Latest small lot coffee offering from Trader Joe’s. An organic coffee from the La Concordia region in Chiapas. Whole Beans in a Light Roast, and yes it did have some fruity notes with hints of chocolate and caramel as they describe.
This one was pretty good! Especially if you like your coffee from TJ’s a bit lighter as opposed to a medium or darker roast. “Que lo disfrutes!” (may you enjoy it)
$8.99 (12 oz)
“The newest addition to our Small Lot Coffee program, we’re making a return to Chiapas, a state in southern Mexico. This time, we’ve sourced our coffee from a group of growers within the La Concordia region of Chiapas, where the high elevation and oceanic micro-climate create optimum conditions for growing rich, chocolatey, full-flavored coffees. True to form, each sip of Trader Joe’s La Concordia Mexico Small Lot Coffee is indeed remarkably rich, deliciously chocolatey, and fabulously full-flavored, with notes of sticky caramel and fresh berries throughout.”
Trader Joe’s says: “Made with organic wheat and whole wheat flour and sweetened with a touch of organic sugar cane molasses, Trader Joe’s Organic Seeded Bread is soft, chewy, and ever-so-slightly sweet. Loaded with organic sunflower, flax, poppy, and sesame seeds, it’s also as hearty as can be, with a perfectly toothsome, seedy texture. Use it for all of your sandwich-making needs, or toast and slather it with Cultured Butter and your favorite fruit preserves”
It’s just loaded with seeds.
I really like this bread and buy it all the time. It’s one of my favorite sliced breads Trader Joe’s sells. The name says it all: “Organic Seeded Bread” and they are not kidding about “loaded” with seeds. This bread has a lot both on the outside as well as on the inside, which makes this a pretty hearty bread which works great for sandwiches as well as toast.
Wholesome. Whole Grains. Sunflower, flax, poppy, white and black sesame seeds and millet, all organic of course. No dough softeners, preservatives or artificial ingredients. One slice has 6g of Protein.
(Just FYI I keep bread in the freezer, where it will last a month or two. Keep it tightly closed)
One of the few products Trader Joe’s sells under the original brand, SYNERGY RAW KOMBUCHA is an all natural fermented drink. My wife mostly buys it and most of the times she goes to Trader Joe’s she will get this. On occasion she will even let me have a few sips if I ask politely.
They have about three different flavors but of all of them this is her favorite. “Gingerade”, which is quite gingery. I like this flavor too.
But first if you are not familiar with it what is kombucha anyway ?
Kombucha has gotten more and more popular over the last few years from the health community as it’s loaded with probiotics.
Its very unique from a taste standpoint. The first time you open this bottle you will get a huge fizz. Like opening a soda. Really fermented with a LOT of natural fizz. Taste it and you get a bit of a natural bite on your tongue. Really zingy. Personally I like the taste and sensation and find it both refreshing and tasty, but it may be an acquired taste. The fizz will die down once you open it after a day.
Kombucha is a naturally fermented drink with lots of enzymes and probiotics. Kombucha is said to have many health benefits. People have made it for a thousand years or so. A little goes seems to go a long way. This 16 oz bottle lasts us a few days. This is made from black tea, green tea, kiwi juice and ginger.
Trader Joe’s sells Synergy Raw Kombucha for $3.49 (16 oz) It’s carried in the refrigerated drinks area.
Trader Joe’s ORGANIC GROUND BEEF (85/15 meaning 15% fat). From organically raised 100% GRASS FED cattle. Certified Organic.
“Trader Joe’s Organic 85/15 Ground Beef comes from organically raised cattle that are never given antibiotics or artificial growth hormones. The cattle are 100% grass fed, grazing on wide-open pastures—their diet of natural grasses and vegetation contributes to full-flavored, well-marbled beef that’s rich in healthful Omega-3 fatty acids. 85/15 refers to the ratio of lean to fat, meaning that this Organic Ground Beef is 85% lean.”
The beef was delicious when I made it into a classic hamburger and cheeseburger (with Unexpected Cheddar). For ground beef 85/15 mix is considered “lean”. Most ground beef you buy is generally 80/20 (20% fat). I am OK and prefer the slightly leaner 85/15 ground beef, and this was still plenty juicy. This ground beef will be good for any recipe. Next up for me, tacos.
Trader Joe’s tends to put rather long “use by” dates on the bag. I say use it as you would any ground meat you buy, within two days of purchase to keep it as fresh as possible, and if not just toss this into the freezer, and when you need it do an overnight defrost.
Organic Ground Beef is $7.49 (1 lb.) Way cheaper than you would pay at Whole Foods.
“Invigorates with Peppermint, Eucalyptus and Tea Tree botanicals”.
With much of the U.S. going through a bad spell of hot weather, especially the South and SouthWest now I am re-posting this as a “public service”. Trader Joe’s TEA TREE TINGLE body wash is a must have for hot weather! If it’s hot where you are you owe it to yourself to get a bottle of this for your shower. I can not begin to tell you how refreshing it feels to scrub your body with this stuff. As soon as you put this on a wash cloth and put in on your skin, you will instantly feel better and 100% more refreshed.
TJ’s Tea Tree Tingle body wash contains tea tree oil, peppermint, eucalyptus, rosemary and other natural essential plant botanicals all of which make for a super refreshing and invigorating wash.
It has a terrific smell and I’ve even found its great to add some when I am washing out my gym clothes. It’s great for getting the smell out of sweaty gym clothes.
Certified Organic. Trader Joe’s sells this for just $3.99 for a nice huge 16 oz bottle. Trust me, you will love this to make yourself feel refreshed during hot weather.
Trader Joe’s SPICY HONEY; it’s honey with chili, so obviously sweet and spicy. Make that Quite Spicy!
Now back in 2010, I had first heard of something called “Mike’s Hot Honey” . It created a bit of a buzz in the NYC food scene when it came out. I actually first tasted Mike’s Hot Honey on a delicious pizza from Paulie Gee’s in Greenpoint, Brooklyn that Mike had come up working there doing pizzas. His Arugula Pizza with Honey was Mike’s hot honey drizzled over fresh arugula on the pizza after it came out of the oven. The whole thing was just terrific. Also the place (if you can, go try a Paulie Gee’s pizza). Mike was marketing his hot honey (his was made with a Brazilian birdseye chili). Hot Honey began to catch on with chefs. Hot honey became a thing. Other vendors came out with similar products. Trader Joe’s jumped on the hot honey bandwagon too a few years ago. They came up with what they call “Spicy Honey”. TJ’s spicy honey is quite good. It’s quite spicy as I said so you use it sparingly, just drizzles of it at the end on something. Interestingly I just realized as I had a bottle Trader Joe’s first sold it in an 8 oz container and the sold it for I think $3. Recently they increased both the price and the size. Its now 12 oz for $5. It’s Organic too I think. This is really Terrific if you’re into Sweet and Savory. I drizzled some on my Japanese Curry Rice last night, perfect addition.
“From something as simple as a baked sweet potato to something as rich as a slice of New York Cheesecake, a drizzling of Organic Spicy Honey Sauce instantly gives anything it’s added to an extra element of complexity. Try it on sandwiches, pizza, or shrimp tacos for an elevated everyday eating experience. Give it a go over pan-fried Gnocchi, roasted carrots, or barbecued meat skewers for a bit of gourmet experimentation…”
I really liked this blueberry preserve Trader Joe’s has come out with, which uses wild organic blueberries from “the Canadian Boreal Forest“. It has an intense and delicious flavor of wild blueberries which are much smaller than cultivated ones. It’s very tasty though I found it a bit on the sweet side, borderline overly sweet, so what I like to do with jams I find too sweet is tame down the sweetness with some lemon juice. I added the juice of about a 1/4 of a fresh lemon into the jar and mixed it in. That did the trick for me, cutting down the sweetness with some more acid and adding a very nice subtle lemon undertone. It made it even better and really improved the whole thing. So my recommendation is buy a lemon with this jam (if you didn’t have one already in the fridge).
TIP: after adding the lemon juice I add a little piece of the lemon rind and throw that it in to the jam for even more flavor from the rind’s oil. Just push it to the bottom.
The Organic Wild Blueberry Preserve is $4.49 for a 17.5 oz jar. Not cheap but then it is Certified Organic and taste-wise I would say this stuff is certainly a Gourmet Level jam. Probably elsewhere (say Whole Paycheck?) a similar one would probably go for more like six or seven dollars. Try this on just about anything but I really think it would be heavenly on a slice of TJ’s Sliced Brioche bread, toasted with butter, spread with the blueberry preserves. Ditto on an English Muffin, toasted Crumpet or on your pancakes….
Trader Joe’s says: “Our supplier takes wild, organic blueberries, harvested from the Canadian Boreal Forest, and simmers them with organic cane sugar to complement their pleasantly tart and rich blueberry flavor.”
This is a new nice pasta shape at Trader Joe’s. It super!
I really liked this pasta which is kind of a ruffled edged, ribbony flat wide noodle. Think of a mini lasagna noodle. Those ruffled edges holds sauces well. Malfada Corta pasta is a nice hardy noodle and will be great with almost any sauce you can think of. Its Organic and bronze die cut semolina pasta.
I’ve made this with a number of different sauces. One dish was this pasta with a homemade ragu bolognese-style sauce. Yummy. We both really liked the combo. On another occasion I made a tuna pasta with a bechamel sauce mixed with tuna and peas. That combo was was Excellent as well. Really, this pasta is super.
TIP: It has a recommended cooking time of 8-9 minutes. I was making my pasta Italian style, meaning under-cooking it a bit then fishing it out of the water and putting it in a pan to cook with some sauce till its done (al dente). So I fished out the pasta before it was al dente, a minute or two under than so maybe at about the 6 minute mark (2 minutes under the recommended 8). The noodles went into a pan with a 1/2 ladle of the pasta cooking water (great “secret” ingredient in restaurants) and I then added about 1 ladle of my sauce. I cooked that mixing it all the time for maybe 90 seconds, and adding another ladle of sauce. Turned off, then the pasta got plated. I put some additional sauce on top as well as some fresh grated Parmesan. This “Italian pasta cooking method” imbues the pasta with the sauce so it’s way better than just ladling a sauce on top of dry pasta which is unfortunately how many people in the U.S. make pasta. Doing this horrifies Italians!
I would gladly buy this again. I think the Malfada would be a great match for TJ’s frozen MUSHROOM MEDLEY. Try that combo.
Trader Joe’s Sriracha and Roasted Garlic BBQ Sauce
“It’s the new ‘IT’ thing in BBQ sauce. You’re welcome”
It’s exactly as described on the label, “It’s got tang, it’s got heat, it has garlic and it has sweet.”
There is a little heat in this tomato based Organic BBQ sauce and for me the level is just right as well as the the little sweetness balancing out the heat. It’s spicyness would be from the organic red jalapeno pepper puree they use, and the Sweet would be from organic molasses. It has a little bit of hickory smoke flavor but not too much. Reading the label you see things like allspice, clove and habanero. So some complex flavors going on there. To me, everything is perfectly balanced to make a very tangy, tasty BBQ sauce. I really love this stuff. I think this is absolutely perfect for grilled chicken – or grilled tofu for that matter. Put it on at the end for a glaze. It was perfect to make the Pulled Jackfruit Sliders on Aloha Buns (see link below for recipe)
Trader Joe’s Sriracha and Roasted Garlic BBQ Sauce
Popular in Indian cuisine “Ghee” is butter that has slowly cooked to separate its milk solids from the fat so it doesn’t burn when cooking and can stay unrefrigerated. This is a Vegan “ghee” a blend of coconut and avocado oil. Now I’m not vegan myself, but just wanted to check out this product. It’s OK to cook with, neutral in taste. I think I would just prefer regular Coconut Oil which does impart a little coconut flavor. But if you are vegan this might be an option.
Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants) 
Recent Comments