smoothies | Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants)

Trader Joe’s WILD BLUEBERRIES (from Quebec, frozen)

FROZEN – GREAT FOR SMOOTHIES

“Trader Joe’s Wild Boreal Blueberries are little blue gems grown with absolutely no pesticides in Quebec’s Boreal forest region. The Boreal is a collection of protected lands that spreads across Canada…. The fruit grown in the Quebec Boreal thrives on the healthy soil conditions and unique climate of the region. The sweet tart flavor of these wild blueberries is unmatched. Try them for yourself in everything from cereal, muffins, cakes, smoothies and ice cream. They really are wild”

We really liked these blueberries. They are something buy them all the time at Trader Joe’s as they are great to have in the freezer. Not only are these one of my favorite Trader Joe’s products, I hear they are favorites of TJ’s employees as well which is really how you know something is good.

These frozen wild blueberries from Canada are small but full of flavor. These will defrost pretty quickly at room temperature if you just take them out for 10 minutes or so. You could also run them under cold water for maybe 10 seconds in an pinch but I feel like that washes some flavor away. When defrosted you can use these just as you would use fresh berries. We use them in our bowls of cereal and yogurt or kefir, mix them into oatmeal, or put these on top of vanilla ice cream – a super yummy combo! These blueberries are great for making smoothies of course, in which case you can just pour them frozen right into your blender with your other ingredients. I’ve even made excellent blueberry jam from them, and of course they are great to use in baked goods, for example blueberry muffins or even pancakes! Topped with some maple syrup naturally.

$3.49

Trader Joe’s ORGANIC FLAXSEED MEAL

“Light nutty flavor that is great in oatmeal, smoothies, pancakes and waffles.”

RANT

Unfortunately Trader Joe’s discontinued a very good product they used to carry, Whole Roasted Flax Seeds – and replaced it with this one: ORGANIC GROUND FLAXSEED MEAL. Meal of course meaning they pre-ground the seeds.

You know there are people who buy ground coffee. Other like myself prefer to buy coffee beans. Reason being, coffee beans which you grind before using it is so much fresher.

I preferred to buy the whole flax seeds which I would grind myself, which was not terribly hard to do in a hand grinder I got.

That way the flax seed meal was totally freshly, compared to flax seeds already ground up here.

I used to grind the whole flax seeds up with a second coffee grinder, I use for grinding things besides coffee, like some seeds and whole spices. I would grind up the whole flax seeds every day or so, which is ideal as they contain natural oils which are best fresh .

I think Whole Foods might sell whole flax seeds?

For the time being, I got this new version that Trader Joe’s replaced that product with. I use flax seeds in a few ways, for mixing into my Kefir, and smoothies and or adding into baked goods or pancakes.

Sadly I found that these pre-ground flax meal is not as good. The taste is off to me. I don’t know if they use Golden or Brown flax seeds, it looks like it’s made from a dark and a light seed.

I’m sure Trader Joe’s wanted to make it “easy” for you (as in, “what kind of customer is going to grind them themselves”?) Guess what, I did it, it’s not terribly hard and was preferable to me at least if you care about the flax meal being super fresh.

So get this if you want them pre-ground. Be sure to refrigerate the package after opening to keep as fresh as possible. Maybe even keeping this in the freezer is best?

In short, that discontinued whole flax seed was a better product. Grinding them ourselves guaranteed freshness, which this does not. So another RANT!

$~~3.99~~ / 1 lb

Another option might be to just buy whole flax seeds (AMAZON) These aren’t toasted but you could do that yourself pretty easily. (MAR 2026 cost is $6/lb)