Customers Are Saying This Trader Joe’s Product Has Gotten Worse

Like any supermarket chain, or fast food restaurant, or almost any establishment or business out there that sells food, Trader Joe’s has some products that hit, and some that miss. It also has products that USED to hit. Its Mandarin Orange Chicken is an example of this: Once a beloved favorite, it’s now become a product that customers can well and truly live without, due to perceived declining quality.

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Now, another of its products has apparently gone the same way, according to customers. And it’s one that we have a long history with.

Trader Joe’s Dark Russet Kettle-Cooked Potato Chips

The product in question, its Dark Russet Kettle-Cooked Potato Chips, have been a fan favorite for a hot sec. They were also a Sporked favorite back in 2023, when we tried and ranked the best plain potato chips, giving them a very respectable 8.5 out of 10 rating. The beauty of these chips, then, and up until recently, was that they managed to stay on just the right side of burnt: Trader Joe’s cooks these for longer than the average salted chip, developing a pleasingly bitter flavor which has been a continual hit. “Taste is just shy of burnt, complex, more intense than the standard chip but not like the over the top hit of salty flavored versions,” said a customer last year on Reddit. 

The problem with all tastefully overcooked foods, though, is that if you get it even slightly wrong, they can quickly become nearly inedible. And sadly, that seems to be the case now.

A Bitter Taste In Customers’ Mouths

Again on Reddit, customers have voiced their frustrations in the last few days with these chips, and are now saying that they’re wholly overcooked. “They’re so bitter now, they used to be so good burnt but not over the top. Now they’re extremely bitter burnt,” said the person who kicked off the discussion. They weren’t alone in this assessment: Several others chimed in to say that they’d changed, now to the point where they’re no longer buying them. “I tried them twice just to make I didn’t get a bad batch or that I wasn’t imagining that they’d changed,” stated a customer, confirming that this wasn’t just an isolated event. 

So, what happened? Is it that Trader Joe’s changed its potato supplier, and they’re cooking at a slightly different rate than the former ones? Are they using new oil? Have they cranked up the heat or the cook time slightly? Hard to say, but you might want to skip these from here on out.