Everything In Our Trader Joe’s Cart This Week

Here’s the thing about Trader Joe’s: you never know what you’re going to find when you walk into the store. Sometimes you can go in for the routine purchase of your favorite snack just to find out that you’ll never see it again, and you weren’t even given a warning to stock up while you still could. Other times, it’s a nice thing to constantly be greeted with new products that not only match the seasons that were in, but that are constantly encouraging us to try new things. 

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Ultimately, though, it leads to us being constantly on the prowl for the next best thing that they have to offer. But sometimes we like to get products that we’ve just simply never seen before, too, even if they’re not new to the store. And, what kind of food riders would we be if we didn’t report all of our findings to you, dear readers. So, of everything that we bought and tasted from Trader Joe’s this week, these are the five things we think are worth letting you know about.

Grecian Style Eggplant with Tomatoes & Onions

As we’ve made our way through a lot of the products at Trader Joe’s offers, we’ve had a particularly impressive run with their cans of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern-inspired foods. The Giant Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce and Stuffed Grape Leaves were particularly significant hits, and we were looking forward to seeing how this eggplant held up in comparison. And, while we weren’t as impressed with this eggplant as we were the other ones, it was still a long ways away from being what we would consider bad. In the end, it really just lacked salt. Otherwise, the flavor of the tomatoes, onions, and eggplant itself were quite enjoyable. The texture of the eggplant was particularly impressive. Served up with pita chips or something of that nature would make a nice addition to a meal if you just hit it with a good couple pinches of salt first.

Vegan Vegetable Dumplings

The frozen section is always one of our favorite places to peruse, and this week was no different. But instead of just getting a bag of the Chicken Gyoza for the 8000th time, we decided to give these vegetables dumplings a try instead. They’re not at similar products though, so let’s examine these in their own right. The glassy wrapper was not only delicious, but had an incredible chew to it whilst remaining very tender. When following package instructions and pan frying them, the wrapper takes on a texture comparable to a Korean rice cake, just much thinner. I would just say that the filling of these is kind of bland. You have to really like the flavor of basic greens in order to really appreciate it. That said, they were still well seasoned and satisfying.

Pumpkin Spiced Teeny Tiny Pretzels

We tried not to go too crazy with the pumpkin spiced items this week, but saw these as a new addition to the pumpkin spice collection this year and thought we’d give them a try. They are covered in a pumpkin spiced white chocolate, and honestly, these are a great snack. They’re not too aggressively, pumpkin-y in a way that feels obnoxious or monotonous by the fourth pretzel. And, the balance between the salty pretzels and the white chocolate ended up being quite delightful and addictive.

Alive Raspberry Lychee

This is a new drink on Trader Joe’s shelves, so we decided to give it a shot. We liked that it sounded like kombucha in its health properties, but it wasn’t going to taste anything like kombucha (or at least, that’s what we hoped). As it turns out, this has a much more subtle flavor, and you couldn’t really tell that there’s anything funky going on with it. It almost tastes more like a probiotic soda. The flavor, independent of supposed health properties, is actually quite nice too. It is very floral and fragrant, whilst also being fruity and bright. The only thing is, if you do not like the flavor of Stevia or zero-calorie sweeteners in general, then you might not appreciate the aftertaste of this. But if that’s not something that generally bothers you, then I would encourage you to try it out.

Frosted Cranberry Spritz Wine

Trader Joe’s has really been on a roll this year with their seasonal wine varieties, and they’re not slowing down moving into the end of October and November it seems. This Frosted Cranberry Spritz Wine is not only charming (and making me feel festive a bit too early, even to my liking), but it’s delicious and refreshing. Despite its sweetness, the tart cranberry flavor and acidity from the wine makes it well balanced. It still certainly tastes more like a wine cocktail, but that’s what we were wanting going in.