SIGN SAYS: “Ideal for pour overs and cold brews where its warm well balanced bitterness will shine”
“Smooth and satisfying, with balanced acidity and sweet nutty notes.”
TJ’s calls this “Medium” and I concur this is exactly medium roast. These nice looking whole beans look shinier in the photo than they actually are, which is not shiny, just bordering it.
Trader Joe’s Sulawesi Small Lot Coffee is a limited-release Small Lot coffee sourced from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Notes of caramel and little bit of a wine-y note too. A pleasant, smooth coffee. I made it in a Moka pot and it produced some nice crema but I’m sure a drip coffee method would work as well. Or true Espresso.
Kalossi beans (often called Celebes Kalossi) are premium Arabica coffee beans grown in the rugged central highlands of Sulawesi, Indonesia (historically known as Celebes). Named after the town of Kalossi—the central trading hub for the region—these beans are renowned for their heavy, syrupy body, low acidity, and rich, earthy flavor profile
$9.99 (12 oz bag) LIMITED!
My bag had a roast date printed on the bag of 3/14/26. I bought it around a month later? Not bad for Trader Joe’s Small Lot.
“Give your pet the very best. Skin on salmon that has been cut into snack friendly pieces and freeze dried with absolutely nothing added along the way”
Ingredients: SALMON. Thats it!
A treat has 48.5% protein and 41% fat. Each treat is about 5-6 calories.
Naturally both of my guest reviewers fish loving cats Aspen and Kuro went crazy for these and gave them a big thumbs up. Or paws up
“FOOD TOPPER” – You can even use these when you have a pet who is sick or off their feed and not interested in food. Or if you have switched food / brands and they don’t like the new one, which is common. Or you just want to add to your pet’s diet. Crush these up and sprinkle it over the food. I have done this especially for a sick cat and the aroma usually works to get them to eat.
In any case your cat or dog will probably love these. You will no doubt be saying something like “No, you only get one for now”
Not cheap of course. Its pure salmon. $5.49 for a small bag (just 1.5 oz) but as it’s freeze dried that might have started as a pound of fresh salmon?
“Our Norwegian supplier makes this Lefse [LEF-suh] according to a traditional recipe that’s mostly Potato flakes (about 80%) and wheat flour, with a handful of other ingredients including milk powder, salt, and yeast. The dough is formed into rectangles that, when baked, are thin and supple and won’t crack when you bend or wrap them. Beyond texture, the potato flavor is super satisfying, yet still neutral enough to function as the base for almost anything else in our stores that suits your palate”
“Ultra thin and pliable. Won’t crack when rolled or folded. This Norwegian flatbread is ideal with cheese and can be enjoyed with both sweet and savory fillings: strawberry jam and whipped cream, smoked salmon and cream cheese and whatever else you dream up” – Trader Joe
LIMITED ITEM!!! “You’ll find Trader Joe’s Lefse Norwegian Potato Flatbread on our bakery shelves through July!”
NEW ITEM (April 2026) – Trader Joe’s just came out with this very soft traditional Norwegian flatbread. Lefse is a thin potato bread made mostly (80%) from potatoes, plus a little wheat so it can hold together, which traditonally is rolled thin and baked on the stove.
Potatoes make Lefse very soft and pliable. Good for roll-up and other things. I admit I had never even heard of LEFSE before I saw this at TJ’s. However if you are from Minnesota, you may know it. I understand that’s one place in the lefse is known and popular here in the US, given Minnesota’s Scandinavian immigrant history. From what I gather, one popular and traditional way to eat LEFSE there is as a “sweet” version spreading it with lots of butter, sugar and cinnamon. Who doesn’t like that flavor combination. So to try Trader Joe’s version, I warmed it up (a must!) and put all those things on and rolled them up. We had them with coffee and tea and I have to say the lefse was very yummy with cinnamon sugar and butter.
I also tried it “savory” with smoked fish and cream cheese as a Roll Up. That way was OK but for that style, I would prefer using LAVASH as that is more “bready” with whole wheat so tastes like bread and not potato. While we liked the savory one, we both seemed to prefer eating lefese in that traditional sweet cinnamon sugar/butter version, over a savory version I made with smoked fish.
To make the butter cinnamon version I put these in a pan, put pats of butter over them and sprinkled it very generously with ground cinnamon and turbinado sugar/brown sugar. Use low heat. Let the butter and sugar melt. Then Roll them up or just fold them over to serve. Very yummy.
If you are into flatbreads (raises hand) I’d say this is worth trying at least once. Personally though I probably won’t buy it again. Not that I didn’t like it but just for a thin flatbread/bread I prefer TJ’d whole wheat LAVASH overall. But I have to say, these LEFSE were very tasty with that butter and cinnamon sugar as a dessert treat! A little unusual and worth trying at least once that way.
TIP – These absolutely need to be warmed up, so be sure to serve lefse warm.
Googling it I found a lot of recipes for it on YouTube on how to make it which looks fairly easy and I bet a homemade fresh version would be really good…. If you are ambitious!
This is a LIMITED EDITION item (around April till July)
Trader Joe’s LEFSE potato flatbread $3.99 (But a sign said 3.49 when I bought it, then it seem to go up a week later!) bag 13.2 oz. 375 gr – About 10 slices in the bag
Halloumi Cheese Is Back At Trader Joe’s! Finally. I wait all year for it to appear. Trader Joe’s considers it a “outdoor” grilling cheese so only has it for BBQ season. Read the original post about it HERE
“Fresh and creamy, semi-soft cheese with a mild, smooth flavor”
Queso Fresco (literally translated as “fresh cheese”) is a soft, un-aged Mexican cheese made with cow’s milk. It has a bright, mildly milky, and slightly salty-tangy flavor, and is known for its crumbly texture that doesn’t melt when heated.
Trader Joe’s version of QUESO FRESCO is very tasty. A little tangy, a little salty, not too firm and not too soft. It crumbled easily between my fingers, which is the best way to prep it.
Queso Fresco is of course terrific with all Mexican foods like enchiladas or tacos but you don’t have to limit yourself to Mexican food. You could use this in many cuisines, kind of like Feta cheese. Use this with eggs which it goes perfectly with, either sprinkled on top or use as an omelet filling. Its fantastic on top of salads. GRILLING: I even cut slices of it and just grilled them. While not as firm as Halloumi I was able to grill up till it was golden brown and not melt.
You could try pairing cubes of this queso with TJ’s GUAVA SPREAD on crackers; a perfect salty sweet combo that would be great on a #cheeseboard
Queso Fresco $3.79 (8 oz)
I would buy this again.
If you want a deep dive into queso, this site has that
Here’s my honest review of Trader Joe’s “Calabrian Chili Tomato Dumpling Soup”
This soup is really TERRIFIC. Taste-wise I was impressed at just how good this is. It’s really a great tasting tomato soup, full of flavor and just a bit creamy. This tastes like a wonderful homemade tomato soup you (or your Grandma) made.
A bit creamy and full of tomato flavor with great spice additions. Lip smacking yummy. Surprisingly good for something out of a jar. But you will get a great tomato soup.
A jar of this can make a super easy weeknight meal. So I recommend this as a great thing to have in the pantry. It should feed two with a few other things (salad.. bread….a veg)
One review I found on Insta says: “i love it so much. my husband & i think it’s one of the best tomato soups we’ve ever had ~ & we make homemade tomato soup, so that’s saying something! perfect amount of warmth/heat from the chiles”
Ok there is one thing. Dumplings?! Based on the name, you would expect that you would find dumplings, no? Guess what? I didn’t really see any dumplings in the whole jar of soup. I just found a few fingernail size pieces of something I assume used to be a dumpling.
Not just my jar either. I saw another reviewer complaining about how she found no dumplings in this to speak of, also just a few little bits. So just a heads up. The name says Dumplings but its pretty much dumpling free (or they just fall apart).
But you know what? I didn’t care too much as it’s it was so tasty, that really compensated for this one element which I can more or less fix – If you really want something in the soup do what I did. Add some cooked pasta.
Here’s what I did to make up for the missing dumplings. I just boiled up a bit of pasta till al dente. Drained it, then tossed the cooked pasta into the soup. I used a small handful of TJ’s Macaroni.
Sure you don’t have to to bother doing this, the soup is fine on it’s own. Don’t just throw in dried pasta as that may soak up quite a bit of soup. Pre-cook some pasta separately.
Which pasta that would work? Any small shaped pasta. Orzo, macaroni, fusilli, bowties. What about GNOCCHI? Why not?
While of course “spicy” is very personal, to both my wife and I who were reviewing this, we thought this was just a little bit spicy. Certainly not roof on fire spicy. In fact I could easily see one adding a small dab of TJ’s superb ITALIAN BOMBA sauce made with those same Calabrian Chilis, if you wanted this a bit spicier.
Ingredients include tomato paste, “dumplings”, and heavy cream, carrots, vinegar, honey plus spices.
In spite of almost no dumplings found, a super yummy all over a tasty tomato soup to have in your pantry!
“Cookies and Cream ice cream sandwiched between rich chocolate chunk cookies”
I like the original version of these: “Vanilla Ice cream sandwiched between Chocolate Chip cookies.
My neighbor tried this newer version: Cookies N Cream which are a new flavor riff on the original Sublime Ice Cream Sandwich (Chocolate Chip cookies around vanilla ice cream rolled in chocolate chips).
My neighbor wasn’t crazy about these Cookies and Cream sandwiches after she tried one. So she offered the rest of them to me. My wife and I tried them and we understood why our neighbor wasn’t crazy about this flavor. First off – Way, way too sweet. What I call “kid level” sweetness. Way too sweet from the two (similar) sweet things going on, both the cookie and the ice cream. IMO this flavor doesnt’ work. They have pretty sweet cookies and cream ice cream inside – outside a sweet gooey chocolate outer cookies. As soon as you chew this you are kind of making “cookies and cream” anyway. So the effect is double Cookies And Cream, and its a bit too much for me. My wife wouldn’t eat more than a bite.
Whereas when if this had vanilla ice cream, then there would be a contrast between the outer dark chocolate gooey cookie and the inside of the ice cream sandwich.
The original version of these is better with vanilla ice cream and chocolate chip cookies and rolled in chocolate chips. There you get more distinct flavors and textures.
Not too mention the soft outside cookie of the sandwich just kind of melted in my fingers as I ate it. It was messy to eat. My call is get the original one which is good. This one is a Miss for me. I think I would like it if it had vanilla ice cream in the middle. Then as you bite it you would get cookies and cream.
Get the original flavor, with vanilla ice cream and chocolate chip cookies, which is wonderful.
Here is another what I might call “small lot” style coffee Trader Joe’s has introduced but this too, like the Mexico Chiapas, is not a Limited coffee but one they seem to intend to have on the shelves every day. As they say:
“If you’re a regular in our coffee & tea section, you’re likely familiar with our rotating roster of limited-edition Small Lot coffees—carefully sourced, single-origin offerings that tend to be available only in small quantities, and only for a short time. Trader Joe’s Costa Rica Medium Roast Whole Bean Coffee captures the spirit of our Small Lot releases—high quality, single-origin craftsmanship—and thanks to our longstanding relationships with some truly exceptional growers, we’ve been able to secure sufficient quantities to be able to offer it on our shelves every day.”
This one is from COSTA RICA, grown high up in the mountains there.
“Costa Rica’s temperate tropical climate and rich, volcanic soil promote slow and steady growth, allowing the coffee cherries time to develop rich, complex flavors.”
They again list this as “Medium” roast but to me, like the Chiapas coffee, I would say this is just a wee bit darker. The beans being just a tiny bit shiny with oil and once again, I think the roast is perfect for the beans. as long as you know to expect beans that are “dark medium” or whatever you might call this.
The beans looked good, smelled good, and had a wonderful aroma when ground. The brewed coffee was tasty and had a deep rich flavor with hints of chocolate. “Inherently sweet with nutty notes”.
This is a quite decent coffee. Still I think I liked the recent Organic Mexico coffee just a tad more. I liked this Costa Rican better than the organic one from Peru. This is not marked “organic”. In any case, if you are into trying out TJ’s coffee’s as I like to do, I say this is at least worth a try for $10 bucks.
If you just want a recommendation of which coffee(s) at Trader Joe’s are worth buying for a first timer, I’d recommend the Fair Trade Organic BOLIVIAN coffee if you like a lighter roasted coffee. If you enjoy a darker roasted coffee (“medium” they say) I’d say try the ORGANIC MEXICAN.
“Trader Joe’s Amaryllis Bulbs come to us conveniently pre-sprouted and carefully hand-dipped in a paraffin Wax. Fascinatingly enough, all of the nutrients and moisture that the Amaryllis will require for growth & bloom are already packed into that one big, round, colorful, Wax-covered Bulb. Which means that when you get your Bulb home, you can just place it on a counter (or in a window—anywhere that receives filtered light is fine) and periodically turn it to encourage tall, straight growth. That’s it. No water. No soil. No constant watching. No kidding! The Amaryllis Bulb in Wax is the must-have, must-gift plant of the season, no green thumb required.”
So I got one of these. Both my wife and I were a little bit skeptical that this would work as they said it would. Or that it would work so well. It was just a waxed bulb with a tiny green shoot at the time peeking out at the top of this round wax ball, containing the amaryllis bulb. But guess what? It absolutely did work, and then some. I mean, Wow!
I placed the bulb in a sunny place. And waited. Thats it. It took about a 6 weeks or so. One could see where the flowers would come. About a week or so later there were flowers emerging and after about another week the thing looked magnificent as you can seet bloomed with 4 huge Amaryllis flowers.
This could be a fabulous gift. Maybe next Easter time?
Trader Joe’s Salted Caramel Mochi, Ice Cream wrapped in a layer of sweet chewy mochi (sticky rice).
Here’s what they say about it: “Each bite starts with the sweet, tooth-sinking sensations of the outer Mochi layer, which quickly gives way to the rich, full-flavored, and buttery-sweet Salted Caramel ice cream within.”
Here’s my honest review. Basically, I love most anything made with Mochi (sticky rice). I love that chewy texture. I’ve really liked most of the Trader Joe’s mochi ice cream combos they have come out with. I think one in particular is a knockout: the BLACK SESAME MOCHI ICE CREAM. I find that one to just be terrific and a bit of an unusual flavor, we don’t see too often in the U.S.
The Green Tea mochi ice cream is also good as well as the Strawberry flavor and the Mango…. So they quite a few flavors of these mochi ice creams. I think with now this Salted Caramel one, they have or had six flavor combos.
This new new Salted Caramel flavor got some buzz on the internet about how great it was. So I wanted to try it and see how it stacks up against all the other ones. Here’s my honest review.
I have to measure it against the other ones. I thought it was OK however I wasn’t terribly impressed with the salted caramel flavor, which lets face it, unlike say a fruit flavor, is a bit harder to compare to the real thing. I mean you know instantly if mango mochi tastes like mango. I think its harder for “salted caramel” which is the natural flavor combo of caramelized sugar plua butter with a bit of salt).
I wanted a second opinion, so I asked my wife to taste it too. She basically had the same reaction and said it was “just OK”. So we both found it just ok. We didn’t think the salted caramel mochi was as good as some of the other flavors, especially say compared to the (great) black sesame mochi, which we both loved as well as many of the fruit ones, like mango.
The outside wrapper is brown and pretty sticky. Usually the wrappers made from white sticky rice look white. So I assume there must be caramel in that as well as the ice cream as per the ingredients on the label. the combo of the white salted caramel ice cream inside and the brown mochi wrapper are a bit Meh and Underwhelming where as I really like many of the fruit ones (mango) and the standout (black sesame) And by the way, I do not see “butter” in the ingredient list. But I do see “miso” listed (??) which I imagine is part of the “salted” flavor?
So I didn’t hate this but I didn’t love it either. Again its OK but I would not buy this again. I would way prefer to buy my favorite, Black Sesame version, which if you havent tried it, I would recommend. Or Mango. Maybe Green Tea.
Of course this is IMHO. Some on Instagram do give this new flavor, high praise reviews of its a “must try”, “addictive” “gotta have it” – so your call.
As per TJ’s let all mochi ice cream treats defrost a bit before eating them to get the full flavor and texture profiles.
Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants) 
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