Another well intentioned week where I -meant- to review a lot of food products but never found the time to sit down and write everything up.
Tomorrow is trash night, and in a effort to clear out some junk I have lying around, here's a lighting round with some candid pics and my thoughts.
No-frills products are the way to go, especially when it comes to pantry staples, but there are some exceptions to the rule, like candy bars. It's really tempting to grab store branded sweets when filling your candy bowl, but are they worth it?
I grabbed candy from Target's house brand, Trader Joe's house brand, and the real deal, who will come out on top?
Confused by the title? It's referencing a song that has been stuck in my head for over 20 years! I swore that I must have heard it on the radio. Nope! It was actually from a 1991 Barbie cassette tape! I FOUND IT! (I freaking love YouTube!) I even found the full album, including the She's got the Look cover, 19:17!
Anyway, I love chai, and was actually looking into buying some spices and making it at home from scratch, which is fairly easy to do, but I spotted this at Trader Joe's and thought I would treat myself to a little laziness.
I'm hoping that this will be good!
It's officially fall, so today's post is a summer-specific product. (Being late is very on-brand for me.) I never found the time to write it up, so I'm doing it now, before I get knee-deep into my beloved Fall/Halloween nonsense that will ultimately roll over into November and possibly December. (Again, very on-brand.)
If you're not following, What's Good at Trader Joe's, you're missing out. Not only are their captions on social media hilarious and give me life, but if you shop at Trader Joe's, they go through practically every item they have to offer and let you know which ones are worth checking out. They try everything, so you don't have to! (New slogan?) Sometimes, even when they say something might not be that great, it can still pique your interest. Which was the case with these macarons.
While the What's Good at Trader Joe's rating for these was fairly low, I had a lot of fun with the Trader Joe's watermelon jerky, and watermelon spread. None of these products are things I NEED or really loved, but they were certainly unique, yummy enough, and a lot of fun. So, how could I NOT try it in macaron-form to complete my weird watermelon Trader Joe's trifecta?
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 haven't bought anything from Trader Joe's since I moved into my house two years ago. It's too far of a drive, so I've been living vicariously through my friends over at What's Good at Trader Joe's. There have been some murmurs of a Trader Joe's AND a Costco being built in my area in the near future, but I'll believe it when I see it. We've been burned by business promises before.
Anyway, while myboyfriendfiance (still not used to it!) was out, he happened to see a Trader Joe's and popped in to grab me a pancake-y present because, "It looks like something you'd review." And he's right!
Today I'm going to skip packaging and get right into the review! (For the record, packaging is cute, but a little boring.)
It's a Christmas Mira-kringle! (Boo!)
What's a Kringle? Well, it's a large halo-shaped pastry made with layered dough and various fillings and toppings. They're the official state pastry of Wisconsin, they have Danish roots, and here on the East Coast, seasonal Kringle offerings are often sold at Trader Joe's. When Trader Joe's does get a shipment of Kringles in, they never last long. People go crazy for these things!
A while back I reviewed the seasonal Pumpkin Caramel Kringle from O&H Danish Bakery, but before that I tried the O&H Almond Kringle (my first ever Kringle) and it was the absolute BEST! Since it's the holidays and they're in HIGH demand, it's hard to get my hands on one from Trader Joe's, so I decided to try this version from Aldi instead. Will Racine Danish Kringles taste as good as O&H? We shall see!
(Get it? Leafs?) Welp, give me a pity laugh any way because I'm sick. It's just a head cold, but my voice sounds oh'-so sexy, and I'm pretty much bed-bound playing Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon on my 3DS until my thumbs fall off.
The bright-side to being sick (other than playing video games) is I'm stuck at home, which gives me the time to type up some long over due reviews! I decided to focus on some sick-stomach-friendly items in my stash, and I found three different fall themed teas! So let's have a throat-soothing showdown to see which tea shall reign supreme!
Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie~! My food hoarding isn't limited to the giant pile in my photo-room, it's apparently found it's way into my freezer. I was digging through my usual freezer stuff to find my giant bag of frozen french fries from BJ's, because I'm eating oh-so-healthy this week, and I spotted this box hidden in the depths of my icy freezer-prison where time and food are (obviously) forgotten. It didn't look freezer burnt, so why not review it for todays' #TBT and put it out of it's off-season misery?
More stuff leftover from my Trader Joe's podcast haul? Yup, but I'm 99% sure this is the very last item! (Okay, maybe I'm only 75% sure, but that's because I didn't feel like digging through my giant food hoarding pile to double check.)
It took me a few months to get here, but you know what? Pretty much every product I reviewed was a winner, so it was totally worth it. These mints combine three of my favorite things, so I figured this should be a really good note to end on. (But you never know!)
I absolutely loved the little bags of Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Mints. I've bought...I don't even know how many bags of them by this point. They are just so damn good! When I really like something I tend to stick with it and not stray, like my Bacon Turkey Bravo addiction at Panera, but sometimes sticking with what you know means you're missing out on something you could like even more. There are two other products available in these tiny portioned packets, so I figured I might as well give them a try to see if they are as equally addicting.
From this point on, reviews are back on schedule! (Hooray for consistency!)
How are you surviving this winter weather? I live on the East Coast in America, and where I live I've been pretty lucky. We got about a foot and a half of snow over the weekend, but the weather has warmed up quite a bit and everything is (thankfully) melting away quickly. I was snowed in away from home, which meant being away from my desktop computer, so I didn't get to work on the blog, but if you follow me on Instagram you got to see a few of the things I munched on while hiding out indoors and avoiding shoveling. To prevent that from happening again, I'm looking into laptops so that I can more easily work on the blog when I'm on the go. I've always preferred desktops and I've never had a laptop computer before, so do any of you have laptop recommendations? (Right now I'm kind of looking at this one, so I can run the Adobe suite, blog, and do graphic design work on the go. Any advice? or opinions?)
Okay, on to today's review, cookie butter!
Remember how I said I went overboard buying stuff for the Trader Joe's podcast for Candyology 101? Well, I think I finally made my way through that stash! It took months...but I did it! (Small victories, right?) Back when we recorded I bought these mints for the first time, and I absolutely loved them, and I even talked about them on the show. I meant to review them but...I ate them all. So I bought another bag to review. Then promptly ate that entire bag as well. So here we are, I don't even know how many bags later, but I'm finally able to review them for you guys to spread the word about how awesome these mints are. (What can I say, I have no self control.)
Here's another Trader Joe's chocolate bar that was good enough to revisit. Instead of a popping candy gimmick, this time we have a bar that's filled with bacon ganache! Because everything is better with bacon, right?
For the record, I hate Katy Perry, but I love JonTron, so here's your obligatory Fireworks reference. Now that we've got that out of the way...
The first time I grabbed this chocolate bar was back when we were recording our Trader Joe's themed episode of Candyology 101 with the awesome foodies from What's Good at Trader Joe's. I did a lot of "homework" for that episode, which meant buying a TON of Trader Joe's sweets to eat and discuss, but I may have gone a little overboard... I bought way too much and I needed to consume it faster than I could blog about it! Some of those candies were good enough to warrant repurchase and their own write-ups, so I grabbed this today because it seems oh-so appropriate for the upcoming Valentine's Day season. (Dammit, now I have Firework stuck in my head. At least Jon does it better.)
More pumpkin? But it's winter! Yup, like always, I have a bit of pumpkin overhang from the fall season. To work my way through all that stuff, while still posting seasonally appropriate reviews, I'll be posting off-season items once a week as a Throw Back Thursday kind of thing. I thought that would be a fun way to let me work through my stash of food products while staying relevant. So here's my first throw back to fall, some Pumpkin Spiced Caramels from Trader Joe's.
Speculoos spread is a super popular item from Trader Joe's that comes in a few different flavor variations, but what is "Speculoos" anyway? Before shopping at Trader Joe's I'd never heard of it before, so I looked it up on the ever wonderful Wikipedia to find out more about this silly sounding spread.
Apparently, Speculoos refers to spiced cookies, of Dutch and Belgian origin, which are commonly associated with the winter holiday season. The spices used in the cookies are cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cardamom and white pepper. For the most part, it sounds like a spreadable version of a gingerbread cookie, but the flavor profile is a bit more complex. This stuff has been listed as one of the top 10 Trader Joe's items for the last 3-4 years, and it's inspired some new, less traditional, flavor variations. (Like the pumpkin pie version I reviewed this fall.)
This version I have here is kind of like an American-European mash-up. We get the spicy goodness of the European Speculoos, mixed with a Oreo puree! Spreadable cross-continental cookie goodness? Don't mind if I do!
Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Americans! I know the history behind this National holiday is bloody, and horrible, but hopefully you're able to take advantage of this day off to spend time with your families, relax, and eat some yummy food. (Also, don't you dare go out shopping today! Stay in and play X-box with your cousins or something.)
Today I have a special post for all you Aldi haters out there. Guess what? Aldi and Trader Joe's are "Sister companies," that's right! They're related, and the last few months, Aldi has been getting all kinds of Trader Joe's goodies as a lower price point! Don't believe me? Well check this out.
I picked this up at random a while ago, but apparently this is a much sought after Trader Joe's product? Awesome! I've had the almond version before, which is usually sold around Christmas time, and that thing tastes freaking amazing. The almond version is hands-down the best thing I've ever eaten from Trader Joe's, so I can only imagine that this will be equally as amazing. So what is a Kringle anyway? Let's find out!
