I Checked Out All the New Stuff at Trader Joe’s, Here’s What I’m Most Excited About This Month

New year! New us! New Trader Joe’s products! With new options to keep things fresh and old staples for when you’re craving familiarity, we’re happy to start our 10k-steps-a-day resolutions with a stroll through the aisles of Trader Joe’s to check out the talent. Here are the top new Trader Joe’s products we’ll be checking out this January. 

Strawberry Vanilla and Cherry Cola Prebiotic Soda Prebiotic Sodas

Honesty time: You’ve had a little extra cheese over the past month or so, right? We sure hope so! We have, too. Now it’s time to do something nice for your belly and cultivate that healthy gut microbiome. Enter these new Trader Joe’s prebiotic sodas. With 5g of fiber per can, these are not only a utilitarian investment, but tasty enough to make you forget about how unsexy we just made soda sound by describing it as a “utilitarian investment.” Choose between cherry cola or strawberries and cream; either sweet flavor will lock you into daydreams that will tide you over until the fiber, um, does its job.

Double Chocolate Batard

A batard is a shape of bread in an elongated oval, resembling an American football. Don’t waste your time wondering if TJ’s was trying to throw shade but missed an “s.” They would never! They’re too busy providing us with a combination of our three favorite things: bread, chocolate, and more chocolate. Made with dark chocolate and cocoa powder, this little treat still isn’t overwhelmingly sweet. Unless, of course, you want to French toast it…

Bocconcino Uncured Salami on a Rope

Ever walk through an Italian market and gaze at the hanging array of delicious, salted meats and think of what a shame it was that the neighbors filed complaints when you tried to make them into wind chimes? Well, now Trader Joe’s is getting into the hanging meat game. Their bocconcino, Italian for “little bite,” is a petite salami made from garlic seasoned pork and ready to shine on your charcuterie board.

Affogatos Vanilla Non-Dairy Frozen Desserts

Hot fries with cold ketchup. Cold strawberries into hot chocolate. Cold cheese into hot cheese. We love foods’ temperatures interplay, so of course we get excited about affogatos! We mean the affogato that refers to pouring hot coffee over a scoop of cold ice cream, not the literal meaning of “drowning.” Coffee and ice cream is a simple but dreamy combination that TJ’s combines into one convenient, vegan-friendly package, with each box containing two cups of vanilla non-dairy frozen dessert and two packets of instant coffee. All you need to do is combine with hot water and enjoy the interplay of cold and hot!

Wild Alaskan Black Cod Sablefish with Miso Marinade

Miso is so delicious when we use it in the one miso recipe we know, but less delicious when it sits, forgotten, in our fridge for *mumbles* months after that. Suffice to say, we love to see miso flavor without the looming anxiety of sweating in the grocery store aisle while wondering if we can justify the purchase of the miso tub. We’re sure that this exact scenario was the only reason Trader Joe’s developed this product, not because miso-marinated black cod has been popular since the ‘90s due to it being delicious. This frozen dinner shortcut is made with Alaskan black cod, which is marinated in miso, rice wine, and sugar. It’s just waiting to be cooked in the oven or airfryer—anywhere that the sweet miso will have a chance to caramelize while you sit back and smile smugly about how much more affordable this was than getting it from Nobu.