Trader Joe’s buzzy new products are hit or miss. Among things we’ve tasted recently, those viral corn ribs were just eh (seriously, just quarter your own corn cobs). Their Super Seedy Cheese Snack Bites, on the other hand? Give me a bib and a bucket of these, and leave me alone. That’s all to say that when these things hit, they really hit. So, how about the new Yuzu Ripple Frozen Dessert that recently appeared in the store’s ice cream case? We grabbed a pint, some spoons, and dug in.
I won’t beat around the ol’ yuzu bush (I don’t know where yuzu grows). This stuff is delicious. This isn’t the first time one of TJ’s coconut-based non-dairy frozen desserts has wowed us; their Black Tea & Boba Frozen Dessert was the best ice cream we tasted in 2022, and it isn’t even ice cream. They’ve really got a lock on that coconut base—it’s creamy and it doesn’t taste overwhelmingly like coconut, so the flavor of the ice cream isn’t yuzu and coconut or black tea and coconut. Just yuzu. Just black tea.
The yuzu is super tart, and you can really taste rind, which gives it a big punch of flavor. I knocked off half a point because editor-in-chief Justine Sterling thought it tasted more like tangerine than like yuzu, but all the same, it has a strong citrus flavor that lingers on your tongue as you eat. Senior staff writer Jordan Myrick suggested making an ice cream float with this and some Sprite and, you know, I just feel so lucky to work alongside geniuses.
If you like a citrusy ice cream, you should absolutely buy this.
Gwynedd Stuart, Sporked’s managing editor, is an L.A.-based writer and editor who spends way, way too much time at the grocery store. She’s never met an Old El Paso taco or mozzarella stick she didn’t like.
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