Category Archives: Food Items

Trader Joe’s Super Strawberry Sorbet Review

Good but Generic

When I grew up in Argentina, ice cream was a special occasion treat. It was a time when home freezer weren’t good enough to keep it frozen, so commercial brands specialized in cones and bars that you’d buy and eat as you went. When we wanted ice cream, we had to go to the ice-cream store. And it was (and is!) expensive – a treat we’d only get after we got our report cards (fortunately they came every two months during the school year).

I’d always order a cone with dulce de leche granizado ice cream and either pineapple or strawberry sorbet. I’ve been chasing those memories of those amazing sorbets ever since – nothing can ever match those childhood memories.

It’s thus not surprising that Trader Joe’s Super Strawberry Sorbet didn’t come close either. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, with bright, intense strawberry flavor. But it’s a tad too sweet, a tad too creamy, and a tad too processed. On the plus side, I didn’t like it enough to feel compel to eat more than few spoons of it.

What turned me off more than anything was the texture. I think the weird creaminess comes from the maltodextrin, a high glycemic index carb which acts as a binder and adds a gummy texture.

The pint package was $4, which is cheaper than supermarket brands at regular price (but I only buy ice cream when it’s on sale).

Good & Gather Classic Guacamole Review

This Target product is completely generic

I’m a huge fan of guacamole but not of either the price or having to make it myself – so, on occasion, I buy commercial guacamole. Mostly I’m disappointed by the processed flavor, so little unlike real guacamole. Target’s Good & Gather classic guacamole suffers from exactly that fault: it tastes just like all those other commercial products. Given that it’s made from only avocados and distilled vinegar (with less than 2% of water, jalapeƱos, salt, dehydrated onions and granulated garlic), I’m guessing that the offensive flavor comes from the vinegar. That makes sense as home made, fresh guacamole is made with lemon juice, but vinegar is cheaper and probably helps preserve the guacamole for longer.

Preservation is an issue with guacamole, which is why I got the singles this time – as once you open the package, the guacamole is likely to oxidize quite quickly.

Good & Gather also makes a homestyle guacamole, which has lime juice instead of vinegar. I might try this one next time – but it doesn’t come in individual packages.

The package of six 2-oz cups of guacamole was $4, the 10-oz tub is the same price (so you get 2 extra ounces for the same price if you buy the singles).

Trader Joe’s Raisin Rosemary Crisps Review

Trader Joe’s makes these crisps in several flavors: fig & olive, strawberry & jalapeƱo, stollen – a raisin & lemon and orange peel holiday flavor – and raisin rosemary. I tried the latter and I’m a fan.

These bready looking crackers are very, very crispy – though buttermilk is their first ingredient. They probably need a bit more salt, though I imagine that’s supposed to be provided by whatever you dip them in. I very much liked the hints of rosemary flavor and the sweetness of the flavor.

I ate them with hummus, which wasn’t the best combination, as the flavors didn’t really meld, but I think they’d be great with cheese. I’ll definitely get them again.

They were $4 at our Trader Joe’s.

Ingredients are buttermilk, wheat flour, cane sugar, sunflower seeds, raisins, flax seeds, millet, sesame seeds, baking soda, salt, dried rosemary and black pepper. They have 90 calories per 11 crackers, with 16 g carbohydrates, 6 g sugar, 125 mg sodium, 2.5 g of fat and 3 g of protein. They’re made in Canada.

See reviews for other Trader Joe’s products.

O Organics Traditional Hummus Review

A good, solid hummus

I wasn’t a huge hummus fan back when I first tried it, during my year abroad in Egypt. I much preferred tahini by itself. Over the years, however, hummus has grown on me, and I often have it as a snack. I’ve tried a lot of different brands, and I can’t say that any of them stand out. Then again, why would they? Hummus is just a mixture of chickpeas, tahini (sesame paste) and oil, with some salt, lemon juice and garlic for flavor. There are, of course, a wide array of flavored hummuses – but I prefer the traditional.

Organics is one of the home brands for Safeway/Vons supermarkets (currently owned by Albertsons, slated to be sold to Kroeger’s). This O Organics traditional hummus was pretty good, though not special. It’s smoother and has a less chalky consistency than other commercial hummus, and a it features a brighter lemon juice flavor – even though lemon was listed as the next to last ingredient. It also does contain citric acid. The flavor was smooth, and it seemed to have a good ratio of chickpeas to tahini. It uses canola oil, which is not the best, however.

At $6 for the 10-oz tub it’s on par with other supermarket hummuses (which have become quite expensive lately), but I bought it on sale for $4. I’ll get it again when it’s on sale, but I wouldn’t pay full price for it (or for hummus in general – there is usually a brand on sale, or I can just get it at cheaper stores).


Trader Joe’s Gnocchi alla Sorrentina Review

A family favorite for twenty years

Update 9/24. The last batch of these gnocchi we bought – and it was several packages – was a failure. The gnocchi themselves were dense and crumbly. It felt as if they had used too much flour, or perhaps changed the quality of the ingredients. I hope it was just a bad batch, as they are close to inedible in the present iteration. I’ll probably wait a while before buying more, to make sure I don’t get more from the same batch.


Trader Giotto’s Gnocchi alla Sorrentina has been a favorite in my family for almost twenty years. My mother introduced me to these gnocchi when my oldest daughter was a toddler, and we have all enjoyed them over the years. We don’t go to Trader Joe’s frequently (parking is a pain), but when we do, we bring back many bags of this gnocchi.


The gnocchi are made in Italy and come in packages of plain gnocchi and pats of frozen sauce and cheese. When these melt, on the stove or in the microwave, they cover the gnocchi with the sauce.

They’re really as good as home made. Indeed I was surprised, when I finally made the home made version, how similar it was to the packaged ones. At $3 per package, they are probably just as cheap as making them yourself.

The gnocchi can be dense if you cook them uncovered in the microwave, so cover them or heat them on the stove. The sauce has a bright, tomato flavoring and just enough cheese – I actually wonder if less than in the past. It’s just good.

Trader Joe’s Lemon Baton Wafer Cookies Review

Delicious!

Trader Joe’s Lemon Baton Wafer Cookies are special treat. If you are restricting sugar or calories, or simply watching your wallet, just one cookie provides such a burst of flavor – in addition to a satisfying crunch, to satisfy a craving for sweets. While the lemon flavor is very intense, it’s neither overly sweet or sour, just perfectly lemony.

They come in a very well sealed tube. At $2.30 for the tube, they’re pretty affordable – as long as you don’t eat them all in one sitting (which I’m proud to say, I didn’t).

Trader Joe’s Mini Cheese Sandwich Crackers Review

Close but no cigar

I’m a huge fan of Ritz bits cheese crackers, so when I saw these Mini Cheese sandwich crackers at Trader Joe’s, I thought I’d give them a try.

They are OK. The cheese is a bit saltier and more bitter, with a somewhat unpleasant after taste.

They’re still quite addictive, however.

At $3.30 for the 7.5 oz box, they’re 1/3 cheaper than Ritz bits, which sell for at Safeway for $5.80 for the 8.8 oz box (so 44c/oz vs 66c/oz) – though last time I got them at Safeway they were on sale for under $2.

Trader Joe’s Gnocchi al Gorgonzola review

A favorite for over twenty years

I discovered Trader Giotto’s Gnocchi al Gorgonzola twenty years ago, when my oldest was a toddler. She loved them then and still loves now. And so do I.

Pasta often has problems surviving the freezing and heating up process, and Trader Joe’s solved this by freezing the pasta in little slices, which it then intermixes with the gnocchi. As they defrost, the melted sauce coats them.

This dish, as you can imagine, is on the heavy side, but the sauce is delicious. It doesn’t have a very strong Gorgonzola flavor – otherwise my kids wouldn’t like it – just enough to brighten the sauce. It’s ridiculously caloric, so something to eat only once in a while. It sells for $3.50

Oat Haus Granola Butter review

This Shark Tank product tastes just like graham crackers

Since I started watching re-runs of Shark Tank on YouTube, I’ve been intrigued with trying some of the products they’ve featured. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the majority does not seem to have made a commercial success and/or are not easily available. Oat Haus Granola Butter, however, is available at Target – and while it’s $8 price was steep, I figured I’d get both the pleasure of eating it and the pleasure of reviewing it. Unfortunately, that turned out not to be true.

I like granola, and while I’m not sure what exactly I was expecting, I thought this granola butter would taste like granola. Instead, it just tasted like graham crackers mixed with oil. I’m not a huge fan of graham crackers, so this product is just not for me.

Alas, my children didn’t like it either. While they like graham crackers more than I do, they did not like the chalky, gritty texture of this granola butter. I think someone noticed this as a minus in the show as well.

The granola butter is made with oats and sunflower oil, and while it has some sort of emulsifier, it doesn’t seem to work. The can comes with a thick layer of oil on the top that you have to mix in before consuming (unless you like eating oil). Unfortunately, you have to mix it in every time.

Unfortunately, but for the few minutes I spent writing this review, this was a total waste of money.

Trader Joe’s Beef Birria Review

Pretty Generic

Birria, a Mexican dish of goat or beef marinated and stewed in a sauce made with vinegar, dried chilis, garlic and herbs, is having a moment here in the US. Quesabirria tacos, tortillas filled with birria and melted cheese, are suddenly all the rage and have been added to the menus of both Mexican restaurants and taquerias all over the place, while people try to recreate them at home. It’s thus no wonder that Trader Joe’s would come up with its own, frozen beef birria.

I tried it last week and I was unimpressed. The beef just lacked flavor.

The beef comes in large boneless pieces swimming in sauce. While you have to heat it in the plastic bowl it comes in (it’s frozen, after all), you do need to transfer it to a different plate to shred it. Obviously this is still less work that making your own birria, but I’d preferred if the meat was pre-shredded. That might also have helped it draw some of the flavor from the sauce. The sauce wasn’t super flavorful either, but a bit better than the bland beef.

Now, the beef does work well if you are going to add more flavorful elements to your tacos. I didn’t have any shredded cheese at hand – and I wasn’t about to chop anything – but I added some commercial sour cream and guacamole (not usual for birria tacos) and they were better.

The 16oz dish was $8, which doesn’t seem too bad, but I wouldn’t order it again.