t love the tuna salad version they released alongside this one. We didn’t really know what to expect, but we were delighted at how satisfying this was. The pieces of chicken are large, meaty, and tender, and the seasoning is perfect in the filling. Plus, the pieces of celery and carrot in combination with the lettuce make it surprisingly fresh. The croissant itself was as good as a cold grocery store croissant can be. It wasn’t anything special, but it didn’t really ruin the experience either.
- Apple Cider Old-Fashioned Donuts
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Anything cinnamon-sugar coated immediately calls to me when I see it in stores, so naturally we had to try these. And they were good… but not great. They were pretty dry and dense (denser than you would even want a cake donut) in a way that was just disappointing. The overall flavor was nice though, and the packaging is undeniably adorable and fitting for the product inside. I had high hopes for these though and they just didn’t quite hit the mark.
Heather Adams
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!