Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Trader Joe's Food Reviews: Snack Edition

First off, I know some of you don't have Trader Joe's near you and for that, I bow my head for a moment of silence.  I lurve me some Trader Joe's and just know that I enjoy every bite for you in addition to my own enjoyment.  But you never know, maybe one is coming to your area and you don't even know it!  Click here to see if any are coming to your neck of the woods.

Let's get down to business.

When we saw this Speculoos Crunchy Cookie Butter, we knew we had to see how it compared to Biscoff's Crunchy Spread.  It's all in the name of research, ya know?  Our verdict?  I give it a thumbs up but I will always get Biscoff over this stuff.  Why?  Because Biscoff's version is truly crunchy and is more like "would you like some spread with your cookie crumbles?" and we like that.  Now if Biscoff Crunchy is TOO crunchy for you, then this stuff would be right up your alley.  It's about 60/40 in favor of the butter over the crunch but just enough to give you that texture.  Biscoff is probably 70/30 in favor of cookie crunch.  This delightful spread is 90 calories per tablespoon.  It makes a great topper for a banana, to dip an apple or top your oatmeal.  Yum!




I'm going to pretend I didn't wait until we almost polished off this bag of TJ's Cinnamon Apple Snack Sticks to take pics.  For 140 calories, you get 28g or they claim 38 sticks.  I counted, it wasn't 38 sticks, maybe closer to 28 but still a goodly amount.  The taste?  You know Taco Bell's cinnamon twisties?  They taste like an apple pie version of those to me.  These babies will definitely be making an appearance in our pantry again.


TJ's Mini Hold the Cone ice cream cones.  The Mr wanted mini drumsticks and when we saw TJ's had these chocolate and vanilla versions, we thought we'd give them a go.  They have really good flavor, high quality ice cream for both.  I don't like how stale the cone tastes but I don't eat mini drumsticks so maybe this is normal?  One cone is 70 calories.  I could literally eat this in 2-3 bites if I wanted to and I'll say one doesn't go a long way to make you feel like you ate anything.  Honestly, neither does having two of them.  They're good but for me, not satisfying and the Mr feels the same.  We both like them but we don't know if we'd need to get them again.


So I'd say a solid hit with the cinnamon apple sticks, a hit with the crunchy cookie butter but would probably buy Biscoff first since we like ours uber crunchy and while the cones taste-wise are hits, on the satisfaction scale, they were a miss.

What new things have you tried lately?

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16 comments:

  1. I am right with you on these. The cookie butter is good but not as good, in my opinion, as the Biscoff kind because I love that extra crunchiness in the Biscoff. The Cinnamon Apple things are awesome and I can see us getting them as a regular thing. Yum!

    The mini cones are good and pack a lot of punch for such a small bite, but honestly they just don't really cut it as a snack because they leave you wanting more and it just doesn't satisfy the way you would want. And I consider myself a connoisseur of drumstick cones so trust me when I say that the cone should not be soft the way these were. I think they had to have thawed just enough for the ice cream to melt a little which is what happens if the drumstick cones haven't been kept in the freezer for the length of time that they really need to be. The cone is supposed to stay crunchy!

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    1. Man, I might slather a tbsp of that cookie butter on a nana this morning just so we can bust into the Biscoff crunchy I found in the basement sooner!

      You sir, ARE a connoisseur of drumsticks! I thought crunchy cones were the goal and these definitely were not. BOO!

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  2. Those tiny cones remind me of the soy ice cream sandwiches I tried (not recently). They were good but so small they just awakened the snack beast but didn't satisfy (even if I ate more than one). I'd rather only have ice cream a few times a year and get a satisfying portion then fiddle with those mini things. Though they are cute.

    I recommend Justin's Chocolate Almond Butter. It's very satisfying when you're wanting candy. One pouch contains more than enough to cover an english muffin (I eat it open face so it feels like more food) and (if memory serves) the calories are about 100/tablespoon (packet contains about 2 tbsp). They're a tiny bit expensive (about $2 per packet) but when I'm going crazy for candy they satisfy (and I bet even a smaller portion would satisfy too, I'll have to try that).

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    1. Yeah, that's about what they did to me. It was like "mmm, that was good...I want more of that stuff! Pass me four of 'em!"

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  3. My boyfriend picked up TJ's dark chocolate covered marshmallows when we went, he likes them. I thought they were gross, it didn't taste like a marshmallow to me. A TJ's employee was like "those are soooo good", no not really lol

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    1. I saw those and they didn't really appeal. Good to know I'm not missing anything in your opinion! ;)

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  4. Those mini cones are great for the kids. They're not begging for more afterward. But I could've eaten the whole box!

    And Biscoff is a drug to me. Takes me to a happy place.

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  5. No TJ's close to me, and the one coming is like 3 hours away. It'll be by my parents' house though so I'll be making a stop there when I visit.

    I picked up some frozen Greek yogurt that was surprisingly good.

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  6. I miss Trader Joe's so much. I used to go every week when I lived in Ann Arbor. I've been considering driving over there one weekend per month to visit friends and fill my car with groceries.

    They proposed opening one in Kalamazoo, and I think it would be a hit since we have two colleges and a lot of Chicago/Detroit transplants, but there was a lot of flack from people who thought it would be too "granola" or too "yuppie". /eyeroll

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  7. I love the biscoff version too..

    i dont like the small desserts like the snickers 90 calorie icecream bars..i end up eating two or more...arghh...

    My current fav snack at work is the flavia coffee machine's version of a mocha..80 calories and just enough sweet and coffee notes to it...

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  8. I love your TJs reviews! The cones look great but since I have no will power it's too much of a risk. I got their creamy cookie butter and over Christmas mixed it with rice cereal, coated it in chocolate and voila: crunchy cookie truffles! I'm afraid keeping the actual crunchy butter in my house would be too tempting. As I said, no will power.

    You've been posting your TJs nan pizza for at least a year and I finally tried it a couple weeks ago. It's going on my list of staples. For less than 200 calories of bread it has great texture and flavor and I'm inspired to pile it with veggies instead of cheese and pepperoni. Thanks!!

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  9. I'm going to our HyVee and see if they have the new Vita Pizzas. Facebook says they're carrying them now. I love pizza and these are only 190 calories.

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  10. No room in my budget for snack-foods these days, which has turned out to be a hidden blessing. :) I've heard a lot about that speculoos, and I'd like to try it someday.No hurry, though.

    The only thing new I've tried recently, I think, is an olive bruschetta I'll be blogging about soon.

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  11. I love those little ice cream cones! And it's funny, I think the staleness of them is my favorite part. I like a chewy ice cream cone, okay?! :)

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  12. I love the seaweed snacks, nuts, individual packs of trail mix. Greek yogurt. I could basically live by TJs alone.

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  13. I LOVE their chocolate power berries..omg! I also liked the baked snap pea crisps..they are pretty yum!

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