Trader Joe’s says: “For a taste of Turkey at home, allow us to introduce you to Trader Joe’s Simit Turkish Sesame Bread. Simit can be found on street carts and bakeries throughout the country, and although these beauties may resemble bagels, they are distinctly different.
Simit is not boiled (like bagels), just baked, and have a characteristic twist throughout. While its interior is chewy and nutty, its exterior is crispy and dense. Our Simits are made “Ankara style,” on the smaller size, conveniently-sized, with a crisp texture. Sticking to tradition, these circular breads are coated with a molasses-based solution that adds a bit of shine, helps with browning, and allows sesame seeds to encrust their surface.” (TJ)
NEW at Trader Joe’s for Sept/Oct 2025 are these fabulous Turkish Breads called SIMIT, which are made in Turkey for Trader Joe’s. Find these frozen along with other breads like their frozen Naan.
Simit come in a package that has 4 round breads, wrapped in packs of 2, to stay as fresh as possible. It’s $3.49, or about 90 cents each. In Istanbul there are carts with sells simit. A little search on Google says on the street in Istanbul they typically sell for about 10-20 Turkish lira ($0.25-0.50) and a bit more in a bakery.
I had read these they were coming to TJ’s and kept waiting to see them. When I finally saw they arrived at my local TJ’s, I grabbed a package to try and review. So how are these? Well, here’s my honest review. Are they worth buying? YES!!!!!!
Trader Joe’s did it again with a delicious bread find imported here from another land. Wow, are these simit breads terrific. I give these a 5 stars RAVE! Delicious. I just loved how these taste and at the texture of the outside versus the soft inside.
These are little Artisanal breads, which you can tell are hand rolled. They are encrusted all over with sesame seeds. When you are warming these up, and they get start to get toasty you will smell the sesame in the kitchen. Yes, the shape of these may remind you of a bit of a bagel, though simit are very different and unique. They are just baked, not boiled first like bagels. They are the tiniest bit sweet on the outside. These look like they were twisted together then rolled by hand. So they’re not as easy to cut open say as a bagel. They separated when I tried to cut in half horizontally and I found them best to just take one and rip a bite off as I went if I wanted to, or rip them in half and dip them or put butter or whatever on them.
They were great just plain by themselves but were fabulous with other things like different kinds of butter, olive oil, cheese, olives, cream cheese and scallions, jam, you name it, you will love it. I loved them alongside some scrambled and sunny side up eggs, where I dipped the simit into the yellow yolks! Yummy!
HEATING: Take them out of the freezer and leave them about 15 minutes to defrost. Then toss in a 350 oven for about 4-5 minutes. – OR – Just so you know, I made mine on the stovetop in a cast iron pan. About 4-5 minutes a side on low-medium, until they looked golden brown and flipped it over. That easy method worked fine too. If you have an air fryer that probably will also work.
My wife loved these as much as I did. We are eating them with many things. Tonight for one, they well go great with LENTIL SOUP.
Simit are $3.49 for 4 breads (14 oz) Frozen
I would buy these again
How to eat Simit – Simit is a versatile bread that can be enjoyed in many ways throughout the day:
For breakfast: Pair it with traditional Turkish breakfast items like feta cheese, olives, cucumbers, tomatoes, and a glass of Turkish tea.
With spreads: Serve it with savory dips such as hummus or a red pepper dip. For a sweet option, top it with butter, jam, or Nutella. I liked them with a little cream cheese.
As a snack: Warm them and eat it plain
As croutons: Cut it into pieces and toast until crunchy to use as a topping for soup.
Very short ingredient list. No Preservatives. We like that!
I found it a bit difficult to cut the Simit lengthwise to use for a sandwich as they are twisted and cutting them tended to make them separate. However they taste just as yummy.
If you are Turkish and try these, please let us know what you think…. UPDATE. We’ve heard from a few Turkish people who said they “taste like home”. One reader left this Comment: “Just tried today. Real deal. Just like the simit in Turkey.”
All I can say is: This is SO GOOD! So refreshing. So delicious.
It’s more to the everyman taste than some Ginger Beers I have had in the past, especially real real Jamaican ginger beer, which while I love, some people may find too too strong with way too much ginger flavor. This is just more like the best ginger ale you ever had, well balanced with a perfect ginger flavor plus a little bit of lemon and lime in the background. It’s one of those things that was next to me on the Check Out line, just asking for you to put in your basket and I could not resist, for which I am very glad because I now have a new favorite beverage.
Trader Joe’s sells these for about $1.15 each or or pack of 4 for $4.49 (12 oz each)
“Made fom a time-tested recipe with ingredients that include water, sugar, ginger juice, lime and lemon juices from concentrate, and ginger extract, our Ginger Beer has a refreshing, gingery bite, and mild carbonation. The addition of lemon and lime juices adds a zesty, citrus zing, and also helps establish the right acidic balance.” -TJ’s
“For best flavor and crispy crust, pop into a 400F oven for 4-7 minutes“
These are only $1.29?! Wow!
CIABATTA DEMI BAGUETTE – Its a half size “demi” ciabatta bread. We tried it. We loved it. It comes slightly underbaked, to allow for additional baking that you will finish. This will really improve it to almost “freshly baked right out of the oven” status. Just pop it in for about 4-7 minutes in a 400 degree oven.
Don’t want to turn on the oven? I didn’t want. So I tried this: I found I could toast it up on the stove top (covered) in a pan for about 5-7 minutes on each side. Flipped when done. I cut it into slices. Or cut in half lengthwise. Doing this way until it was slightly toasted worked out fine. One more idea is you could perhaps toss it in an air fryer if you have one (I don’t).
The ingredient list has few ingredients and no preservatives. ING: Flour, water, sea salt, yeast.
Trader Joe’s says: ” The loaf is in the shape of a half baguette (“demi-” and “wand” in Italian), but the bread itself is ciabatta bread. Ciabatta dough contains a higher moisture content than traditional baguette dough—over 70% in this case— giving it a thin, slightly caramelized crust and a light crumb with large holes. Better yet, it’s made with just a few ingredients: unbleached wheat flour, water, sea salt, yeast, and malted barley. Though our supplier makes large quantities of bread, they are still able to achieve the sought-after artisanal taste and texture.”
The night we tried it, I had made a pasta frittata and it was perfect with that, mopping up our extra sauce. Both my wife and I found this bread to be so tasty.
It’s a small loaf, just about 6 oz of bread. and it goes for just $1.29! A bigger ciabatta loaf (11 oz) goes for $1.99.
I would buy it again.
(their serving suggestion, brie, apples, bacon…! what’s not to like!)
“Give this Crunchy Chili Onion Sprinkle a generous shake over a plate of French fries, warm from the air fryer, into a bowl of ground beef before forming it into burger patties, or atop a sheet pan of freshly roasted veggies. It adds a delightful depth of flavor to baked tofu, a certain savory mystique to soups of all kinds, and a pleasantly crunchy pop of texture when mixed into popcorn. Whether it’s scrambled eggs at breakfast, a salad dressing at lunch, or a pan-seared steak at dinner, a little Crunchy Chili Onion Sprinkle can make a big difference.” – Trader Joe’s site https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/crunchy-chili-onion-sprinkle-seasoning-blend-077111
All I’ve been hearing and reading about all over the internet is how fantastic this Trader Joe’s CHILI ONION SEASONING BLEND is, so I finally got around to trying it.
I have to say, basically it’s as good as everyone says.
I loved this seasoning blend. It’s another of those things you get at Trader Joe’s that you like so much, you start putting on everything you can think of to see if it works on it. Pretty much the answer would be yes as far as I’m concerned. Everything I’ve sprinkled this on seems to work,and seems to get tastier and better. Last night I made some grilled broccoli and just before I served it I thought let me sprinkle some of the Magic Dust on it and sure enough it made the broccoli taste about twice as good as it was without it! Ditto fresh corn on the cob.
Ditto my boring cottage cheese. Sprinkle this on. Not boring at all. Its terrific with cottage cheese. Try it.
This is Excellent on pretty much everything I’ve tried it on, especially vegetables of any kinds, eggs (!), burgers, chicken, turkey burgers, you name it, it seems to work.
The seasonings in the Blend include: sea salt, fried onions, chili flakes, brown sugar, dried roasted garlic and Szechuan pepper. This seasoning blend is made in South Africa where they really know something about spices, even just judging from the wonderful South African Smoke seasoning blend that has come and vanished over the years (I still have a little bit left I stingy-ling use from time to time)
It does have some salt (not a lot) and it has just a hint of sweetness from brown sugar as well as being just slightly spicy but this is not fiery hot at all, mildly spiced and quite flavorful.
Trader Joe’s Crunchy CHILI ONION SPRINKLE Seasoning Blend is about $2. It’s yet another great addition to all of Trader Joe’s seasoning.
Does it taste really like apples? Yes actually it does, thanks to little bits of dried honeycrisp apples all throughout the granola. This granola not the clumpy kind; it is loose like cereal, not with the large clumps as some other granola’s that Trader Joe’s has such as the almond butter granola. Personally I am a fan of big “clumpy” granola with chunks that I can take out and sometimes just snack on. However I liked this too as it’s got that great apple fruity taste. I mean the taste of this granola is really a winner from those apple bits.
Ingredients include rolled oats, cane sugar, dried Honeycrisp apple, honey, molasses, and a subtle hint of fall spices (cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, clove….) Very, very subtle, more like a backnote to the apple taste of this granola, not the overwhelming kind.
This Apple Granola one of their “Limited” fall items, meaning we will see it for a few months. So if you want to try this grab it while you can, and maybe stock up on a few bags if you tried it and liked it. I probably will. Both my wife and I really liked this very tasty granola.
$3.99 for a 12 oz bag.
I would buy it again.
“Our latest fall-forward, seasonal cereal shines the spotlight on an autumnal all-star: the heavenly Honeycrisp apple! Heralded for its crunch and concentration of flavor, it’s a natural companion to snacks and cereals of all sorts—snacks and cereals such as the sweet, seasonally-spiced clusters inside each bag of Trader Joe’s Honeycrisp Apple Granola!” – TJ’s
They say: “Trader Joe’s Crispy Garlic ably demonstrates, when sliced thin and fried to a glorious golden brown, garlic’s gifts easily extend into the textural realm, too. We tried plenty of options before finding this iteration of Crispy Garlic, which is brought to us by an expert supplier in Thailand. Only their Crispy Garlic was able to capture that flavorful-but-not-bitter, nicely-fried-but-not-tough, crunchy-but-still-melt-in-your-mouth quality that our tasting panel adored. We think you’ll adore it, too. Trader Joe’s Crispy Garlic is excellent as a topping on stir-fries, salads, and scrambled eggs; pizzas, pastas, and pad Thai; or even burgers, baked potatoes, and bánh mi. It can be mixed into homemade cheesy dips and casseroles, sprinkled over noodle dishes or roasted veggies, or even just enjoyed over a bowl of freshly made rice.” – Trader Joe’s
Tru’ dat. The little thin crisps of garlic are so tasty. We tried it, and instantly fell in love with this stuff. We tried even eating them as is just out of the bag.
Think little chips of garlic, cooked till golden brown until they are super crunchy and crispy. The garlic flavor is now a bit mild and mellow from the frying. Toss these chips on just about anything. We’ve been trying it out on just about everything we can think of to put it on and whatever we tried seemed to work. Noodles. Salad. Rice. As they say it’s cooked just right, before the point of bitterness
Here I put some on top of cottage cheese on top of a toasted slice of their Sourdough Sliced bread and added some spices, and the combo was super yummy.
You can crush them up with your fingers to get smaller bits too (I crushed them up over buttered corn. Yum!)
$3.29 (4 oz) Which is probably a pound of garlic when it started. Its got just 3 simple ingredients, garlic, oil and salt. It’s not greasy at all. Just crispy. Keep it tightly sealed in the foil pouch and it should stay that way. This is a super Asian garnish.
“The galette is a treasured tradition among French bakers, dating back over a thousand years to the time of the Norman Dynasty…Inspired by a beloved regional variation of galette known as Broyés du Poitou, Trader Joe’s French Galettes Butter Cookies are made especially for us by an esteemed French bakery near the historic city of Nantes. They use a traditional recipe that includes French cultured butter to produce a satisfyingly crisp exterior, and crumbly, wonderfully melt-in-your-mouth interior…. they make a great companion to a bowl of ice cream or platter of fresh cut fruit. And since each box contains twelve Cookies, they’re great for sharing when you’ve got folks over for dinner—if you haven’t already eaten them all yourself, of course.” – Trader Joe’s
Three of us tried these new Trader Joe’s GALLETTES/French butter cookies which are made for them by an “esteemed French bakery” in Nantes, Brittany (a place famous for butter).
Here’s my honest review – SO GOOD! I just loved these. Very buttery. Very French, just a classic.
They are of course loaded with butter with a hint of sweetness. Think French “shortbread”. Grownup cookie.
Ingredients are short, sweet and simple; they include flour, cultured butter, starter, sugar, eggs, salt. Like you would make them. Simple. Natural. No preservatives.
We enjoyed these after dinner with tea, and they were great with tea. Of course they will be equally delicious with coffee, or milk, or just by themselves. Maybe with a little of your favorite jam. Or as Trader Joe’s suggest, pair these with ice cream (Mon Dieu!)
There are 12 cookies in the package wrapped to stay fresh in pairs of 4 cookies. Calorie wise, 2 Cookies have 180 calories (or 90 cals each)
Again, just classic and elegant. These will impress anyone you have over.
I’d say these are a Must Try especially at $3.49 (almost 8 oz)
Trader Joe’s website doesn’t mention “seasonal” or “limited” so hopefully these will stay around! My fingers are crossed they do as these are Keepers.
“With their skeleton suits and wild green “hairdos,” these playful planters are equal parts Halloween spirit and everyday cheer.”
I love air plants. These are some quirky air plants they just came out with for Fall Season/Halloween; 4 varieties of either cat or dog skeletons (xray ?) planters of TILLANDSIA, a kind of Air Plant which they say only needs the occasional misting. White ones or black ones.
There’s a magnet on these so I can easily imaging them ending up on your Fridge?! Or bathroom mirror?
Funny and cute and with care they should last.
Trader Joe’s BOW WOW MEOW planters airplants, $5.99 (for an air plant i think that’s pretty reasonable, as they are usually fairly pricey)
“Seasonal limited time item.” If you want one, grab while you can.
Google Search: “How do you care for Tillandsia? To care for a Tillandsia (air plant), provide it with bright, indirect light, good air circulation, and water regularly by soaking it in filtered water for 20-30 minutes once a week, or more in dry conditions. After soaking, thoroughly shake off excess water and allow the plant to dry completely on its side or upside down to prevent rot.”
“Moist, flavorful pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese frosting”
It’s FALL and Trader Joe’s is of course coming out with all the pumpkin items; This one is a very good MINI SHEET CAKE with a cream cheese frosting on top of a moist cake with the typical pumpkin spices. The cream cheese frosting is good even though found it to be a bit on the too sweet side. Even the frosting has a slight taste of the pumpkin spices. The cake was quite tasty, moist and flavorful. The spices were well balanced; not overpowering as they can be sometimes. This has just the right amount.
We loved the cake with coffee and tea, which balanced out it’s sweetness.
Trader Joe’s says : “You’ll fall for the moist, spongy crumb, flavored by pumpkin purée and warm spices, including cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. A rich, cream-cheese frosting is piped on top, lending an upscale bakery vibe and providing a classic flavor-pairing for the Pumpkin Spice profile.”
I like most of the mini sheet cakes and this one is quite good. My favorite will always be the Chocolate Ganache one but this one is a Fall Limited Edition one, which I think you and your family will like during TJ’s “pumpkin season”.
This is a great Fall item. I would buy it again.
$5.99/18 Oz (up about 50 cents since the last time i got sheet cake)
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