Mango Mango Mochi

Price: $3.49 for 6 pieces

Rating: 8/10

I remembered trying mochi a few years ago and being unimpressed by the chewy texture of it. It wasn’t mochi ice cream, just plain mochi, but I assumed if I didn’t like regular mochi I probably wouldn’t like mochi ice cream either. However, my on a shopping trip to Trader Joe’s over the summer, my boyfriend saw the mochi ice cream in the frozen section and picked some up. He convinced me to try it, so I figured I’d give it another shot, and I’m so glad I did! I’m now a mochi ice cream convert!

I’m actually lactose intolerant, so I usually have to eat lactaid pills with dairy, but these particular mochis are dairy free, which works great for me! Not only that, but they taste awesome. They’re packed with mango-y flavor, and I think there might actually be a few tiny pieces of mango I found in there. The extra mango center in these also adds to the flavor. There’s actually another mango mochi that Trader Joe’s sells, but I think these are better personally. TIP: I usually let them sit on the counter for 5 or so minutes to let the mochi wrapping soften a little bit.

Kentucky Bourbon BBQ Sauce

Price: $2.99

Rating: 8.5/10

Being from Missouri, I've always been a huge fan of BBQ. The only problem is that I've never been able to find a store-bought barbecue sauce that actually tasted good, so for several years, I'd make my own sauce from scratch. Unfortunately, making your sauce from scratch is not only time consuming, but it also doesn't last very long. Luckily for me, I decided to try out TJ's barbecue sauces a few years ago and was excited to discover... that they're pretty great! So anytime I see a new barbecue sauce at TJ's, I try to pick it up. Most of them have been pretty great, although there were a few I wasn't impressed by (I'm looking at you, Carolina Gold).

When it comes to barbecue sauces, I usually prefer a blend of spicy and sweet, or sweet and tangy, but this Kentucky Bourbon sauce has more of a spicy and smoky flavor to it. If you'd have described it this way to me, I probably wouldn't have been too interested in trying it, but I actually really loved this sauce. It wasn't overly spicy, but had a nice heat to it, and it left out the sweetness that a lot of barbecue sauces seem to have. So far, I've only tried it on TJ's Party Size Mini Meatballs, but I think this could go well on almost any meat. I'll definitely be buying another bottle in the near-future.

Triple Ginger Brew

Price: $2.99

Rating: 6/10

After declaring that I hated Ginger Ale as a kid, I've finally discovered a deep love for both ginger ale and ginger beer as an adult. There's a bar near our apartment that serves an extra strong ginger beer (non-alcoholic) that's used mostly in mixed drinks so that the strong ginger flavor doesn't get lost when it's mixed. But since I've become a big fan of super strong ginger flavors, I usually drink it straight out of the bottle, which makes most people cough when they try (according to both my boyfriend who frequently starts choking when takes to big a sip, and then bartenders who have all watched other people have the same reaction). So when I saw this Triple Ginger Brew, I had to try it. I'd wanted to try some last year, but it was pulled off the shelves due to bottles exploding before I had a chance. After a year of waiting for it to come back, I was pretty psyched to finally try the ginger ale that has so much ginger flavor it's literally exploding with it, and when I did I was....a little disappointed to be honest. It's definitely got a strong ginger flavor, more so that most other ginger ales, but it didn't pack the intensity that I was expected. I was expecting something closer to Reed's Extra Ginger Brew Ginger Beer (which you can also get at Trader Joe's) that's so strong it'll tickle your nose when you drink it, and this just wasn't at that level. However, I'm also probably one of the only people who's insane enough to want a flavor that strong. If you're a normal ginger ale soda drinker who's looking for an extra ginger kick, then you'll probably love this stuff. If you're a snobby ginger-beer-with-so-much-ginger-kick-it'll-make-your-eyes-water kind of person like me though, it's probably best just to pick up some Reed's instead.

Cioppino Seafood Stew

Price $5.99 (only enough for 1 full meal for 1 person)

Rating: 9/10

I’d been eyeing this seafood stew for a while, but hadn’t gotten around to trying it due to the $5.99 price tag. The bag says this should be good for 2 servings, but given that it’s only 170 calories in each serving, that would be an incredibly small meal if you were eating it by itself. Unfortunately those 170 calories contain 80% of your daily sodium intake, but I didn’t realize this until AFTER eating the whole bag at once. But onto how this tastes.

This stew is a mix of mussels, cod, shrimp, and scallops in a tangy tomato sauce with a good dose of garlic. I was actually shocked at how good it was. I’d expected I’d probably like it, but nowhere near as much as I actually did. The only thing missing was a piece of garlic bread to go with it. Even though I hate winter, this stew was so good I’m actually looking forward to coming home on a cold winter day and heating up a bowl of this for dinner. The bag of seafood is all raw, so you have to cook it up when you’re making it, but it’s pretty easy. I’d recommend adding the larger pieces of fish first though, and then adding everything else two or three minutes later so your shrimp and scallops don’t come out rubbery.

Seville Orange Marmalade

Price: $?

Rating: 2/10

I'd never really had orange marmalade until a few years ago when I was in Morocco on vacation, where they seemed to serve it with every breakfast. So when I saw this, I was excited to try it out. Unfortunately, I hated just about everything about this. 



The consistency is very jelly-like and not easily spreadable, and there's pieces of orange peel in it which I found very strange. I could have gotten past this, but it was so overly bitter that it was basically inedible. I did try mixing this with some goat cheese at one point and putting it on french toast with a little bit of syrup, but it still wasn't great. Maybe if you mix it with mascarpone to offset the bitterness it might work, but honestly it's probably a better idea to just not buy it.

Shrimp Soft Tacos with Tomatillo Sauce and Cotija Cheese

Price: $3.69 for 3 tacos (which is enough for one serving)

Rating: 1/10

As you can probably tell from my rating, this is one of the worst Trader Joe's purchases I've ever made. The only real way to make these frozen tacos is to microwave them, which should have been my first indication that these wouldn't be great (microwaving shrimp? yuck!). But I'm a huge fan of tacos, as well as a huge fan of shrimp, so I figured I'd give them a shot. I heated them up in the microwaved and was met with a truly unpleasant smell as they were cooking. I wouldn't really describe it as a fishy-smell or anything, but just a general bad food smell. It was actually noticeable enough that even my boyfriend pointed it out. At this point I should have abandoned these tacos to the trashcan, but I decided to soldier on. The texture of the shrimp was kind of rubbery, and there was barely any "salsa" or cheese that I could identify. It didn't taste awful, but it wasn't good. I thought maybe I could dress it up with some salsa, but after trying Green Dragon salsa, some tomatillo salsa from the fridge, Tabasco sauce, Valentina Hot Sauce, and Hatch Chile Salsa, I finally gave up on the idea that these were somehow salvageable and threw the last taco away. There are some times where I think that maybe something would be great for someone else and that they just weren't great for me, but I honestly don't think anyone–other than maybe someone who is actually starving–could possibly eat these and think that they were anything less than terrible. Just don't do it. If you want shrimp tacos, pick up a bag of fully-cooked shrimp, some soft tortillas, and a jar of salsa and make these yourself.

Salted Caramel Coconut Cookies

Price: $3.49

Rating: 3/10

I saw these on the shelf in August and thought to myself that these were definitely going to be a winner. We're all wrong sometimes. I expected these cookies to be packed with tasty coconut and caramel, but was incredible disappointed. There was definitely a coconut flavor, but you could barely taste any caramel or saltiness. It basically just tasted like an boring coconut cookie without much else. I tried to get into these several times after eating that first cookie, but I finally gave up after about 1/3 of the box and just returned them.