Trader Joe’s announced the winners of their 16th annual customer choice awards (2024).
Which, out of all the products TJ’s has, do you think customers awarded as the overall top dog pick? Interestingly enough it’s the same one which has been voted first by customers for the 4th Year In A Row as overall favorite ! Drum roll, please, and the winner is….
TJ’s really good snack their Chili & Lime Flavor Rolled Corn Tortilla Chips, were once again voted as as overall favorite. These have been picked 4 years running!
Some time ago I reviewed these and loved them. I gave these delicious, possibly addictive, snacks a big thumbs up. So I am not shocked that these remain to be so popular and got the top Customer’s Choice spot again as these are super.
Though they may not be to everyone’s taste as these pack a punch of pretty intense flavor plus a good leave of heat (like Takis) I find them Spicy Delicious. However my wife for example is someone who doesn’t go for these at all. Even though she likes fairly spicy in general, she doesn’t like these chips. She finds the flavors too strong and too intense, whereas I find them irresistible, and frankly addictive, to the point where once I start eating them at times I have to remeber to stop myself lest I eat the whole bag!
Having said that I do actually sometimes like to counter balance the intense flavor of these chips by pairing them with something which will counter balance them. Knock down the heat a bit. As I mentioned in my review sometimes I actually like to eat these with cottage cheese. I find that a great combination as cottage cheese, something a bit bland, will balance out the flavor. Or sometimes I will enjoy these with some dip which is not too intensely flavored.
OK so the Rolled Tortilla Chips were the #1 Customer Pick. What were the Runners Up in that catagory? Here are the second through fifth place choices, just to give you some ideas of what Trader Joe’s products seem to be most popular with customers:
“Butter Cookies! From France! Dipped in Dark Chocolate!”
“Just about everyone loves butter cookies. If they’re French butter cookies, there’s an expectation that those cookies are going to be truly great. And what if those French butter cookies are also dipped in dark chocolate? …Made for us in France”
I got these to review and my review is these are quite good. We really liked them.
Very tasty, buttery cookies that have been dipped in good chocolate so that they have a nice coating. The cookies are on the thin side.
Frankly these taste way better than you would expect something which costs $2.99! (Note: they are only you about 10 cookies in a box). So you don’t get a lot of them but the quality of these cookies is pretty darned good!
“These Cookies are, indeed, made for us in France. The usual cookie-dough suspects—flour, sugar, egg yolks, milk, leavening, and salt—are combined with cultured French butter (13% of the recipe) to create a dough that is shaped into thin rounds. The baked biscuits are coated in rich, Dark Chocolate (40% of the recipe), yielding an exquisite Cookie that is at the same time: smooth, crunchy, chocolate-y, and buttery!“
Yummy. A big thumbs up. Put these out for company. Or eat them all yourselves!
Things seem to have slightly improved, as I am finally seeing eggs back at Trader Joe’s. Instead of finding mostly empty shelves like we have been seeing for the last month or so (sold out by 9 am). Perhaps one reason is the limit on 1 dozen eggs per customer.
So consider this an improvement? Plus price-wise, considering I have seen eggs at local supermarkets for $11-14, seeing eggs for $4 for a dozen Extra Large Brown at Trader Joe’s seems like a bargain. Other prices were $7 for Pasture Raised Organic Large Brown (Feb 15, 2025 Trader Joe’s Broadway 72nd Street, NYC) Let’s hope it stays like this or hopefully improves? That may be wishful thinking!
“Trader Joe’s Cheesy Bagels are hearth-baked Bagels with a plain bagel base, delightfully doughy on the inside. On the outside, they boast a cheesy, chewy crust that comes from shredded Asiago cheese that’s been pre-melted on top.” — Trader Joe’s
When I saw these in the NEW ITEMS section a few weeks ago I was intrigued and thought this sounded like something worth trying. Just picking up the bag and smelling them, well it has a wonderfully appealing smell, from baked Asiago cheese! Since they smelled so good, I thought I would check them out. When I told my neighbor (another big Trader Joe’s fan) she said she wanted to try them too, and as she got back to Trader Joe’s before I did, she bought them for us both to try.
Well, guess what. We were both dissapointed in these, and not half as as good as we were expecting. We both thought, “just OK”. Yes, the cheesy part, the Asiago on top that is baked in, that is good, however it is called a “cheesy bagel” so the bagel itself has to be good. It’s not. Trader Joe’s says “delightfully doughy inside”. It is doughy. Just soft and doughy, bready. It did not delight this bagel maven. These have none of the chewy texture which defines a real bagel. You can tell this so called “bagel” is only baked and not boiled and baked, which is what makes a real bagel. Just to compare, these are nothing at all like Trader Joe’s ARTISAN BAGELS, which are boiled and baked and to which I gave a big thumbs up. Those are good, real authentic bagels with a chewy crust and soft chewy interior. And once again this is coming from a picky New Yorker who knows from bagels!
These just taste to me like the kind of “bagels” seen in supermarkets in maybe Iowa, where they have no idea about bagels. Now I think one could come up with something akin to a good “cheesy bagel”. Take one of Trader Joe’s good Artisan Plain Bagels, cut it open and toss on some grated Asiago Cheese. Toast this up till the cheese is melted all bubbly, and you may come up with a good tasty “Cheesy Bagel”. It will be far far better than this disappointing so called bagel.
Two of us reviewing them said the same thing: “Would not buy these again”
TJ’s Artisan Bagels are $1.99 for three (good) perfectly chewy bagels. I kind of suggest you just buy those and toast them up with your favorite cheese.
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Trader Joe’s has come out with another variety of their CHOCOLATE BARK. I liked the original one with pretzels and sea salt (sweet and salty)
The new one comes in a pink bag. DARK CHOCOLATE BARK plus Puffed Quinoa and Freeze Dried Raspberries.
From Trader Joe’s: “The Bark you’ll find within each bag starts as a thin(ish) slab of rich Dark Chocolate studded with pieces of pleasantly tart freeze-Dried Raspberries and Puffed Quinoa.”
So I got some to review. At first I thought it was a bit sweet, however as frequently happens when I am tasting something from Trader Joe’s, I could not stop eating more. I kept saying to myself, “just one more bite.” Then I realize I had already devoured 3 or 4 pieces. Be warned, this chocolate may be slightly addictive.
This new variation on the dark chocolate slab is good. Quite tasty. In the bag quite a few largish pieces of the bark which you can break up into smaller bites. The chocolate combo is pretty yummy,, just a little bit on the sweet side however the tart dried raspberries in this does counterbalance it all out. There is a nice crunchy texture you get from the puffed quinoa in these, kind of like chocolate with Rice Krispies. Here its tiny puffed quinoa bits. The dried raspberries give a nice backnote of fruit in each bite.
Update: Trader Joe’s just implemented a “1 per customer” limit policy
The pictures of bare shelves where the eggs are supposed to be, were taken at two different Trader Joe’s early February 2025 (in NYC (Upper West Side).
Trader Joe’s prices seem a bit better than elsewhere which is probably one reason why people are scrambling to get eggs from Trader Joe’s. I see $4.99/dozen listed. These days five bucks for a dozen eggs is “a deal”! Hah!! Well that is better than a supermarket near me I checked a few days ago. I got sticker shock to see yes they had eggs in stock however they were selling regular white large eggs for $10.79/dozen. Yikes!
When I spoke to an employee near the egg shelves at Trader Joe’s about when they come in he told met they come in in the morning and the eggs at present are usually all sold out of eggs by 10 a.m. Just a week later another employee updated this to tell me if you want eggs you better come before 9 a.m! They open at 8. So the moral of the story, is if you want to find eggs at Trader Joe’s you may have to go there early in the morning, 8-9 a.m. Unfortunately that leaves me out. I’m not really an early riser.
After 4 or 5 strike outs trying to find eggs at Trader Joe’s recently (I got there early afternoon) I ended up buying eggs elsewhere: Fairway Market (NYC). White Extra Large eggs there were just under $6. More for brown, cage free, etc.
As long as the Avian Flu problem exists – and it only seems to be getting worse and worse – expect to see high prices on eggs as well as limited supplies, especially at Trader Joe’s perhaps? Each Trader Joe’s store only gets so many daily, and it looks like demand is exceeding supply. This is a pretty major problem and just getting worse unfortunately.
Update: Feb 7 2025: Trader Joe’s added a sign saying “eggs are limited to one dozen per customer per day”
UPDATE: Mar 31 2025: I am seeing eggs on Trader Joe’s shelves, on and off, depending on what time of day you get there. They might be sold out around noon. However a TJ employee told me they put eggs out now about twice a day; mornings and afternoons. First at 8 am when they open, and then again around 4 in the afternoon (this was NYC, Trader Joe’s UWS). Limits are “one carton per household”. Prices at Trader Joe’s are FAR MORE REASONABLE than I see at other standard supermarkets in my area where eggs can cost anywhere from 8-9 up to 11-12 dollars. Contrast this with TJ’s prices: $3.49 for jumbo white, $3.99 for brown large, $4.99 for brown large cage free, up to about $6 or 7 for pasture raised brown large or extra large.
“Per household” – they are not people coming together and buying a carton each when they are clearly “together” and pretending not to know each other!? Though how exactly they figure that out is beyond me.
Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants) 
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