Blueberry Breakfast Biscuits

Price: $2.49

Rating: 4/10

I’ve never been a huge fan of things like these biscuits, but I was pretty excited when I saw these after having some similar looking blueberry biscuits on a flight and being thoroughly impressed by them. Unfortunately, while the biscuits on my flight were packed with blueberry flavor and had a soft, almost cookie-like texture, these weren’t at all the same. Instead, these had only the tiniest hint of blueberry, and had a more mealy texture. They kind of tasted like the health food version of the yummy ones I’d had on my flight. I think it took me about 3 months to finish the box of these after buying them because I was so unimpressed.

Honey Crisp Apple Cider

Price: $2.99

Rating: 9/10

I've always been a big fan of juice, but I've tried to cut back over the past few years just due to the amount of sugar. When I saw this unfiltered cider though, I had to get some. The first year I lived in NYC, in 2009, I was sick all winter and one of my favorite things to drink while I felt like crap was unfiltered apple juice. For some reason, a lot of people I've mentioned this to turn up their noses at the "unfiltered" bit, but I would actually argue that unfiltered juice (or in this case, cider) is way better than filtered. Why? Because I've found that with apple juice, there's a tendency to have juice that's a bit on the syrup-y side. You might not notice this if you've never had unfiltered juice before, but I definitely noticed after I started drinking unfiltered. The unfiltered juice, by comparison, has a much smoother, almost silky kind of texture. I've also read that unfiltered can be healthier, as the extra filtering for regular juice removes some of the nutrients. But this isn't a health blog, so I'm more concerned with taste here, and unfiltered just has a better taste and texture.

As for the taste of this particular Apple Cider, I thought it was pretty great, as you might be able to tell from my 9/10 rating. It had a good, smooth flavor that wasn't too sweet, and actually tasted like real apples. My only complaint about this is that I generally prefer my cider to have some spices added for flavor, and there wasn't much in here. If you're looking for a warm tasting cider, this probably isn't it, but it's pretty good when you don't go into expecting a spiced cider kind of flavor. I'll definitely pick some up again!

Pumpkin Tortilla Chips

Price: $1.99

Rating: 6.5/10

I'm not a huge tortilla chip eater, so when I buy tortilla chips I usually just get the standard salted variety, but I saw these at the same time that I was picking up some Fall Harvest Salsa, so I decided to give them a try. The flavor has a pumpkin-y savory and salty taste, but with the added hint of cinnamon and nutmeg. I find this a little strange, but it actually goes pretty well with the Fall Harvest Salsa. The problem is after you run out of Fall Harvest Salsa, when the number of things these go well with becomes limited. The description from TJ's says that you could use these with any kind of salsa, but unless it's a heavily fruit-based salsa, I'm not sure the cinnamon and nutmeg would really work with it. I'm actually skeptical of how well a regular fruit-based salsa would work with these anyway. Based just on their flavor and how well they go with the Fall Harvest Salsa, I'd give them a 7, but based on how un-versatile they are, I'd have to give them a 6, so I averaged the score out to a 6.5 out of 10.

Fall Harvest Salsa

Price: $2.99

Rating: 7/10

I'm a pretty big fan of salsas, and this is one of my favorites at TJ's. It's a little more towards the sweet side than the spicy side. It's still definitely a salsa though, and there is some kick to it from the jalapenos and other standard salsa ingredients. But it also has a nice warm fall flavor to it thanks to the pumpkin, squash, and apples in it. This is a great fall salsa with a warm-and-spicy flavor as opposed to a more acidic-spicy flavor that you usually get with tomato-based salsas. This is definitely one of my fall favorites, and I thought about picking it up again after finishing my first jar, but there have been quite a few new salsa's from TJ's in the past few months that I'm looking forward to trying out as well, so I'm thinking of checking out those instead.

Autumnal Harvest Creamy Pasta Sauce

Price: $3.49

Rating: 5/10

I tried this pasta sauce last year and couldn't really decide if I liked it or not, so I decided to give it another go this year. Unfortunately, I still can't decide how I feel about this. On one hand, it has a great creamy texture, and autumn flavors. But on the other hand, it's a little bland and doesn't really have an identifiable flavor profile. It's definitely not spicy, bitter, sour, or salty, but it's also not sweet. I'm not sure if that means that it's umami? The only real way that I can think to describe its taste is that it's creamy. Which isn't a flavor. It’s a texture. This year I tried it both with regular pasta (which was pretty decent(, as well as zucchini noodles (which I wasn't a fan of). I guess if you're a big fan of pumpkin and squash, then you might be into this, but I thought it was a little dull.

Mini Ginger Pumpkin Ice Cream Mouthfuls

Price: $3.99 for 12

Rating: 9/10

I'm a huge fan of the spicy and sweet flavor combo, and these mini ice cream sandwiches do it well! The soft ginger cookies provide a strong spicy ginger flavor, and the pumpkin ice cream sandwiched between has a nice creamy sweetness to balance it out. I especially like that you're eating something cold that's got a hot flavor at the same time. I actually like these so much I have to stop myself from buying multiple boxes, because every time I buy a box it's gone in less than 24 hours. That's not so much because of their size (there's about 3 bites per sandwich), but more just because they're so good I can't stop eating them once I've started. Mine look a little sloppy here after they melted on a long subway ride, but usually they look much more like the nice photo.

Pumpkin Spice Rooibos Herbal Blend Tea

Price: $3.99
Rating: 10/10

In the past year or so I've finally gotten over my lifelong aversion to tea. In general, I've never been a big fan (and am still a skeptical convert) of tea drinking. To me, it just tastes like water boiled with faintest hint of flavor. It always seems to smell great but then tastes like nothing. When I saw this Pumpkin Spice tea, however, I had to get some. While I'm not a big fan of tea, I am a very big fan of Pumpkin Spice anything. 

One of my problems with tea has always been that it tastes so weak. I usually liked it a lot more of I used several tea bags so it can out ultra-concentrated, but it can get expensive if you're always using 3 tea bags for a single cup of tea. However, I discovered earlier this year after buying some expensive Chai tea from Teavana that you can actually reuse your tea (bagged or loose-leaf) up to three times before it runs out of flavor. So since I usually drink tea cold anyway, I've taken to making a big batch, using 3 tea bags for 1 cup of water, and then using each tea bag 3 times, so that you get a highly concentrated brew without going through an insane number of tea bags. (Note: If you're thinking that it would be even easier to just steep the tea for 3 times as long rather than reusing the tea bags 3 times-don't! Steeping the tea for longer than intended can burn it. It's better to steep the tea for the recommended time, then remove the tea bag and put it in the fridge to cool before using again.) Even using this method, I still sometimes run into the problem of tea that's on the flavorless side (for me, at least), but it's better than using 1 tea bag for every cup of water. 

But back to how Trader Joe's Pumpkin Spice Tea rates. After brewing up about 2 liters of this stuff, I finally poured myself a glass to try, and oh my god was it good! It has a great pumpkin-y flavor, and you can really taste the "spice" part of it too. Even cold, it has a nice warmth to it thanks to the cinnamon and nutmeg. This is easily my new favorite drink of the fall. In fact, since buying my first canister of this about 6 weeks ago, I've already bought two more, and I'm strongly considering stocking up on a few more to get me through until next Pumpkin Season at TJ's.