“A light roast with notes of dried fruit and orange”
This is the latest “small lot” coffee Trader Joe’s has come out with (Dec ’23). This coffee is from Brazil, called “Cachoeira da Grama”, which comes from Brazil’s Vale de Grama in the Sao Paolo region.
Trader Joe’s describes the beans as a “light roast” on the package and in this case, I agree (we know TJ’s roast descriptions can vary wildly). The package says these coffee beans were “double fermented”: “this innovative double fermenting process brings about the perfect balance of acidity and sweetness, and the light roast unveils lively notes of dried fruit and orange.”
Naturally whenever I taste a new Trader Joe’s Small Lot coffee, I can’t help but to compare it with my memory of other small lot coffee they’ve had. How does this new one compare to the best of their Small Lot coffees some of which were so freaking good, they blew me away?
I neither loved nor hated this; it falls in the middle. This Brazilian one is good and is a decent coffee with yes notes of “dried fruit and orange”. While I thought it was fine I didn’t find it terribly special. Yet when I searched online about this coffee I found some reviewers just raving about it. Me, I would not give this a Rave however lets face it, things like coffee, or wine for that matter, are the most personal of taste preferences. At some point only you can decide what you think.
I found this this a decent coffee but when I thought of others… a few amazingsmall lot coffee gems Trader Joe’s had in the past – I would not put this one up there with at least two others I recall. Not terribly long ago, TJ’s had a terrific small lot coffee that came from the DOMINICAN REPUBLIC – I found that one to be wonderful. A standout. Ditto for another one which was really good, the HONDURAN Small Lot Coffee.
Both of those two small lot coffees were incredible finds to my taste and I cross my fingers I may see someday either of them again someday at Trader Joe’s as I would buy either in a second. But I won’t hold my breath because as we know all too well, one of the first things about Trader Joe’s one learns the hard way is if you fall in love with something you may have your heart broken someday.
Trader Joe’s Brazil Cachoeira da Grama Small Lot Coffee was $9.99 (12 oz) a decent price for a small lot coffee. The small lot are “Limited Editions” so if you want to try it, grab it asap.
I would not buy this again. It was good but not as special as other Small Lot Coffees I’ve tasted. But I saw that some people really liked this, so as the French say, “à chacun son gout“
Just FYI – One of my Go To coffee’s at Trader Joe’s is the AZMARI BUNNI, Afro-Latin blend (light roast). It’s a consistently excellent and well balanced blend which I find to be a terrific all around coffee that never fails to please me in the morning. They carry this regularly now. If you have not tried it I suggest starting there.
My wife bought this “MISO RAMEN SOUP”. Now she loves ramen and will usually buy her favorite, Korean Shin Ramen, which is very good. It costs more. She made this and when I asked her what she thought her review was pretty short: “I’ll never buy this again”
Inside the cup there’s some noodles which don’t look like the dried ramen you are used to. These are straight wheat noodles which look semi-dry (pre-boiled?). There’s not a lot of noodles. There’s a dried packet of stuff (the soup) plus a little clear packet, which we thought was one of those drying packets and almost threw it away. Nope, its part of the ramen set; The clear packet contains a little bit of oil you add along with the dry packet of miso soup.
I tasted her ramen and here’s what I thought of this product.
The Good: The broth was actually pretty decent. Better than I expected. It tastes like a Japanese miso soup broth. There was even a piece or two of wakame (seaweed) floating around in the soup. Some umami from seaweed and mushrooms. The Ingredient list reads fairly natural; you don’t see wierd names of chemicals just dried ingredients. Broth 7/10
The Bad: Ramen? Well they really messed up the “ramen” part of this “miso ramen soup”. Noodles are lousy. We both thought the noodles were not very good and to add insult to injury they are very skimpy with the noodles. These noodles are not dry but a little flexible, like a semi-dried, pre-boiled noodles? They barely had any texture or bite to them after the recommended six minutes. Very MEH as they should be the star. Noodles 5/10
The Sodium content is listed as 870, which is almost 40% of your daily recommended level of salt. We cut that down by only using about 3/4 of the packet. Naturally that will make the broth a little less strong. It was fine for us. All instant ramen tends to have quite a bit of sodium. Always check the labels. This really applies to all the Asian products at TJ’s.
If you decide to actually try this, it may be better if you try adding a poached egg and chopped scallions as they suggest.
$1.89
I had an idea that since the broth was not bad but the noodles are Meh I thought one might combine this with the packet of cheap ramen dried noodles you might have in the house. I used to get them 5/$1 a few years back!
If you want good ramen, Korean Shin Ramen runs rings around this and most instant ramen though it costs more.
NEW PRODUCT: “Seasoned Cold Smoked Salmon with Dill Pickle Flavoring”.
Trader Joe’s seems to just love dill pickle stuff. They have quite a few products with the flavor. I love (fresh) dill on many things and especially love a sprinkle of fresh dill on smoked salmon (or fresh salmon). I love Gravlax (Scandinavian dill cured salmon).
However I didn’t love this new TJ smoked salmon flavor at all, I found it to be a Miss. For one thing I am guessing they use dried dill, not fresh. In fact they even list “dill weed oil” as one of the ingredients, which seems to me like trying to mimic fresh dill’s taste? Before reading this, I didn’t know “dill weed oil” existed as an ingredient. Furthermore this salmon seems a bit tougher (thicker cut?) then other seasoned salmons I really like from TJ’s, namely the Everything Smoked Salmon as well as the Pastrami Smoked Salmon, both of which I think work way better than this seasoning. I like both of those TJ’s smoked salmons
The 4 oz. package was $6.49. For me this stuff is a Miss. I rate it somewhere between a “Meh” and a Rant. Frankly my advice is pass on this but get either of those other two good seasoned smoked salmon Trader Joe’s offers.
(NOTE: Since when I originally wrote this, Trader Joe’s came out with another flavor called, “SPICY GARLIC AND SESAME SAUCE” (black package). I recommend that version (black)over this one (red) as the sauce in that version is much better than this one! (But the cooking ideas in this post apply to both)
Trader Joe’s Squiggly Knife Cut Style Noodles with Soy and Sesame Sauce
One could easily call me a noodle loving foodie, as I will go for most any Asian noodle dish you put in front of me.
So when I first saw these Trader Joe’s Noodles they looked very promising. Not to mention they say “Made in Taiwan”. Asian wheat noodles like these with ruffled edges are quite typical and prized as the ruffle edges hold onto a sauce. I often see these type of noodle for sale, dried in a Chinese/Asian supermarket. So nice to see them at Trader Joe’s as for most of us that is way more convenient.
Soon after Trader Joe’s came out with these noodles I learned they really blew up on social media like Tiktok and Instagram. They became such a big thing that trying to find them at Trader Joe’s became next to impossible (at that time). These were selling so fast, shelves were emptied almost as soon as they were filled*. Things got so nuts, that “food scalpers” were even actually RESELLING THEM for profit* for way more than they cost! Argh!!%#@$
(Update-2, Aug 2023) Things seem to have calmed down with these noodles, and I’m able to find them on on the shelves.
(2025 ; this MIA issue doesn’t seem to exist anymore, they are way easier to find now, almost always on the shelves)
So my first big question was : Why are they so popular? Are these really that good? I had a feeling one simple reason was simply the price.
For $4.99 for a package of 4 (or $1.25 each) I was pretty sure people basically were viewing these as “dollar ramen”. And I mean the cheap kind, $1 ramen (or 2 for $1) and NOT quality Korean or Japanese ramen packages that cost $4-5 each.
I grant you these “squiggly noodles” look better than cheap $1 ramen. Though, if you only cook them as them as directed, meaning just eat these noodles and the (frankly crappy) “soy and sesame sauce” these come with, my answer to the question, “are they that good” is qualified on how you make them. Make these exactly As Is (noodles plus sauce packet)? Like that, these are at best, Mediocre. Make them as directed on the package and I give these maybe a 4/10.
HOWEVER I think these noodles have POTENTIAL , if you bother to fix them up! Make a little effort to fix them up a bit and you can come up with a tasty noodle dish.
(I found their “Soy and Sesame” sauce pretty crappy)
So my suggestion is do not even bother with the included (crappy) sauce packet. Its not good. “Soy and sesame” sauce? Ha! Just check the ingredients which reads as mostly chemicals. I say don’t use that cheap crappy “sauce”. ADD YOUR OWN SAUCE. Yes you heard me. To fix these up use the noodles plus your noodle! (again, the black package has a much better sauce!)
Consider the noodles a blank canvas that you will fix up. With a little effort you can turn these noodles into a decent tasting noodle dish. Basically you will make some sauce, and likely add some of your own things.
Then they go up to perhaps 7/10.
The package says: “Cook the Noodles in boiling water for four minutes, drain, then toss in the Sauce and prepare to be pleased.”
I did that and was not very pleased at all. Very mediocre. If you do it bare bones, simply cook these and mix with their packet of crappy “soy/sesame” sauce (again — the other “spicy garlic” version in the black package actually has a sauce that is way better which comes as two sauce packs).
Cooking (as per the package’s instructions):
The very first time I made these, I did it exactly as it says on the package: “Bring 4 cups water to a boil. Add noodles. Cook 4 minutes. Drain and add sauce packet”. Result? A big Meh. So mediocre as the sauce packet that comes with this version kind of sucks. If you only cook noodles and mix in the packet you will end up with an extremelymediocre noodle dish.
Now while these aren’t superb noodles, the noodles are decent enough. They have potential. The ruffled edges are actually great at holding sauce. So you need some kind of good sauce with these.
So my first advice about TJ’s Squiggly Noodles (Soy/Sesame) is simple. Come up with your own sauce. Add other things. Do this and these noodles can become a dish you will really enjoy. It won’t take much effort. Really!
So the second time I made these noodles I took a different take. First, I knew I would add my own sauce, and not use that packet it comes with. I also thought I would use these noodles to make a Stir Fry dish. So here’s what I did.
First I cooked (or more like par-boiled) the noodles. I reduced the time from 4 minutes to 2 minutes. I am par-boiling them as they will be cooked more stir frying them then adding some sauce.
Cook 2 minutes, drain them, and run under cold water. Put drained noodles in a bowl temporarily. Mix in 1 tsp of oil, stirring to coat (this helps noodles from sticking together).
In a wok I sautéed chopped garlic, ginger, green onions and a few veggies I had in the fridge for a minute in a tablespoon of oil. I pushed those things up the side of my wok and poured in a little more oil I made a scrambled egg in the center of the wok. When the egg was about 75% cooked I tossed in the par-boiled noodles, and stir fried everything together for about a minute or two. Now I added my sauce* mixture and stirred everything gently to coat the noodles. I gave them 30-60 seconds like that to come together and let the sauce reduce a bit.
I plated the noodle dish, tossing on some chopped scallions, cilantro, sliced cucumber. Drizzled on a bit of Toasted Sesame Oil. Wow, this noodle dish was so much better it wasn’t funny. These noodles now tasted good! Here’s the dish (and yes I know I should have cut the cucumbers way thinner!)
So most important is make or add your ownsauce. Add a few things. Here’s some basic ideas….
(Quick basic Chinese saucerecipe: In a small bowl add 2 cloves garlic, crushed. Add 1 tbl soy sauce, 1/2 inch fresh grated ginger. 1 tsp brown sugar. Add 3 tbl of water and mix well.
OK, that’s a start. If you want more flavor consider adding : 1/2 tsp oyster sauce, 1 tsp black vinegar (sub: rice vinegar), toasted sesame oil, 1 tsp Gochugang. ) A heaping tbl of crunchy peanut butter can work great in a sauce with these noodles. If you use that, mix it with 2 tbs water to thin it out.
Oh come on, is that too much work for you? Ok, then just use a prepared Asian sauce for example TJ’s SOYAKI sauce plus Chili Onion Crunch. Maybe TJ’s GOCHUJANG sauce mixed with 2 tbls water, 2 cloves of crushed garlic and some Soy sauce. Maybe TJ roasted sesame oil.
Still too much work? Fine, add some soy sauce, butter and black pepper.
Almost anything will be better than the poor “soy and sesame” sauce this comes with. If you insist on using the included packet, use no more than half of it, then add a little a bit of low sodium soy sauce and a clove of crushed garlic, and peanut butter thinned out with some water. Toss on Chili Crunch.
Of course you can add veggies. Proteins. Just look in the fridge or freezer and see what you have that you could add. With just a bit of effort will figure out what you like on these noodles.
(AGAIN, noodles in the the red package has a pretty bad sauce, but sauce packs that come with the black package is pretty OK! I would only buy the black package of noodles)
TJ’s “SQUIGGLY NOODLES” $4.99 (4 noodle packs). “Product of Taiwan”
I would suggest try them at least once as a stir fried dish, as I detailed above. You could come up with a great sauce topping the way Aaron of “Aaron and Claire” makes this (Check out Aaron’s Chili Garlic Noodles recipe from YouTube). With ground pork or ground beef you can make a fantastic noodle dish. Even if you just add a runny fried egg, soft scrambled eggs or a 6 minute soft boiled egg on top, that can make these better. Chopped scallions and Cilantro if you like it. A really nice topping could be my hack for easy CharSiu made with TJ’s Carnitas Pork. Proteins? Sliced Baked tofu. Sliced chicken. I usually look through my fridge and whatever leftovers I find that could work go into my dish. TERIYAKI CHICKEN MEATBALLS!? For sho’
Watch Aaron, of “Aaron and Claire” doing a Garlic Chili Noodle dish (video). One could definitely try this with these noodles which look like noodles he is using. I’ve watched so many of Aaron’s cooking videos, and I know this has really upped my cooking game for making Korean & Asian dishes especially using noodles. So check him out too if you want to up your noodle game.
920 mg SODIUM (Note: That is nearly 1/2 the recommended amount a person should eat in a day. As some packaged Asian foods have very high Sodium levels be sure to check the label when shopping for them).
Check and you will see way, way too many chemical names listed, at least for my tastes.
Trader Joe’s seems to have a little thing for “Boba tea” and this is another incarnation of Boba Tea, in a frozen (non-dairy) dessert. Made with coconut milk this has small chewy tapioca pearls (boba) with swirls of brown sugar. More or less like the trendy “Bubble Tea” drink that has become popular recently in the U.S. This frozen dessert tastes like black tea with brown sugar with chewy black pearls of tapioca. Overall I would say I found this OK and interesting. It’s good but I am not crazy for it. However my wife (who’s Asian) liked this very much. She likes Asian style desserts. I said “this is good but I’d probably rather have a bowl of Coffee Bean Blast ice cream”. OK this is not a fair comparison, as this is not ice cream of course, its a non-dairy frozen dessert . So I will say “interesting”. If you want something a little different and want Non-Dairy and love tea, you might give this a try. It improved and tasted better after letting it sit out to defrost a little bit for the tapioca pearls to get softer. So give this about 5 minutes at room temp before eating. About $5 for a pint. We are divided in that I would not buy this again but my wife would, so a its a toss up in our house!
This was a “Meh” for me. Just wasn’t too crazy for this vinaigrette which was one of those “sounded better than it tasted” items for me. Two tasters in our house didn’t go for this dressing and didn’t like it. I found the maple taste off putting and didn’t work at all. As opposed to honey which I like in a salad dressing. Frankly I can easily make a very good Vinaigrette myself in about 3 minutes using with oil, vinegar and Dijon mustard (optional, crushed garlic). Put these in a glass jar and shake shake shake. Frankly we prefer my Homemade Vinaigrette way over any dressing I can buy generally. However what I do think is worth buying at Trader Joe’s is their Asian Sesame Dressing which is excellent. TOASTED SESAME SALAD DRESSING. We just love that one so much. That is worth the same price as this one, $3.49. This one for us at least was a miss and a “meh”.
This was a “Meh” for me. Just wasn’t too crazy for this vinaigrette which was one of those “sounded better than it tasted” items for me. Two tasters in our house didn’t go for this dressing and didn’t like it. I found the maple taste off putting and didn’t work at all. As opposed to honey which I like in a salad dressing. Frankly I can easily make a very good Vinaigrette myself in about 3 minutes using with oil, vinegar and Dijon mustard (optional, crushed garlic). Put these in a glass jar and shake shake shake. Frankly we prefer my Homemade Vinaigrette way over any dressing I can buy generally. However what I do think is worth buying at Trader Joe’s is their Asian Sesame Dressing which is excellent. TOASTED SESAME SALAD DRESSING. We just love that one so much. That is worth the same price as this one, $3.49. This one for us at least was a miss and a “meh”. I won’t buy this again.
If you are not familiar with BOBA TEA (aka bubble tea) it’s a popular (very TRENDY) drink that has very large pearls of Tapioca that sink to the bottom. The tapioca pearls have a very chewy texture that most people really enjoy. The pearls are so large that to suck them up it comes with a special ultra wide straw. These drinks are sold by specialty tea shops like “GONG CHA”that serve up a premium (and a bit pricey) Boba Tea Drink.
Trader Joe’s BOBA TEA kit is a (poor) approximation of what you might get from a specialty Boba Tea shop. I have had Boba Tea from quite a few different Tea shops and in short, Trader Joe’s Boba Tea Kit won’t put any of them out of business. The drink you get in a real Boba Tea shop is way better than this, however if you’ve never had it before this may give you an idea of what “boba tea” is. As my wife commented “this is a Trader Joe’s version”. She meant it as a knock as in “cheap knockoff of the real thing”. A specialty shop boba tea drink usually costs about $5-6 bucks each. This kit sells for $5.50 for 4 drinks. So yes a cheap knock off. Granted, its a high profit item (sugar, tea, tapioca)
Anyway if you can’t have it at one of these shops and just want to try boba tea in that case then his might be a good starting point. For one thing the tapioca pearls in Trader Joe’s are much smaller than the ones that the shops make which are huge and so chewy. This kit has 4 pouches of a concentrate with the pearls. You mix this package up with milk or tea (or combo of the two) plus a handful of ice to dilute its sweetness, and you need to add enough of these things in, otherwise it will be way too sweet. I put the defrosted pouch into a glass jar with a lid so I could really shake it up with the added ice and liquid. The kit even has 4 big straws. Not bad, but again really no comparison to a Boba Tea shop drink. I probably wouldn’t buy it again.
Though I’m not vegetarian, I like to try vegetarian foods occasionally and see if they are any good. As far as Indian food goes, well I happen to love, repeat, love Indian cuisine. I think it’s one of the great World Cuisines. Certainly the greatest vegetarian cuisine, and I’ve eaten my fair share of Indian food in some really good restaurants which we happen to luckily have here in NYC.
Trader Joe’s does sell a few quite tasty Indian food items. Some are quite good and I’ve give good reviews to quite a few of them.
So I thought I would try Trader Joe’s VEGETABLE MASALA BURGERS. The picture on the package looks enticing plus they are are called “Masala Burgers with Authentic Indian Spices“.” Masala” indicates “mixed spices”.
To be honest when I tasted this, all I could think was that line, “Authentic Indian Spices?”. I find this very plain and lacking in spices. Yes I agree Indian food is not always highly spiced, but generally very flavorful. So my short review is these are Just OK and not terribly exciting. I gather from the feedback here that these Masala Burgers are actually pretty popular, despite what I think. Vegetarians especially seem to appreciate these vegetarian / vegetable burgers.
I just find them a bit too Meh myself. For example, in a dish like Masala Dosa filled with potatoes is basically mashed potatoes however the potato filling has a ton of flavor with assorted spices. I just wish these were a bit more like most of the potato fillings you would find inside say a Masala Dosa.
Trader Joe’s Vegetable Masala Burgers are made primarily with potatoes and to me, I think of this basically as a mashed potato burger with a few veggies. My wife how eats basically everything told me one was enough for her.
The concept is not bad, I just find the execution not as good as some of TJ’s other Indian foods. Again, many which are outstanding (and I see Indian people buying at Trader Joe’s)
One burger has 140 calories.
HOW TO COOK : These are fully cooked but you still need to brown them. Cook them in a skillet for 3-4 minutes per side in a little butter and oil until they look golden brown and delicious. They should get nice and crispy looking on the outside. The crispy texture makes these. Don’t microwave them as they will not get crispy.
TIP: If I had some curry powder I would sprinkle a bit on next time I made these.
I think they needed a little something to them to jazz them up. I think you will want some kind of sauce with these. Maybe Sriracha or Peri-peri sauce. Zhough. Bomba. Magnifisauce. At the very least I would add a little garlic or even garlic powder on these if you make them. The thing that perked this up a little bit for me was putting on a little TJ’s TAMARIND SAUCE, basically a tamarind chutney sauce. Perhaps some CHILE CRISP would be good for these?
I think these may really benefit matching with either Trader Joe’s GARLIC ACHAAR or Mango Chutney
My wife told me “one was enough” which was not a good review from her as she likes most anything I cook. So personally we didn’t find these as good as some other Trader Joe’s Indian frozen items. But again, they seem popular and a few readers have written in that they really like these Masala Burgers, especially if they do something to it to jazz it up. I have two good friends who are vegetarian who told me she loves these TJ’s Vegetable Burgers and buys them all the time. As they say, to each his own.
These might be worth checking out to see what you think, especially if you need vegetarian options.
Trader Joe’s does sell quite a few tasty Indian foods which I find quite good in the frozen section. For example, the super tasty CHANNA MASALA (chickpea curry) which I love as well as the BHAINGAN BHARTA (eggplant) and superb PALAK PANEER (spinach) entrees. All three of these I find excellent. Some people really like the Samosas too. Perhaps you could pair these Masala Vegetable Burgers with the Palak Paneer spinach dish, or Channa Masala for a good combo?
Vegetable Masala Burger $3.49 (4 burgers, 10 oz)
(NOTE: Contains Wheat, bread crumbs)
INGREDIENTS: POTATOES, CANOLA OIL, CARROTS, GREEN BEANS, BREAD CRUMBS (WHEAT FLOUR, SUGAR, YEAST, SALT), BELL PEPPERS, ONIONS, CORN, WATER, SALT, SUGAR, SPICES, GINGER, CELLULOSE GUM, GREEN PEPPER, CITRIC ACID, TURMERIC
Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants) 
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