I make GINGER TEA (just boil ginger in water) and really like that. This tastes pretty much exactly like that. So while cheaper to make it yourself of course, my wife really liked this Ginger Drink Mix both for the convenience and taste, so she’s buying this regularly now. It’s $2.99 (7 packets). Dissolve with 12 oz water hot or cold. Product Of Thailand.
Want to make it yourself for way less ? Here’s my ginger tea “recipe”. Take about 1″ or so of fresh ginger. Slice it up and put in a pot with about 2 cups of water. Boil for 10 minutes or so. Add sugar if desired. Enjoy!
Traeder Joe’s has these cans of SMOKED PAPRIKA, which is Spanish Pimenton. Smoky, mildly sweet and flavorful. This lovely paprika is really nice in so many things and matches well with chicken, fish, shrimp and especially well with pork. I frequently make Pork Tenderloin Filets, cut into thickish slices (tournedos) coated very liberally with a lot of smoked paprika, crushed garlic and salt and pepper, for a super easy dish which takes about 5 minutes. Just sauté the “tournedos” in a good amount of Olive Oil till golden brown but still pretty rare on the inside. Remove and add a little stock, wine or even water to deglaze the pan to make a pan sauce with a few knobs of butter. Easy, fast and delicious. TJ’s SMOKED PAPRIKA is $2.49 a tin.
You will find Trader Joe’s FRESH SALSA VERDE in the refrigerated section, and it’s quite good. If you are just used to tomato based (red) salsas and you want to try something a little bit different for your Mexican dishes, a Salsa Verde like this is a great variation to try out. This salsa is made primarily from roasted tomatillos. Tomatillo based green salsas are very typical in Mexico, and frequently one will find both a red and green salsa next to each other for the diner to choose from. Though they slightly resemble a green tomato, in fact tomatillos are at best distant cousins to tomatoes. The tomatillo is a unique green fruit native to Mexico which were around for a thousand years or more way before the tomato was even brought by the Spanish Conquistadors (after 1500). Tomatillos are covered with papery skins, which is also pretty unique.
This Salsa Verde also has jalapenos, green chili pureé, roasted red onion, cilantro and cumin in it for a an authentic Mexican flavor.. I liked this salsa. Its not very spicy. I find it somewhere around “Medium” in the heat department so may be good for those who don’t like Really Spicy Stuff but want some great flavors. I tried it on some pork carnitas tacos and it was great with them, bringing out the pork and enhancing it perfectly. Its was also great on eggs, either on top of a fried egg or an omelet or scrambled eggs. This is great on fish, shrimp, beef, pork or chicken. I had some leftover roasted chicken which was a little dry. We just put some of this salsa over the chicken and and Voila, it made the chicken worth eating again. I have a feeling it would even be good with some grilled Tofu or just on top of rice or a protein bowl. This salsa verde goes for $2.99 for a 12 oz tub. I would buy this again.
PS – one reader likes using this to make an easy version of Green Pozole, which sounds great.
“Made with organic apricots! Sweet-tart, golden orange deliciousness that’s great on toast” – Trader Joe’s
An absolutely delicious apricot preserve made in Canada from organic apricots. If you are a fan of apricots and apricot jam as I am, you too will probably love this stuff as much as I do as it has the most intense apricot taste. I put some of this preserve on a slice of TJ’s rye bread toasted with butter. So yummy. Ditto, on an English Muffin. How about with peanut butter? Great combo. I put a pinch on a cracker with goat cheese. Yum. It’s wonderful with many cheeses. I am really in love with TJ’s apricot preserves, so good on practically anything it’s almost dangerous. I confess my jar became half empty pretty quickly! TJ’s Organic Apricot Preserve is a wee bit more expensive than some other jams TJ’s sells. This one goes for $4.29 for a 17.5 oz jar, however it is Organic and super premium. My only (minor) complaint is it doesn’t have enough little chunks of apricots; there are some but its mostly smooth (its very thick) but this is the tiniest complaint as I like chunky preserves. Taste-wise this stuff is wonderful. So if you like apricots, you will love this. I would buy this again, with pleasure. I am on my second jar already.
TJ’s has these little Grump trees for sale again right now for Xmas. They are cute and a pretty good deal for just $9.99. These can make a funny gift…. But wait, why”Grump” Tree? I’m guessing it’s for copyright reasons. TJ’s doesn’t want to say Grinch less they get sued by the Dr. Seuss estate. However they can get away with saying Grump and we all get the reference to The Grinch by it’s design (a clever idea just wrapping the tree to a point). If you don’t feel like laying out a ton of money for a Christmas tree ($50-150?) maybe you could get away with a little Grump tree and dress it up really nice with a lot of decorations… And it will last. If you take care of it, it will grow and grow and maybe you can use it for a few years. “Will eventually grow into a large tree. Keep well watered.”
I was glad to see Trader Joe’s came out with packs of vacuum packed “fresh” noodles that you can keep in the pantry, these so called THAI WHEAT NOODLES. Heat and serve. 3 packages noodles.
These are a typical Asian style wheat noodle, something similar to Japanese “Udon”
These can be used for anykind of Asian noodle dish. So why “Thai”? I would say these are just as much Chinese or Japanese as Thai however these noodles say Product of Thailand hence the name.
They’re about $2.50 for a 3 pack (21 oz) package. The noodles are pre-cooked, ready to use.
Each bag contains about 7 ounces of noodles. Frankly the amount seems just a tiny bit skimpy to me to make one portion. I wish these had even one more ounce, that is 8 ounces instead of 7, as that would make a more decent portion per person. I found one bag will just make a meal for one as a finished noodle dish, if you factor in other added ingredients. So I definitely suggest you “beef it up” and add things, like veggies, a protein, or what have you. Or add these to a soup.
My finished noodle dish with chicken, cucumber and scallions plus sauce
An example of one dish I made with these noodles is shown (see picture above). I had a some cooked chicken breast in the fridge which I used plus scallions and cucumbers. I basically used the recipe they have on the box for “Sesame Scallion Noodles” and added things to it. This dish turned out tasty.
Note that these noodles are already cooked so you don’t want to cook them too much more, or they might get mushy.
TIP: Opening the vacuum package you will find the noodles are clumped up together into an almost impenetrable brick that is not easy to break up! You will see I’m not kidding. To get them loosened up, I really had to work at them using chopsticks and tongs when I added the liquid sauce ingredients, as they state. But it was not easy.
TIP: HOW TO LOOSEN THESE – So the next time I made them I experimented using hot/near boiling water to loosen them up which really helps. Use very hot or near boiled water, and pour it over the noodles in a bowl. Let sit for a minute. I used my chopsticks/tongs and later fingers to get them as unstuck as possible, bit by bit. When the noodles were separated I rinsed them in cold water and drained them. Doing this worked better to prep them before adding them to the dish. One reader just says they use their fingers to pry them apart but some very hot water helps. Just be gentle so you don’t break them up into little pieces.
I placed the loosened drained noodles into a bowl and gave them just a drizzle of oil, and mixed it in as this will keep them from sticking together. Then do your other ingredients as they are ready to use (say in a stir fry). You can of course also use these noodles in any soup or perhaps a stir fried dish.
Some ideas for toppings would be some grilled chicken, beef or pork (Cha Siu?), grilled shrimp, or even just a fried egg on top with some Gojujang or other sauce. I would say these wheat noodles are basically a bit similar to “Udon” (though not as good quality as them) – so you could use them in Japanese cooking, to make a “YAKIUDON“. I did a kind of YAKI UDON with these and it worked OK. The box’s recipe for “SESAME SCALLION NOODLES” worked fairly well too when I made it.
TIP: The recipe for Sesame Scallion Noodles on the box is for one pack. So you will need to double the recipe (or more) if you are making two packs of noodles, or you will not have enough sauce. The recipe on the box is actually a good basic recipe that you can modify easily. I added a heaping tablespoon of crunchy peanut butter to it, to make it a bit more “Thai”. I also used a little Bomba hot pepper to make it spicy. Or use some Chili Crunch.
These noodles are handy and not bad at about a buck a portion, even if they don’t match up to the fresh noodles like this (not vacuum packed) you can find at many Asian grocery stores. One more thing I just thought of, you could say add these to Trader Joe’s GINGER MISO soup and come up with a noodle version of that (but do add more ginger).
I hope TJ’s keeps these around so check them out so they see they are selling. (update; these seem quite popular)
I would buy these again.
VEGAN
Here’s TJ’s info on them.
“Trader Joe’s Thai Wheat Noodles, a three-pack of ready-to-use noodle packets that’s as simple to eat as heat, serve, and enjoy. They’re made for us from scratch, by a supplier in Thailand, who cooks them to soft, chewy perfection, then vacuum- seals them to keep them preserved at room temperature until the very moment you need them for a soup, curry, or stir-fry” – Trader Joe’s
Nice Chinese recipe from Xaoying’s Kitchen with cabbage and noodles which you might get some ideas from. Turn on CC Subtitles for English subtitles. Note she is using uncooked noodles. These are pre-cooked so heat for less time (60 seconds?) and then rinse and season as she does.
TJ’s sells these bottles of liquid hand soaps in three different scents. This one is “Pink Pomelo Grapefruit” and it has a really nice citrus-y grapefruit smell. They also have a Lemon version, and that one says “Kitchen Hand Soap”. Not clear on why only the Lemon one would be for the kitchen / hands. Looking at the ingredients they seem more or less the same to me. My wife however specifically told me to get the her the Lemon “kitchen” version, for her in the kitchen. In fact, when I bought this Pomelo grapefruit one home for what I thought would be a nice little variety in our kitchen she looked at me like I was crazy and then told gave me a very clear “No Way” to this Grapefruit one for the kitchen. Why? It doesn’t say “Kitchen” on the label and the Lemon one does. I see the grapefruit one says it has Jojoba and Argan oils which I would think would be good for hands, no? The Lemon one doesn’t include these Argan or Jojoba oils, but then what do I know? Anyway all the 3 kinds of TJ’s hand soaps are good, make lots of lather and smell great. These go for $3.99 each for a large pump bottle (17 oz.). I would buy it again.
We really enjoyed this Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Cheesecake. Especially after our upstairs neighbor gussied it up with some whipped cream when she invited us to her Halloween dinner (hence the black spider napkin holder) and served the TJ’s pumpkin cheesecake for dessert. What I liked about this cheesecake was it they did not over do it in the “pumpkin spices” department, it’s pretty subtle and tasted first and foremost like cheesecake with just a little something extra, with pumpkin. Its very yummy. $7.99 for a rather large cake (30 oz). This could make an especially nice dessert for Thanksgiving, or anytime you can get this during the Fall/Winter season when it may be available. Frozen, defrost in fridge overnight or 4 hours and leave at room temp for about an hour or so. I would buy this again.
Trader Joe’s: “We couldn’t fit an entire pumpkin into the box but we did fill it with rich pumpkin flavor…blended into the tangy sweet goodness of cheesecake….perfect for holiday dessert….”
This is an excellent coffee and has become one of my new favorite Trader Joe’s small lot coffees.
I saw it in the NEW PRODUCTS area, and tried it. I found this to be an excellent coffee. It’s from Mexico of course and is one of their small lot, shade grown, 100% Arabica originating from the mountains of Huatusco, Mexico which is somewhere between Vera Cruz and Puebla.
I thought it made an outstanding cup of brewed coffee. Now the package says this is a “medium roast” – however I would disagree and say it’s darker than a medium roast
I’ve found Trader Joe’s descriptions (light, medium, dark) can vary quite a bit from coffee to coffee and are fairly inconsistent. To my eyes, this is a bit darker than “medium”. I would say its on the edge of being a (light) dark roast. Maybe about a “French Roast”? The beans are darkish and even slightly shiny.
(correction/ update; the new batch I just bought (2025) is exactly “medium roast”).
If you want a “medium” roast TJ’s Azmari Bunni is actually a medium roast or even a shade lighter. So let’s say this lovely Mexican coffee is roasted a little bit into the edge of a dark roast which actually seems perfect for these beans. The brewing method I used was making it in my Moka pot but this coffee will work for any kind of brewing method you prefer (drip, pour-over or even an espresso machine). This is a whole bean coffee of course so ideally of course you will grind up your beans at home just before brewing. In a pinch use the grinder at Trader Joe’s. When freshly ground you get an incredible aroma from these beans. It made a rich dark flavorful cup of Joe that I just loved. I find this coffee is delicious and excellent. I would buy it again gladly. In fact I may stock up a bit as these small lot coffees from Trader Joe’s can go bye-bye easily. TJ’s sells this for $9.99 for a 12 oz bag (whole bean. For this quality I’d say that’s not outrageous and a pretty fair price. PS I also experimented mixing this 50/50 with TJ’s BUUNI coffee, which is a medium roast, and together that was also quite excellent as a blend of a medium and darker roast, Middle American, South America and African coffees!
UPDATE (Dec 1 2022) : Sure enough a few weeks after writing this post, I can’t find any more bags of this coffee in either of my two nearby TJ’s (NYC) ! I really hope more comes in… Please leave a COMMENT if you see it in your local TJ’s (with location)
This was a really good product but sadly and very unfortunately Trader Joe’s stopped carrying them (discontinued). Argh!!! They were good. Many people aren’t happy about these being Axed judging from all the Comments left here below.
FYI – one of our readers kindly let us know these cleaning cloths on Amazon seem similar to the Trader Joe’s one. These cleaning cloths are made in Germany and come in a 12 pack, so cost about $1 each! They got good reviews too, Click the link for them on Amazon –https://amzn.to/4qEmlTt
For Archival Purposes…… here’s my original post about the Trader Joe’s Cloths…..
“SAVE PAPER, REDUCE WASTE”
These cleaning cloths are strong and quite absorbent. We’ve tested these out in our kitchen and are finding them to be pretty useful. They seem to me a bit like those orange “Chamois” cloths one finds at the dollar store? The good ones that is. These Trader Joe’s viscose cloths are convenient to buy and are not out of line priced at $2.99 for two cloths in the package (though I wish they were a little bigger). We’re mainly using them for kitchen counters and the like. They do absorb a lot even when wet. You just wring them out till damp and they absorb a ton of liquid again. These are useful and “eco”, saving some paper towel usage. I would buy these again.
UPDATE – Everyone complains about these being DISCONTINUED! (Argh!!!) I haven’t tried these but Amazon has some Amazon Basics” general cleaning cloths “even cheaper than the German ones….. that might be OK : https://amzn.to/3DIHmJy
Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants) 
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