Trader Joe’s says: “Trader Joe’s Instant Cold Brew Coffee starts with 100% Arabica coffee beans from India. Our supplier uses an all-natural, proprietary extraction method that took them over two years to develop. It’s truly a unique process that yields a fine, dark powder. Add one heaping teaspoon of this Instant Cold Brew Coffee to 12 fluid ounces of cold or hot water, then stir until dissolved. The result is a cup of Cold Brew that’s full-bodied, dark, and smooth, with a caramel-like aroma and rich, cold-brew coffee taste.”
I am a big fan of coffee, a real coffee. While I am not half as geeky and fanatic about it as many coffee geeks, I do love me some (great) coffee. Hence I almost never drink any “instant” coffee, which I find not even in the same league as a brewed coffee.
As far as the Cold brewed coffee trend that has caught on the last few years, well I always will prefer a regular brewed coffee too over that. If I want it Cold, I let it sit, chill it and enjoy it then, maybe with ice. But Cold brew doesn’t excite me compared to a chilled down brewed cup of coffee or some pre-made, iced brewed coffee. Still, I wanted to try this “Instant Cold Brew” from Trader Joe’s.
As I am not a big fan of any instant coffee I can’t say I am crazy about this one either however I found it actually made me a drinkable cold coffee beverage on a hot day. So maybe this is good for one of your Coffee Emergencies, where you didn’t plan ahead!
The label says add 1 heaping teaspoon per 12 oz of water but I think I will play with this and add more to make it stronger. This is of course very convenient which is its main selling point. It is convenient I’ve even used it to add to something as an ingredient where coffee was called for.
“It would be difficult to overstate just how delicious a plate of mango sticky rice can be.”
Trader Joe’s starts off their description of this new snack with that. I have to agree with that as if you ever had that amazing classic Thai dessert of Mango Sticky Rice, you instantly fall in love with it.
The flavors in this new crispy snack reminds one of that classic dessert, now compressed into a a small bite size crunchy snack. These are made with most of the same ingredients one finds in the classic dish, sticky rice, mango and coconut milk. Of course here the stuff has been baked into a very crunchy slightly sticky treat.
“Made for us by an expert supplier Thailand, Trader Joe’s Mango Sticky Rice Crisps are made with a mix of sticky rice, coconut milk, sweetened dried mango, mango syrup, and sesame seeds. Each bite evokes the tropical sweetness, bright fruity flavors, and faint, toasty nuttiness of this classic, Southeast Asian sweet treat, while adding the textural twist of overt crunchiness into the mix.”
All I can tell you the bag went pretty fast in our house.
“...an unexpected delicacy. Upon tasting it, we were enchanted by the soft, melt-in-your-mouth texture and the smooth, almost squash-like eggplant flavor that came to life amidst the bright, savory-sweetness of the tomatoes and onions. Our tasting panel was taken by surprise—these wondrous, not-at-all-bitter eggplants really came from a can? Really? Really.”
Ingredients: Fried Eggplant, Tomatoes, Onions, Salt, Parsley, Sugar, Garlic, Red Pepper, Black Pepper (natural sounding stuff)
HOT SUMMER – Now I don’t know about you during mutiple heat wave this summer but I’ve been racking my brains trying to come up with really easy things we can eat for dinner. Things that make for as little use of the kitchen as possible. Many days this summer you didnt even want to think of turning on the stove and cooking. You just want EASY. Right?
So if I can buy something at Trader Joe’s that is decent and all I have to do is open up a package…. And it’s actually tasty, as I’m concerned, that’s terrific in my book. This eggplant dish is one of those kinds of items. It’s surprisingly good.
Yes, I am a cook/foodie so maybe I will fix it up a bit. Add a sprinkle of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon juice. I wanted more garlic in this, so I smashed up a clove of garlic and added it in and it did improve it but even just out of the can, doing nothing really, still this eggplant dish is good and very tasty.
A can of this eggplant dish is super convenient to have on hand in your pantry. Along with some other Mediterranean food in cans from TJ’s which I also like (for example, the DOLMAS STUFFED GRAPE LEAVES & GIANT BEANS IN TOMATO SAUCE)
The eggplant dish is rich and smooth, with the eggplant falling apart and is well matched by tomato and onion also melted into the mix. Its not terribly far from a Ratatouille – which you could turn it into by adding some cooked zucchini and garlic. The Trader Joe’s description in this case is so right on I’m quoting what they say….
“…Our tasting panel was taken by surprise—these wondrous, not-at-all-bitter eggplants really came from a can? Really? Really. The Grecian Style Eggplant with Tomatoes & Onions is made for us in Bulgaria, where the eggplant is grown, by our famed Greek Dolmas producers. (They have a production facility in that Southeastern European country, so the eggplant can be cooked immediately upon harvest from the fields.) Whole, long, narrow eggplants—harvested at the height of the season—are split in half lengthwise and stewed in a rich, flavorful “sauce” of tomatoes and onions. Seasoned with parsley, garlic, red pepper and curry powder, and canned with soy oil, the gently- flavored, purple fruits of the nightshade family blossom with seductive Mediterranean essence.”
You can serve this as-is at room temperature with some good bread or crackers or flat bread/naan. Or warm it up if you like. Either way I would suggest giving it a little drizzle of good EVOO, maybe crushed garlic and chopped parsley. All of which will improve it even more, and then you could tell people you made it. Shhh… that it even came out of a can will be our secret!
I had about half of the can left over for another meal. Believe it or not the next night we were going to eat some Indian food. I wondered if I could mix it into some CHANNA MASALA? Guess what? The two worked surprisingly well turning it into eggplant and chick peas with Indian flavors which we enjoyed with Naan and Basmati Rice. So this could become other things…. Mix even with pasta and Feta cheese? Let us know if you have ideas to share.
Trader Joe’s sells some fresh “PIZZA SAUCE” carried in the refrigerated case, near the pizza dough. The sauce goes for $2.69 for 10 oz. I decided to give it a try.
The other night we planned on making a fresh pizza from scratch (I made my own dough using the famous Jim Lahey recipe). When I was ready to assemble the pizza for cooking I used this sauce.
Now my Go-To typically for tomato sauce for making pizza might just be to use TJ’s very decent jarred Marinara. Either the Plain version or the Roasted Garlic version. I like them both.
So here’s my honest review of this fresh sauce. “Just OK”. I would find it hard to recommend. I just tasted it on a spoon. I could swear it gave me a bit of a bitter aftertaste. Possibly from so many dried herbs? It is thick with a lot of ingredients. Too complicated?
I gave it a chance and used it to make the pizza. The pizza turned out OK and yes the sauce was a bit better now cooked but again “just ok” so would stick to my Go-To (and cheaper) jar of TJ’s Marinara – or whatever sauce you like at TJ’s).
So instead of this I suggest using TJ’s regular or ROASTED GARLIC MARINARA if you are making your own pizza from scratch – using either Trader Joe’s pizza dough or your own dough or whatever – and add your mozzarella or favorite cheese(s). Or their prepared Pizza Base.
To top my (marinara) sauce for our pizza I will add a pinch of dried herbs like oregano, maybe some crushed red pepper. Usually I will add fresh garlic. Later I will add fresh basil, cut with a scissors. Then give it all a drizzle of EVOO.
This will be way better than this prepared “pizza sauce” and the Marinara is cheaper to boot. You will plenty left over too to use in another dish, or freeze for later.
I would not buy this again.
Speaking of fresh basil – Here is the legendary late, great Dom DeMarco cutting on some basil with scissors. The Master at work and whose pizza’s I was lucky enough to get to enjoy many times, sometimes waiting a hour or more…. RIP Maestro Dom.
Trader Joe’s new GREEN OLIVE FLATS Italian Lingue Crackers.
These are typical Italian style crackers, almost in the bread stick family. These ones however are flat and long, thin with a few bumps. They are very tasty. Light and crunchy, and one can definitely taste the flavor of green olives which you see a few bits and pieces of.
My review is these are yummy. Three of us tasting these for the first time all agreed that these were quite a good new Trader Joe’s product. Frankly we all liked them so much we pretty much devoured most of the box tasting them! “Just one more bite….”
Of course these would match well with a pasta dish, again kind of like bread sticks. But naturally they would be good with almost anything you could think of. I just imagined wrapping prosciutto or any good thinly sliced ham around them, again like one might do with some bread sticks. I can seeing these being great on a cheese plate.
BTW- “Lingue” means tongue in Italian. As in, that’s what it looks like!
Trader Joe’s just introduced a few new crackers to their lineup recently, both of them Made in Italy.
I saw them on the NEW ITEMS shelf and this “pizza” one in particular caught my eye
Pizza Seasoned Crackers? Really? Yes, Please.
The cute, little round “pizza crackers” do pretty much resemble a little pizza. They’re both cute and tasty! The baked crackers have tomato sauce and quite a bit of oregano. Look. Little crunchy pizzas, people…
My review: They’re good. I am giving these a Thumbs up! In fact, 3 of us tasted these to try test taste them. We all liked them. We all said Good New Product.
We ate them naked, by themselves to start with. Tasty and yes reminiscent of pizza with lots of oregano. Next we topped them with slices of cheese, which of course they matched well with. We had Smoked Gouda on hand and they were very good with it but naturally I think they would be really excellent with some sliced fresh mozzarella. If you buy these, I would definitely try that combo. But honestly lots of things would be good with these.
So worth trying. I would buy these again.
(Tip: after you open the package I suggest keeping the leftover crackers in a resealable zip-lock bag to keep them as fresh as possible.
Here’s the latest Small Lot coffee offering from Trader Joe’s(Summer 2024).
This one is another African coffee, specifically from Kenya called “Kenya AA Karatu”. In Kenya, “AA” indicates the highest grade beans.
First off don’t you just love the very attractive design, related to traditional African textiles. Once again the really creative and terrific graphic designers at Trader Joe’s came up with something that is as usual Spot On and makes you want to buy it! And I did.
OK so the bag looks nice, but is this new Kenyan small lot coffee actually as good as it looks?
In a word, yes. Its good folks. Frankly my personal preference in roasts tends towards darker ones, as I usually make espresso style coffee drinks that have milk. But I appreciate any good coffee. I love coffee. And I found this one to be very good. So if you are like me trust me. You want to try this one too.
“Produced by a small collective of farmers in Central Kenya each sip is marked with notes of black curranty, citrus zest and cacao…” Sounds yummy, no?
These bag is labeled Medium roast. In this case I agree with Trader Joe’s description, which is not always the case. Maybe I would even say its “Light/Medium” roast. In any case the beans are not at all shiny, they are a dull cinnamon color.
Upon grinding up the beans you get a lovely aroma which yes it seems to have those notes the label mentions : “black current, citrus zest and cacao”.
With my freshly ground beans ready I brewed myself a cup of Joe.
Good? Very. Smooth but robust with a hint of acidity. You know how when you finish up a cup of a good coffee you like, you immediately wonder, “should I make another one”? Well I wanted another cup of this.
I think this latest small lot coffee is well worth a try especially if you are interested in African coffees. I so much prefer this one from Kenya over the last small lot coffee from Ethiopia from a few months back, of which I was not a fan. Pretty decent price at ten bucks a bag too (12 oz bag).
So if this review makes this Kenyan coffee sound worth trying – and it is – grab a bag it while you still can. The sign said “LIMITED” so will vanish whenever they sell out. If you try it and like it you might even want go back and get another bag or two for the pantry. That’s what I usually do when I hit on a Small Lot coffee that I fancy. In these foil vacuum packed bags, whole beans can survive a couple of months. Right now I have two bags of that medium dark organic BOLIVIAN coffee I am in love with in my pantry.
Trader Joe’s site says this about this Kenyan coffee:
“Once ground and brewed to your personal preferences, Trader Joe’s Kenya AA Karatu Small Lot Coffee makes a complex, yet balanced cup, with a bold, full body that’s complemented by a pleasantly citric acid structure. While it’s an excellent (albeit elevated) everyday kind of coffee, we find it serves especially well as part of a big breakfast or brunch: its bright notes of black currant and cacao make it a great pairing option with a flaky chocolate croissant, an auspicious eggs Benedict, or a tall stack of pancakes covered in fresh berries.”
I love pistachios and I love chocolate. So when I saw this new item Trader Joe’s recently came out with, naturally I wanted to try it. The concept sounds good.
But the reality? Well, while tasty three of us tasted this and had the same reaction. This isn’t a slam dunk success. Why not? Pistachios are kind of delicate and subtle in flavor. The texture is also a little soft. Coating them in chocolate sounds good but we found the the chocolate really dominates and overshadows the flavor of the pistachios. Unlike other nuts, say almonds where the almond can really stand up equally to the chocolate. You know you are eating almonds, as they have a more distinct in flavor not to mention a very crunchy texture.
So while I find it kind of tasty its a bit of a miss not a hit . I probably won’t buy this again. If I want a chocolate covered nut, I will just stick to the chocolate almonds or cashews.
Trader Joe’s came out with this NEW PB called “Peanut Butter With Honey”. It’s an All Natural peanut butter with just 3 ingredients: dry roasted peanuts, organic honey, and sea salt.
My regular preferred type of peanut butter would be the “Crunchy” kind. But this looked interesting enough to me to try despite the fact that in general, I don’t get “sweetened” peanut butter – meaning commercial brands like say Jif which have corn syrup (yuk!).
I like All Natural, minimal ingredients. Just peanuts and little salt… so my normal go to choice at Trader Joe’s is their Crunchy/Salted with the blue label which has only dry roasted peanuts and sea salt.
But I wanted to check this out, so I did and guess what? I liked it, actually way better than I expected to. I like this. Its pretty good! Seeing the words “…With Honey” I had no idea how much honey, or how sweet it might be. And I would say “Not” sweet. To me this has a very low amount of honey so the barest hint of sweetness. Minimal. Lets face it honey is expensive, much more than peanuts, so they may had a thimble of it in each jar.
From the label, we can see that this says 3 grams of total sugars whereas my regular TJ’s all natural pb’s blue label (just peanuts) says 2 grams of total sugars (meaning some is naturally occurring).
And don’t get me wrong I do love peanut butter and honey together, as those two ingredients are a wonderful match. Give me a a toasted Whole Wheat English muffin spread with some peanut butter and some honey any day of the week for breakfast. Yum.
This new PB with honey is not crunchy however its not exactly “smooth” either. A touch of texture. Trader Joe’s describes it as “between crunchy and smooth” meaning a slightly coarser texture than “smooth. Not much but not smooth like commercial ones.
The little bit of extra oil on top mixed in easily when I stirred it up and stayed mixed. Keep it in the fridge after stirring it of course. By the way the official way to store peanut butter once opened is in the fridge not in the cupboard.
UPDATE: When I got another jar after the first one, it was harder for me to mix it all together. It took a little work and lots of stirring to to get it all mixed up. Maybe it was just that jar. Another jar a few weeks later I got was again easy to mix.
So to summarize this review I like this. I found it very tasty and better than I expected to as its barely sweet and has a little bit of texture, not too smooth. So I think this new PB is worth a try. Especially if you have kids perhaps as of course this is way better for them than say JIF or the like. However this is fine for adults too!
Perhaps try a peanut butter and banana sandwich on TJ’s very nice Organic Seeded Bread?
I can certainly see using this for making Asian dishes or noodle dishes…. UPDATE: Made a dipping sauce for Rice Paper Shrimp Spring Rolls with this PB and it worked great. It will very well for Asian dishes or sauces that call for peanut butter
“Made with just three ingredients—dry roasted peanuts, honey, and salt—the coarse texture of this peanut butter falls somewhere in between creamy and crunchy, giving it loads of textural interest when spread on a sandwich or Whole Wheat English Muffin. The addition of sea salt amplifies the floral sweetness of the honey, and further highlights the round, roasted flavor of the peanuts. Unlike other brands on the market, our Peanut Butter with Honey contains no hydrogenated oils—give it a good stir before enjoying and you’ll be ready to spread with abandon”
TJ’s: “Made for us by a supplier in the Republic of Korea, Trader Joe’s Jumeokbap are flavored with a mix of plant-based bulgogi and savory-seasoned vegetables, and take only about a minute in the microwave to go from frozen to soft, steamy, and ready-to-eat. Traditionally, jumeokbap are spherical, reflecting the shape of a closed fist. Trader Joe’s Jumeokbap are a little more pyramidal, making them a kind of vegan mashup of jumeokbap and Japanese onigiri.”
First some history. Originally when Trader Joe’s came out with their KIMBAP, they blew up on social media, perhaps way too much for their own good as the Kimbap was/is sometimes hard to find in stock as it sells pretty fast!
Trader Joe’s apparently realized they were on to something with a Korean rice thing. I think they figured, let’s come come out with another Korean rice product. This newer rice based edible is called JUMEOKBAP. This translates basically as “Fist Rice” referring to rice you can hold in your hand (or fist) and eat. In other words a “rice ball” not too dissimilar to the Japanese rice ball onigiri. However those are usually simpler with plain white rice and something inside.
Jumeokbap are vegetarian with a soy protein “beef less bulgogi” added as well as carrots and other things. Each 10 oz package contains 3 individually wrapped rice “balls” though to be accurate these have a triangle shape. Japanese rice balls (onigiri) are made with plain rice wrapped with seaweed on the outside plus something in the middle. In “jumeokbap” the rice is seasoned, its not plain. It’s mixed with flavorings like soy sauce and sesame oil and has other ingredients. All these tastes are really good and I find these pretty tasty. These Jumeokbap rice balls aren’t huge. They are a little over 3 ounces each. The picture on the package kind of throws you off as far as the size – at least it did me.
As they are not big, I’d say one rice ball may be just a snack, and that at least two would make more of a realistic meal, or side dish, with other things of course. These were tasty especially when I had my idea / hack which is to grillthem (see picture below)
Grilling made them even better. We both found the JUMEOKBAP to be tasty, and we did enjoy eating them with kimchi of course! (Yes we got some really good kimchi at H-Mart as a new one opened up two blocks from our Trader Joe’s!) But in a pinch get some Trader Joe’s kimchi which is ok in a pinch, to eat along with these.
To make the grilled version, I had the idea to kind of do them like “Yaki Onigiri” (yaki means grilled). Frankly I thought these Jumeokbap were even better grilled up as opposed to just nuking them as the grilling added even more flavor.
HOW TO GRILL JUMEOKBAP: Instead of following Trader Joe’s instructions to microwave them, what I did was first let these thaw left out on the counter for a hour or two (wrapped). Next I put them in a cast iron skillet on medium heat, adding a little oil. I grilled them on each side for about 5-6 minutes or just until they got slightly browned. Sesame oil would be ideal but any oil will work.
Try them grilled! Its worth the tiny bit of effort as they get tastier.
Now to make them “even more Korean” in addition to the grilling we then ate them wrapped up in some Trader Joe’s “seaweed snacks” (aka Roasted Korean Nori). This was also a great idea. So I suggest buying some of the Seaweed Snacks (“Kim or Gim”) as well to really enjoy these. And some kimchi of course even the TJ’s one in a pinch, is better than nothing.
Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants) 
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