(On the bag…) “Sumatra is the sixth largest island in the world with volcanic mountains extending the length of Western Sumatra. Coffee on this lush island is grown on small farms, where the beans are picked, washed and pulped by hand using the wet hulling process, creating some of the most flavorful and complex beans on the planet. Our organic and fair trade Sumatra beans are carefully roasted to a medium dark level to reveal smooth earthy flavors with little to almost no acidity.”
If you are a fan of darker coffee beans you will probably like this “Fair Trade Organic Sumatra” coffee. I sure do. I’m a big fan of this coffee.
Opening up the foil bag one gets a very appealing aroma. These coffee beans smell wonderful and are roasted to what TJ’s calls “medium dark”. Dark medium?
As you know, coffee roast descriptions can vary wildly, especially Trader Joe’s it seems but to me. I would say this is just south of what some might call a French roast? The beans are dark and shiny. This is not however an Espresso roast. Nor would I call these “over roasted” myself (hard to trust even this picture, you kind of have to see beans in person really). For this coffee I think the roast works, perfectly.
You will hopefully grind up your beans just before brewing of course… and all I can tell you is when I do and open up the grinder, I get an intense, heavenly coffee smell. For me the Sumatran is an excellent coffee, one of best coffees that Trader Joe’s has in a dark roast. I think this would be especially good for espresso machine owners as well as Moka pot brewers, like yours truly now. My brewing method the last few years is using a Moka pot . I also use a little milk with this to make something like old school “cafe con leche” as this coffee really stands up to and goes well with milk. While great as is, sometimes I will make my own custom blend of light and dark beans using this Sumatran with some lighter beans like the excellent TJ’s Azmari BUNNI Afro-Latin coffee to come up with a wonderful blend of both light and dark beans from Latin, African and Asian countries. If dark roasts are not your thing.
And of course you can brew doing a drip or pour over, I still say mixing some of this into your lighter beans, will make a good and slightly more intense coffee for drip and pour over brewers.
The 13 oz bag of the Sumatra Coffee goes for $8.99. For Fair Trade beans, that’s not bad at all. For best flavor, I say best to use this up fairly quickly, say within a two weeks after opening the bag, or in a pinch freeze some. TIP: I save empty bags for doing this. PS Even darker? The other very good espresso roast beans I like that TJ’s has is the organic Five Countries Espresso. (Update: Unfortunately Discontinued!!)
Left: Organic Sumatra Right: Azmari Bunni beans (TJ’s calls Left, “medium dark” and the Right “medium”. Go figure) But both are very good!
“Old Fashioned Blister” Roasted Peanuts and OMG these are Oh So Good. Maybe these are THE BEST roasted peanuts you ever had. Old Fashioned like ones I remember when we were kids we could go to a real “Nut Store” and buy them just out of the roasting pan. These taste super fresh and are seriously delicious. If you like peanuts you must try these. I promise you will not be sorry, they are just so yummy it’s hard to stop eating them. These are $2.99 a bag (15 oz). INGREDIENTS: Extra Large Water Blanched Virginia Peanuts, Peanut Oil, Salt. Simple and delicious.
This is a tasty cream cheese spread with chives and onions. It was quite good spread on a toasted bagel and some crackers. Its pretty good on pretty much anything. I’ve even put some into things, for example it’s great mixing some into mashed potatoes to zing them up (try!). Or you can toss a tablespoon into a vegetable like some cooked French Green Beans. You can add a spoon to sauces or pasta. It’s too thick as a dip but if thin it a bit with some milk or sour cream, or maybe warm it in the microwave to get it looser it could work as a dip. Its $1.99 2.29 (8 oz.) I would buy it again.
NEW ITEM: Trader Joe’s “Cleansing and Conditioning Hair Wash” – “Gentle + Moisturizing. Generally Suitable For all hair types. Detergent & Paraben Free. Non-Foaming. Grapefruit Mint Scent. Reduces tangles, buildup, frizz and dryness. Enhances texture and volume. Reveals soft and shiny hair. Get more days between washes. No conditioner needed”
DIRECTIONS: “Wet hair. Coat all hair with hair wash. Massage in vigorously. Will not foam, and feels more like a conditioner. Rinse very thoroughly. No need to use a conditioner”
So this kind of seems that is is neither a shampoo nor is it exactly a conditioner… its something in between the two, they call “hair wash” and is something that you use between shampoos. My wife says she uses it after washing her hair as a conditioner (?) and she gave this a thumbs up (note, she’s tough to please with hair products). Now most conditioners say something like “leave in for three minutes before rinsing” This stuff doesn’t mention anything like how long to leave it in, therefore I assume that means you can rinse it out right away. No waiting!. This is something men like as we are well known to hate having to wait three torturous minutes for our conditioner to work. All kidding aside, this stuff seems to work, it has a pleasant scent, it has some ingredients that sound good, such as evening primrose, castor seed oil, sunflower oil, aloe leaf, soy, wheat and corn proteins, and flower extracts. I would buy it again but this is kind of unusual so its every man (or woman) for themselves on this “hair wash”. The nice thing is Trader Joe’s will give you a refund if you don’t decide you didn’t like it. How many stores do that?!! It’s $4.99 for the 8 oz tube.
I think my standard Go To for an excellent all-around coffee at TJ’s is their very good COLOMBIAN SUPREMO coffee beans. In fact many consider the Colombian Supremo coffee as the #1 coffee at TJ’s. Still this nice looking package in the NEW ITEMS section caught my eye the other day as I saw this was from Ecuador. Reading the label, well they made it sound worth trying, plus I am not sure I’ve ever had a coffee from Ecuador and was curious what that might be like. In short however I was disappointed and didn’t like this coffee. Now, it had a nice aroma and smelled really nice when I ground it. However when I brewed it up (in a Moka pot) I found it not at all what I expected to taste like and thought it tasted somehow off? I found the brewed coffee to be thin and bitter, and way more acidic than what I was expecting, almost “African”. I tried it a few more times with slightly different grinds and ratios to see if I could improve it, but still found it turned me off somehow. Especially by comparison to the balanced coffee flavors in their Colombian Supremo. If you’ve want a good tasting medium roast whole bean coffee at a decent value get that big can with the colorful Colombian toucan. Or the Azmari BUNNI coffee, which is terrific.
Ecuador Zamora small lot coffee was $9.99 for a 13 oz bag. I would PASS on this one however a few of the small lot coffees have been very good like the MEXICAN La Laja (and an Indian one I had) so it’s kind of hit or miss. As one reader pointed out in the Comments, pre-pandemic back when Trader Joe’s offered small cups of coffee to sample you could get an idea of what one actually tasted like. Ah, the Good Old Days….SIGH!
“Inside this bag you will find captivatingly crunchy, satisfyingly sweet clusters of rolled oats and pecans, with notes of maple syrup and honey”
If you are a fan of the big clumps you find in granola, you may like this. Trader Joe’s “Just The Clusters” Maple Pecan Granola gives you lots of clumps. I do like these crunchy clusters made even crunchier than other granolas as this has some rice flour added in for extra crunch.
It has pecans in it, a fair amount if not loaded with them. I guess at this price (3.29) they can’t put a ton of them in there but there are quite a few very tasty roasted pieces of pecans, and the maple flavor of this granola is tasty. As per the Nutrition Label, I wish it didn’t have quite the amount of Added Sugars it says but I really don’t eat a whole bowl of this, or even the 2/3 cups they use as the serving size. What I use this for really is as a nice topping to add crunch on top of my breakfast yogurt bowl, usually something like chia seeds, mixed with yogurt and kefir and fruits (banana, apples, berries…) This would equally be great on top of oatmeal or overnight oats for a little crunch. You could even eat some as a snack, in moderate amounts.
$3.99 for a 1 pound bag. No weird ingredients, all pretty natural as you can see….
update: unfortunately at present this is either unavailable or possibly even discontinued (?) As a substitute the Organic Fusilliis also quite good
“Made in small, handmade batches with high quality organic durum wheat semolima. Thick, textured noodles, that cook up perfectly al dente and pair beautifully with pesto”
“It starts with the Italian pasta maker sourcing high quality, organic, and local durum wheat semolina, then going the extra mile to mill the flour themselves. High quality tools are equally essential—bronze-coated shaping disks are used to produce thick, textured noodles that deliver a perfectly al dente texture, crucial to support the heftiness of your sauce while maintaining a delicate chew. The Trofie pasta shape originates from Liguria, the northwest coastal region of Italy, famous for pesto. You could say pesto is Trofie’s soul-sauce, a match made in pasta-eating heaven. But limiting Trofie to a single sauce would be a mistake. These short, twisted noodles pair well with a variety of sauces, in both hot and cold applications.”
NEW TRADER JOE’S ITEM – Organic Trofie Pasta: I saw this sign and grabbed a package of this pasta from the display as I’m familiar with “Trofie”, a pasta shape we don’t see very often in the U.S but is popular in Italy. It’s from Liguria. “Trofie”is a shape that is kind of a little twisted noodle so it has a lot of nooks and crannies to hold sauces. Trader Joe’s pasta is a very high quality organic pasta which as can you see in the pictures has a lot of rough cut edges, a clear sign it was made using bronze dies. I really liked this pasta. I used it to make a dish I came up with with spinach, garlic and feta cheese, a kind of Greek / Italian dish which turned out really yummy. This is great stuff, a very high quality pasta for a really good price. The 1 lb. package sells for $1.99. I would buy this again. This is my new favorite pasta! I suggest if you see it, Grab it! If you want to learn about Trofie check out some of these videos on YouTube….
Trader Joe’s CHEDDAR CHEESE with Caramelized Onions – “English Farmhouse cheddar blended with sweet caramelized onions creates a nice sweet & savory balance”
This one is another excellent cheese offering at Trader Joe’s. It’s an imported farmhouse cheddar from Dorset, England that in a CUSTOMER CHOICE AWARDS won #1 in the Cheese category. Yes, that good.
Trader Joe’s says… “It’s crafted for us on an established estate, idyllically situated between the rolling Dorset Downs and the Jurassic Coast—an international world heritage site, lush with pastures. With more than 40 years of traditional cheese making experience, a famed farm on this estate transforms rich, creamy milk from local grazing herds (within a 30 mile radius) into beautiful, full-bodied farmhouse Cheddar.”
Some cheeses are overpowered by added flavors however there are some very good cheeses with flavors that are delicious. This is one. FYI, you won’t see actual pieces of onion in the cheese; they seem to have been melted / blended in, which gives it a brown tinge. The flavors of caramelized onions match perfectly with the cheddar. You know like a Ploughman’s Lunch.
It’s delicious sliced thinly just on its own., and it was delicious too tasted with fruit (apples, grapes, pear). I just love this with a slice of my favorite apples from TJ’s (ENVY). I also loved this cheese on a cracker with a bit of the Apricot Jam (you should try this!)
What about MELTED?! Any good? Yes, yes, yes! Fantasticmelted… it made a really good melted cheese sandwich and was equally good for quesadillas. An “Ultimate melted cheese sandwich” might be mixing this cheese with the superb UNEXPECTED CHEDDAR on rye bread with a little Dijon mustard. This cheese sells for $10 a pound, which is not bad for an imported premium cheddar like this. I would gladly buy this again. I think this would be great on a cheeseboard. This is a terrific cheese, and worth trying.
Here’s another new Korean/Asian item from Trader Joe’s. These rice cakes are flat oval disks made from sticky rice, so are very chewy and soft. These kind of rice cakes are a typical ingredient in many Asian cuisines, Chinese, Korean others. In Chinese cooking these rice cakes are known as “nian gao”. If you fry them, they get a little crispy, which is how I like them best and the way I would suggest you try to make them. The bag has just rice cakes (no sauce) so you will add your own stuff. You can use these to make a stir fried dish with vegetables and a protein. There is a basic stir fry recipe on the bag (“Stir Fried Rice Cakes with Vegetables” which you could expand upon with adding a protein (say chicken, shrimp, pork or baked tofu.) Tip: of course do add garlic which this recipe omits (?!) You could come up with a Korean stir fry variation by adding some Kimchi or Gochujang and pork or chicken. The other thing you can do with these is add them to a soup (like a Wonton and Chicken Soup) in which case, no need to fry them up. The rice cakes are $3.29 (16 oz). They’re are in the Asian frozen area. These are a “Product of Korea”. While not quite as good as ones I buy in say at H-Mart in a pinch these will do and easy to buy. VEGAN, GLUTEN FREE
“A chewy-flaky dough filled with a lusciously gooey cinnamon filling”
Here’s one more Korean item Trader Joe’s added in 2022; “SWEET CINNAMON FILLED KOREAN PANCAKES” known in Korean as “HOTTEOK“. In Seoul, they’re a common snack sold from stalls in the street. People really enjoy eating them on a cold winter day. Trader Joe’s has come up with a frozen version which all you need to to do is heat up in a pan and enjoy. I cooked them as recommended in a pan on the stove with no added oil, until they were golden brown and delicious. They look really good as you can see. I found them to be quite tasty. They were flaky and had a nice filling with cinnamon and brown sugar. I thought there might be some red bean paste in there but but reading the package I can see theres some sweet potato in the filling. So while I enjoyed these I’ve never tasted a real one and my wife (who’s Korean) on the other hand told me they were just so-so and not at all as good as ones you would get at some street stall in Seoul made by the Hotteok lady vendors. I don’t doubt that but at $4.50 for a package (of 4 pancakes) these are at least a lot easier and cheaper than booking a flight to Seoul. These might even make you want to go get some real ones some day in person. I know I would watching the lady make them in video below.
Trader Joe’s and folks on the internet suggest putting ice cream inside them. I didn’t try it but imagine it would be good. Again my wife, poo-poo’ed this saying that’s not authentic. I say try these yourself and decide. They make a slightly unusual and interesting dessert or snack. And if you’re ambitious enough to want to try to make them yourself, here’s a recipe…. and a TIP: eat them carefully, the inside is lava HOT so let them cool slightly!
Trader Joe’s site has a “Limited” sign on the picture so I expect these may not last forever. If you want to try them, do sooner rather than later.
“When strolling through the streets of Seoul on a still, chilly morning, among the many sights to see, you may encounter the scent of fresh hotteok being served straight from the grills and fry pans of street vendors….”
They are interesting to watch getting made…. I bet they are really good. They are huge too.
Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants) 
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