“…Modernity does occasionally produce snacks and sweets that previous generations could never have imagined… Fun, flavorful, and even a little fizzy, each Root Beer Float Cookie Piece starts with a vanilla sandwich Cookie, filled with popping candy-imbued vanilla crème, which our supplier enrobes in a toothsome, remarkably Root Beer-reminiscent candy coating…. ” – TJ’s
All I’ve been reading about is how fantastic the new Trader Joe’s Root Beer Float Pieces candy is. So I had to try it.
OK so my honest review is yes, the first piece you taste does in fact taste surprisingly like a root beer float, with even a little fizzy sensation in your mouth from the pop rocks evoking soda bubbles. Yes, I grant you that someone did come up with the right list of food chemicals stuff to do that. (yikes! you don’t want to read that list of ingredients).
To be honest, I found it just OK. I would not say I loved this. Its OK. My wife however spit it out after a little bite.
I find it way, way too sweet. However kids may just love this as it is unusual. After that first piece where you get the root beer float concept and say to yourself, wow it does taste like a root beer float, the novelty wears off, and as a candy it’s ok but not amazing. After that and I ate two more pieces, I was pretty much done with it. I find it more gimmicky than a great candy.
$3.79 (7 oz bag)
Sorry internet. I would not buy it again.
Me, I love dark not milk chocolate myself. Give me some dark chocolate peanut butter cups any day of the week. I could probably eat the whole container.
70% cacao. Ingredients: Unsweetened chocolate and sugar.
I got some when this was a new item. Here’s my review.
When I tried it, to be honest I found it on the side of just being a wee bit too bitter for my palate. This is for “serious” chocolate people. It’s not chocolate any kid would like, but tastes to me like a really SERIOUS gourmet chocolate bar with a high percentage of excellent cacao, but minimal sugar. Think “bitter” for most people, including myself in that category.
The bar involves two countries. The cacao was sourced from Peru. The chocolate bar itself is crafted in Italy.
“Each Bar is made with just two simple ingredients—unsweetened chocolate and sugar—so you get a chocolate-eating experience that’s pure, unadulterated, and deeply satisfying. The 70% Cacao content delivers a flavor that’s bold and intense, yet still delightfully smooth, with complex floral notes that reveal themselves as the Chocolate melts on your tongue.”
I took a few more bites, and little by little I got more used to it. The taste of this chocolate started to grow on me as my taste buds adapted to it and this chocolate melted all over my tongue. Yes I get it, that this is amazing quality cacao/chocolate. As this chocolate bar is barely sweet at all, this may not be quite for everyone but if you really are into chocolate (raises his hand) I think is worth tasting at least once to see what excellent high percentage cacao chocolate tastes like and especially Peruvian cacao which I know know is amazing.
I later ate some of the chocolate along with my coffee , which had milk and sugar. When I alternated bites of this chocolate with sips of my coffee, the added sweetness balanced the bitter chocolate and gave my taste buds intense, delicious chocolate flavor. If you find this too dark and bitter on its own, try eating it with something on the sweet side. I am thinking of matching this chocolate along with a bite of Dried Mango or dried cranberries, or maybe a bite of vanilla ice cream…. Get the picture?
$2.49 (100g) note: the price likely when up since this was published…
“Butter Cookies! From France! Dipped in Dark Chocolate!”
“Just about everyone loves butter cookies. If they’re French butter cookies, there’s an expectation that those cookies are going to be truly great. And what if those French butter cookies are also dipped in dark chocolate? …Made for us in France”
I got these to review and my review is these are quite good. We really liked them.
Very tasty, buttery cookies that have been dipped in good chocolate so that they have a nice coating. The cookies are on the thin side.
Frankly these taste way better than you would expect something which costs $2.99! (Note: they are only you about 10 cookies in a box). So you don’t get a lot of them but the quality of these cookies is pretty darned good!
“These Cookies are, indeed, made for us in France. The usual cookie-dough suspects—flour, sugar, egg yolks, milk, leavening, and salt—are combined with cultured French butter (13% of the recipe) to create a dough that is shaped into thin rounds. The baked biscuits are coated in rich, Dark Chocolate (40% of the recipe), yielding an exquisite Cookie that is at the same time: smooth, crunchy, chocolate-y, and buttery!“
Yummy. A big thumbs up. Put these out for company. Or eat them all yourselves!
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Trader Joe’s has come out with another variety of their CHOCOLATE BARK. I liked the original one with pretzels and sea salt (sweet and salty)
The new one comes in a pink bag. DARK CHOCOLATE BARK plus Puffed Quinoa and Freeze Dried Raspberries.
From Trader Joe’s: “The Bark you’ll find within each bag starts as a thin(ish) slab of rich Dark Chocolate studded with pieces of pleasantly tart freeze-Dried Raspberries and Puffed Quinoa.”
So I got some to review. At first I thought it was a bit sweet, however as frequently happens when I am tasting something from Trader Joe’s, I could not stop eating more. I kept saying to myself, “just one more bite.” Then I realize I had already devoured 3 or 4 pieces. Be warned, this chocolate may be slightly addictive.
This new variation on the dark chocolate slab is good. Quite tasty. In the bag quite a few largish pieces of the bark which you can break up into smaller bites. The chocolate combo is pretty yummy,, just a little bit on the sweet side however the tart dried raspberries in this does counterbalance it all out. There is a nice crunchy texture you get from the puffed quinoa in these, kind of like chocolate with Rice Krispies. Here its tiny puffed quinoa bits. The dried raspberries give a nice backnote of fruit in each bite.
Oh those French! They have such wonderful charcuterie and other pork products. However I wasn’t expecting to see it listed in these sweets which are a PRODUCT OF FRANCE.
A friend gave us these pretty tasty chocolate marshmallows to test out. They are pretty good if a bit sweet for my tastes. However as we were looking at the ingredients listed, we were all a bit surprised when when one of us noticed something we weren’t expecting.
She said “hey did you know this has pork in it?” I wasn’t expecting that! We looked at the label yes its got “pork” (“pork gelatin”). Now gelatin is in lots of food products (as gelatin or collogen) and I believed it was usually made from (cow) bones. However it can be made from other products too.
Just so you know.
Anyway just so you know!
So this could make this problem a bit of a no-no for some people, like Kosher Jews or Muslims. Sure Kosher products are clearly marked “K” for Kosher but but not Halal items have no markings to my knowledge. And there are many people who avoid pork for other reasons…
“Combing the rich flavors of dark chocolate with the resounding crunch of resounding crunch of roasted almonds and pretzel pieces, then finishing with a sprinkle of sea salt. This is a satisfying snackable bark, one that is well worth every bite”
(thats old price)
“The Bark you’ll find within each bag starts as a thin(ish) slab of rich Dark Chocolate, studded with crunchy roasted Almond & Pretzel pieces. Our supplier then sprinkles said slab with Sea Salt, breaks it into snackable pieces, and packages it up for your enjoyment. The end result? A sweet, chocolatey treat that’s well worth every bite.”
OK, enough of Trader Joe’s advertising and what they think. What did I think? Well here’s my review: If you were intrigued by how good that sounded, all I can say, is this is as good as it sounds.
I really liked this. The chocolate bark is a little bit thick and slightly crunchy, a mix of sweet and a tiny bit savory (sea salt). I think they use a decent chocolate, mixed with pieces of roasted almonds and bits of pretzels mixed into the bark that all in all, makes for a very satisfying snack or treat. Very yummy.
I would buy it again.
$3.99 a bag (10 oz).
PS – they recently came out with a variation of this chocolate bark, with quinoa and raspberries. Will try that too!
“Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Coffee Buzz Bars are made using a unique combination of conched Columbian Cacao Nibs and Columbian Coffee Beans, blended with sugar and natural vanilla flavor. There’s a distinct yet mild coffee flavor and 70 mg of caffeine in each bar”
(a regular cup of coffee has about 95 mg of caffeine)
First off, I have to mention I love this package design. Eye catching colors with lovely hand made drawings of coffee and cacao on thick paper stock.
Trader Joe’s really cares about package design, more than other grocery stores. They focus on designing products that make you want to pick them up. If you are interested in learning a bit more about that here’s a link about Trader Joe’s product design
OK, ok but how’s this chocolate? I liked it but my wife did not. To state the obvious this is not a kids bar of chocolate. Definitely for Grown Ups. Barely sweet, just sweetened enough to balance out the bitterness of coffee and cacao nibs. Me, I think they got it just right, definitely a nice balance of quality chocolate with coffee undertones and a nice balance of bitter and sweet however some may not go for this. On the other hand if like me, you are someone who loves both your coffee and your chocolate you may like this. Worth trying to find out.
I think this is a new dessert, or at least we hadn’t seen it before. MINI CHOCOLATE MOUSSE. Individual tiny chocolate mousse cakes that are Imported from Belgium, where they know a little bit about chocolate!
So rich and yummy. Its a round mini cake consisting of chocolate mousse on top of a shortbread crust base, topped with a dark chocolate ganache. Three layers. These were very delicious and a dessert that will satisfy any discerning Chocoholic (raises his hand). Just heavenly.
Reading the label though, we were all a bit confused by it saying “1 serving per container” as well as “serving size 6 pieces”! What? They think this box is one serving? Now each one is small, only about 3 bites each. I could eat 2 easily. Maybe even 3…. Still I don’t think anyone should eat six. Odd Nutrition label. Still each serving of one piece says its (only) 110 calories. Not bad at all and they are very light as mousse is airy.
These were so good. I would buy them again. Look for these in the Frozen Dessert section.
“Mini Pretzels” with a thick coating of good dark chocolate. Sweet and a little salty. A match made in heaven folks. Love Them! A 12 oz bag is about $3.29. I would buy them again. There is also a milk chocolate version too (no thanks i’ll stick with the dark)
Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants) 
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