Trader Joe’s OLD FASHIONED CINNAMON GRAHAM CRACKERS
I loved graham crackers when I was a kid and these kind of remind me of the graham crackers we used to eat, which I am guessing were Nabisco’s, except for one thing. These Trader Joe’s cinnamon graham crackers are WAY BETTER than Nabisco. Far better. Besides probably having better sourced ingredients these TJ’s grahams are thicker, heartier and have a way bigger cinnamon flavor. One might call these “gourmet” graham crackers. Both adults and kids will love these as well.
When my wife and I both tasted these for the first time, the two of us immediately gave a big thumbs up at how delicious they are. They have a great blend of cinnamon and sugar. They are simply delicious. I tried them with milk (big thumbs up) as well as with some tea, with coffee, and even ice cream. They were great with those too and great just on their own.
Trader Joe’s Old Fashioned Cinnamon Graham Crackers are $3.99 for a 1 lb box.
I like making a kind of parfait with these and GREEK YOGURT with Honey. They match well together. Layer them, put in the fridge and wait about an hour till they blend together. Yummy and easy dessert.
Bakers: If you make graham cracker crusts these would be fabulous.
My wife picked up one of these tarts the other day at Trader Joe’s, and I’ve got to say I was pretty impressed just looking at it. This looks like something that camew from an upscale bakery and I would imagine might cost about $15 or more. At TJ’s it’s $7.99. Wow. But does it taste as good as it looks? OMG, yes. It’s delicious! It tastes as good as it looks like it was made in an upscale bakery. There are a ton of sliced apples that stil look like apples, not some mushy canned apple pie filling loaded with cornstarch that came from a can that even some store bought apple pies have in them. The apples in this tart still have a bit of texture, and it’s not overly sweet, nor overly thickened. The taste is just the way it looks like it is, apples. You can see the quality of the baking. We found this tart to be absolutely delicious especially when we served it, paired up with a spoon of French Vanilla ice cream, a match made in heaven. The crust is perfect too.
If you served this to guests, I’m sure you will get a ton of compliments and questions about where you bought it. Or even “did you make this?”
This is seriously good!
TRADER JOE’S FRENCH APPLE TART – $7.90 for a 1 lb, 4 oz tart
This is a Limited and Seasonal item – at Trader Joe’s during Holiday Season only
Trader Joe’s is selling packages of traditional Marzipan Stollen (Thanksgiving/Holidays season) for the holidays. Made in Germany.
Stollen are a traditional holiday German cake filled with dried fruits and marzipan. These are Made In Germany by “KuchenMeister”, the same brand TJ’s has carried in years past. They are pretty good, loaded with raisins and candied orange and lemon peel and are completly covered with powdered sugar., which looks like snow. So they look nice and Christmas-y. There is a decent amount of soft tastyyellow marzipan in the center of the cake (I cut the end so you don’t see it, as it starts a few slices in). The cake was pretty tasty served with coffee and tea. For $3.99, this is a good buy. I’ve bought them from specialty stores, and they were about $15-20. Of course those were loaded with butter, and this cheaper one is doesn’t even list butter – one place where they cut costs. I once bought one for $20 from a special German style bakery and when I tasted it could not help wondering if it was worth 4 times the price of this cheap one, which does have a fair amount of marzipan and lots of dried fruits and frankly for just four bucks it’s not bad especially if you warm it up before serving. If you find these, I’d say try one as they are perfect for the holidays and a nice thing to give friends and neighbors. That is if you can find them, they are only there for a month or two around Thanksgiving/Xmas.
“KuchenMeister MarzipanStollen – A German sweet fruit filled bread that makes a great gift for friends and neighbors“
UPDATE 2023: Came Back. Has a new package design. I saw one left at my TJ’s (72/Bway). Saving for Xmas day. Now $4.99 PS – We were so disappointed when we tried it this time. Very dry. Tasteless. Probably changed the recipe. Made it even cheaper and worse. Too bad. I won’t buy this again. Don’t waste $5 on this. Get something good like TJ’s yummy CHOCOLATE BABKA!
UPDATE 1: Went MIA for months but eventually it came back.
(UPDATE 2 SEPT 2025) Once again, MIA. In this case with 5 countries involved there may be a new wrinkle with TARIFFS of course.
UPDATE 3 (End Sept 2025) The front desk staff looked it up for me and told me it is not discontinued and is coming back in a few months; sure enough she said the delay on shipment was likely due to tariffs.
Trader Joe’s Organic Fair Trade FIVE COUNTRY ESPRESSO blend, whole bean, dark roast coffee
If you want espresso or dark roast coffee the options at Trader Joe’s are a little more limited compared to the light and medium roast coffees. Now don’t get me wrong, light and medium roast coffees are wonderful. They’re a terrific choice for most coffee lovers, especially those who make coffee using a drip, pour-over or French press method. However if you make espresso, either with an espresso machine or even use a Moka pot (as I have started doing recently for Moka Pot “espresso”) then you likely want whole beans in a nice dark roast. Or maybe even if you make drip or pour over, your taste preferences just like a darker roast.
These beans are from FIVE different countries….El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Sumatra, Indonesia (wow!).
Best is to grind the beans just before you make the coffee for maximum aroma and flavor…you know, the way any typical coffee geek will do (count me in). I promise you grinding these whole espresso beans fresh will release an intense, heavenly aroma in your kitchen. And you don’t need a $300 burr grinder. A $20 grinder can do fine.
TJ’s FIVE COUNTRY ESPRESSO whole bean is a very good coffee for espresso, moka pot and all dark roast coffee lovers. It’s especially terrific when you first open up the can, when you’ll get the maximum aroma and see super shiny beans just glistening with oil, which is what fresh roasted espresso beans looks like. Once the beans get exposed to air they’ll look less shiny, in about 3-5 days however they will still taste pretty good. TIP: you can parcel up the beans in a number of small ziplock bags, freeze them, and take out bags as needed.
FIVE COUNTRY ESPRESSO WHOLE BEAN COFFEE; $8.99 (13 oz)
MOKA POT – Moka pots may not be “true espresso” but they make a great cup of java. If you are interested in getting one, there’s a link below to one of the more inexpensive Moka Pots (Primula) on Amazon. The original Bialetti Moka Pot is excellent of course but it is a bit pricey. (note: “cups” in this case refer to a tiny espresso cup with just 2-3 oz liquid) I like the “9 cup” Moka Pots for doing Cafe Con Leche for 2 people who love coffee. You can get a “Moka 9” for just over $20, not a bad deal at all. Every Italian kitchen has one or more Moka’s and 60 million Italians can’t be wrong.
(UPDATED) This brand “Wholesome” organic coconut palm sugar has has now been replaced by Trader Joe’s own brand, “Trader Joe’s Organic Coconut Sugar”.
FAIR TRADE. CERTIFIED ORGANIC. ALL NATURAL. LOW GLYCEMIC INDEX
“Made from the nectar of the coconut palm tree flower”
I really like this organic coconut palm sugar sold at TJ’s under the original brand name, “Wholesome”. For one thing it tastes amazing in my morning coffee, specifically my Moka pot, Cafe con Leche that I make every morning (#mokapotlover).
This coconut palm sugar is a brownish, granulated sugar which has its own distinctive but subtle taste. The taste of coconut palm sugar is a bit different from brown cane sugar or Turbinado sugar, and I’ve switched to this palm sugar especially for coffee, as it just adds a little something, a very nice subtle flavor. It’s delicious with just a hint of caramel and vanilla notes. I am also using it on yogurt too, just a little sprinkling is excellent. This palm sugar is excellent in any Chinese or Asian recipe which calls for sugar, which most do.
I see people on the net saying how this is “low glycemic” compared to cane sugar, but frankly I don’t know much about that, but I figure it’s important to those watching their blood sugar levels as it may relate to diabetes. So in that sense, this must be a better sugar if you are concerned with your blood sugar level.
TJ sells this palm sugar for $3.99 a one pound bag (which is cheaper than Wholesome sells it for directly) LINK BELOW TO “WHOLESOME” WEBSITE WITH MORE INFO
“Wholesome Organic Coconut Palm Sugar is a rich, unrefined brown sugar that makes an ideal substitute for conventional brown and white sugar. Beyond baking, it’s an excellent choice for sweetening your preferred coffee, preparing sauces and perfecting your favorite Asian dishes, all thanks to its rich molasses taste and caramel overtones.
Made with Care Contrary to its name, this sugar doesn’t actually come from a coconut, nor does it remotely taste like coconut. The brown sugar’s rich caramel flavor is produced by tapping the sweet nectar from the tropical coconut palm tree flower (a process that’s similar to how maple trees are tapped for maple syrup production). The nutrient-rich juice is dried in a large open kettle drum and condensed into a delicious whole brown sugar. A natural sugar substitute for baking, this organic product will add depths of flavor to all your favorite recipes.”
I love chocolate covered espresso beans. The best ones that I’ve had are from Porto Rico imports, one of my favorite stores in New York City. I used to work a few blocks from Porto Rico and could pass by twice a week.The chocolate espresso beans they sell are two things for me. 1) Heaven. 2) Crack
If you love chocolate and love coffee they are too die for. They are $10 a pound but on occasion you catch them on sale for less.
So I saw these new product Coffee Lover Espresso Beans candies at Trader Joe’s and for just 99 cents (!) I said give ’em a try. Naturally not equal to Porto Rico’s masterpiece espresso bean candies which are their excellent freshly roasted espresso beans coated with dark chocolate.
These are “Not Bad”. The beans don’t have great flavor, they are not top quality at this price but they have some coffee/chocolate combo flavor. These are a bit on the too sweet for me. The brown ones in the package are OK. I was not crazy about the light color ones (cappuccino?). But still for under a buck, these are worth trying yourself to see what you think. Neither a rave or a rant, I’ll give these a “meh”.
If you really, really love the taste of coffee I think the ultimate of that is of course drinking some espresso.
Every day after I wake up, I jump in the shower and start thinking about making my morning “Cap” (cappuccino that is) in my (budget) espresso machine. I might not get out of bed otherwise. If you are one of these “coffee freak” types as well you may own as I do, some kind of Espresso Machine, the manual kind where you put ground coffee into to make your own espresso otherwise known as “pulling a shot”. Just saying the “Keurig or pod” coffee people are not as DIY as us manual espresso owners, who get our hands dirty and grind coffee beans and tamp them into a portafilter to brew and espresso drink. So if you make yourself espresso drinks at home in some type of machine that you put ground coffee in obviously the most important thing is starting with very good coffee for making Espresso, naturally. Generally I buy whole espresso roast beans. I usually buy coffee (here in NYC) at Whole Foods, Fairway or Zabars or Porto Rico Imports, and grind the beans myself every other day or so, so its always pretty freshly ground. This is ideal. If I was less lazy I’d grind coffee every day just before I made every cup, which would be better still. The instant you grind coffee beans up the coffee is at peak flavo. It starts to lose a bit of its flavor and aroma in the next hour or so. So I usually don’t buy ground coffee. Still I saw this bag of ground espresso on the TJ “new product” shelf a few months back and thought I’d try it, even though its already ground into an espresso grind. Its called TRADER JOE’S “SHADE GROWN GROUND ESPRESSO BLEND”. It comes in a vacuum sealed aluminum bag with an attractive hand drawn design and lettering. Nice. Opening the bag, you will get that wonderful “just ground coffee” smell as the vacuum seal is broken!
The bag states, “Our espresso blend comes from shade grown, hand picked, 100% Arabica beans. The coffee beans come from a family owned plantation with farms located Matagalpa, Nicauragua. It is rich in flavor with attractive notes of nuts and cacao”.
It’s pretty good. Frankly this reminds me of the well loved ”Cafe Bustelo” very popular here in NYC especially beloved by our Puerto Rican and Dominican communities. This is a bit darker roast perhaps than Bustelo and it’s probably a bit better coffee, being from one estate in Nicaragua – and don’t get me wrong, I love Cafe Bustelo. Its a classic taste I grew up on.
A 14 oz. bag of TJ’s Ground Espresso Blend sells for $8, at the time of this writing (Fall 2017). Which is not a bad deal for about $9.25/lb for a single estate blend from Nicaragua. If you make your own espresso either in a machine where you tamp the coffee into a porta-filter (I have this exact one called “Cafe Prestige” pictured at right, which is a good basic espresso machine which I bought a few years back for just $100). Or if you make your own “espresso style coffe” perhaps using a “Moka” express type maker for the top of the stove, I think you will really enjoy trying this ground espresso. In fact, if you want to “get into” making your own espresso on the cheap, this little Moka style make I found on Amazon is only $16 for a 2-cup model, which might be a good “starter kit” where maybe later you might get a fancy electric machine – once you get hooked on making espresso at home! Which you probably will.
The bag says: “For Espresso Brewing: This grind is already set up for any type of machine. For a double shot use 1 1/2 tablespoons. Strengh of shots may vary by machine”. If you make your own shots you know there’s a period of trial and error and a little testing till you get it just right for your taste. For me, I use two slightly rounded standard espresso scoops in my double-shot basket and tamp it lightly but firmly till its completely even on top. This makes me a nice double shot strong enough for the small amount of foamed milk I use for a “Cap” every morning.
Bottom line, if you like espresso roast coffee, try this. I think you will enjoy it as much as I do.
Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants) 
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