Sometimes Foodie: Watermelon-Jerky-High! (with a jelly chaser)

Watermelon Jerky - Trader Joe's

A few years ago, What's Good at Trader Joe's posted about Watermelon Jerky. It sounded interesting, but at the time I didn't have a Trader Joe's near me. (I used to go to one near work, but then I switched jobs.) So I lived vicariously through their blog. Making mental notes.
Then one finally opened up near me...and it's a nightmare. It's constantly packed, just looking at the parking lot stresses me out. So, I still don't go there. But, we had a family gathering coming up and we have several members with food allergies, so I used it as a reason to brave the crowd and get some goodies.
Sadly, my location didn't have the pickle seasoning, or the pickle peanuts I wanted, but they did have the tamarind sauce, brown sugar oat milk coffee creamer, the caramelized onion cheddar (I adore), watermelon jelly, and watermelon jerky. So let's give this jerky a try first!
I gotta agree with the team over at What's Good at Trader Joe's, it's an odd choice to take what is probably the juiciest, most hydrated fruit ever and remove all the water from it. It's one of it's defining features and it's in the name! But I really like dried and freeze dried fruits, like strawberries, and having them in a new form completely changes the experience. So I was excited to see how this would pan out.

When opened, the smell is more like watermelon flavored chapstick than real watermelon. It's sweet, and fruity, but if I were blindfolded and giving this a smell-test, I never would have guessed watermelon. It's appealing, but very different.
Texturally I thought it might be more-like freeze dried fruits, but it was soft, flexible, and a little sticky. Kind of jerky-like, but more-so like, take-out nachos. Where the heat from all the toppings in trapped in the box making the once crispy tortillas soft and flexible.
Almost all the pieces were stuck together, and they were kind of small, with lots of seeds. Little white seeds were expected, but I didn't think I would see so many large black ones. We usually spit those out when consuming melon, so...why are they still here? If they're cool to eat, why aren't we selling them like we do other seeds, like sunflower? (Is there an untapped market for cool ranch roasted watermelon seeds out there?)
I popped a chunk of watermelon shrapnel in my mouth and...I like it. I really do. It's so different from normal watermelon. It's stiff, chewy, sweet, a little crunchy from the seeds, and it has a really lovely flavor that isn't too sweet. Recently I bought and consumed an entire ripe watermelon from Aldi (when it's ripe and ice cold from the fridge it's soo good.) But having just eaten an entire real melon, hydration and all, this feels like an entirely different animal. I mean, fruit. Which is so interesting since the only ingredient is organic watermelon. This was a bit on the expensive side for a snack, but I really liked it a lot and I would definitely buy it again.

Jelly time! So the jelly I wasn't sure what I was going to do with, the crew at What's Good wasn't sure either, but I still wanted to give it a try!

The texture is super smooth, and unlike the jerky, not a seed in sight. I used a wheat cracker from Aldi to give it a taste. It's sweet, and refreshing but not all that watermelon-y. It kind of reminds me of fruit leather. A sweet fruity flavor but it's kind of non-distinct.

Actually, it kind of reminds me of the watermelon flavored Gushers I used to eat as a kid, so I guess they weren't so artificially flavored after all.

I still have no idea what I would do with this stuff. I feel like it should be the filling of watermelon flavored macarons, but those are a bit elaborate to make. The jelly is a fun purchase, but I don't think I would buy this one again. What would -you- do with watermelon flavored spread? Any ideas to use up the jar are appreciated!