A Trader Joe’s fan blog with some NYC attitude. Mostly raves with a few rants.
11 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in Trader Joes Tags: Fall Items, Good smell, no preservatives, product, Products, Trader Joe's
It’s FALL, so you know Trader Joe’s has all the Fall Pumpkin Stuff out now, including the famous Cinnamon Brooms. These mini ones were 99 cents, for years and years. This year? They are now $1.29 folks!! The smallies will make a room smell lovely. The big broom, your house!
04 Aug 2023 2 Comments
in All Natural, coffee, fresh, General, New, News, Prices, Products, Rave, Staple, Trader Joes, Uncategorized, update, vegetarian, WhatsGoodAtTJ? Tags: #traderjoescoffee, coffee, drip, espresso, estate, gourmet, moka pot, Nicaragua, no preservatives, product, Products, Rave, review, single, Trader Joe's, Trader Joes
“A medium roast Arabica with note of cocoa, pineapple and cherry”
NICARAGUA La Bastilla Estate, Small Lot Coffee
“The coffee beans within this bag are also known as “blueberry candy” on the farm – dubbed so for their unique sweetness and subtle aroma….”
Here’s another recent addition to Trader Joe’s collection of Small Lot (limited edition) coffees that I recently saw on display in New Items. This is a coffee from Nicaragua. I’m pretty sure I never tasted a coffee from there before. After tasting it, all I can say is I was very impressed, and found this small lot coffee to be excellent. The description on the bag in this case was not all hyperbole, it delivers.
The bag says its a “Medium Roast” and in this case that is fairly accurate, with beans a lovely cinnamon color. When I opened up the vacuum sealed bag I got wonderful fresh aroma and the beans looked and smelled really promising. A bit fruity in a nice way. When I ground them up and took a big whiff of the ground coffee, I did get a heavenly smell with yes, “notes of cocoa, pineapple, cherry, blueberry….” I would say pretty much all of that but lovely and subtle and natural. And the resulting brew I made (Moka pot)? It was so good. To me it tasted pretty much like what I would call a “perfect cup of coffee”, hitting all the right notes. I found this coffee really, really drinkable, so much so that when I finished it I wanted to brew another cup. That’s really when you know you found a good coffee. I have a feeling any brewing method will produce a nice brew including espresso machines.
So if you are interested in a very nice coffee, I would say this Nicaraguan one at Trader Joe’s is well worth trying. It was a bit higher in price than other small lot coffees I’ve gotten for around $8.99. Trader Joe’s is selling this Nicaraguan Single Estate coffee for $10.99 (12 oz.) But I bet you if it were some cool Williamsburg coffee vendor they would be selling this for more like $20.
Here’s a link I found to the website of the coffee producer in Nicaragua so you can learn more about the region and the farm (in English)
https://www.bastillacoffee.com/our-coffee-1
(The 360 virtual tour of the estate is pretty cool; check it out)
https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/nicaragua-la-bastilla-estate-small-lot-coffee-075204
14 Jul 2022 1 Comment
in Blog, Products, Trader Joes, Uncategorized Tags: Business, company, corporate, Products, strategies, Trader Joe's, Trader Joes
I came across this recently so am sharing it; It does give us insight into Trader Joe’s business workings direct from the Source. Actually there are a lot of interesting nuggets of information in the podcast.
https://www.stitcher.com/show/inside-trader-joes/episode/episode-15-you-asked-we-answered-62129503
If you prefer to read it here’s a transcript of the podcast
A FEW USEFUL GLEANINGS ….
guest: Mitch Heeger, Executive Vice President for Marketing and Merchandising. (Wow; he’s been with TJ’s for 42 years! They must take good care of employees there.)
Q: How do you get to know what customers want?
A: It’s a good question. And you know, we pride ourselves on listening to our
customers and we always say that, you know customer votes with their dollars. We’re always looking at you know, products that sell really well. We’re always looking at products that may not sell as well. So if something’s not selling as well, we’ll discontinue that product
THAT’S PRETTY CLEAR, so the next time you are wondering why they dropped your favorite item, the answer is it’s nothing personal, “It’s just business”! Sales. Numbers. Period.
Q: Is it possible to get advanced notice if a product’s going to be discontinued?”
Mitch: We have tried that before. And it seems like every time we try, we fail. Either the product is in some areas really successful, so stores just jump all over it and it goes to one area. Or stores see that, “Oh, that’s gonna be discontinued. And it’s kind of a bad seller anyway,” so they don’t order it, and it sits in a warehouse
Wait – Trader Joe’s used to make custom sandwiches?!? (In the Mid 80’s it seems)
Q: We know early on you offered made-to-order sandwiches. Is that something you’ll consider bringing back in the future?
A: Absolutely not!
Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants) 
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