#trader-joes

#trader-joes

"Sorry Trader Joe's, but I simply hated these crackers," wrote Tasting Table's Emily Hunt. "They actually gave me a negative opinion of parsley, and now I'm convinced it should never be the main flavor profile in anything." While a desperate person with a box of these on hand could potentially use them as a crunchy topping for a dish like baked mac and cheese, she ultimately believes "that's far more trouble than they're worth."

Per reporting from the Los Angeles Times' Studios arm, Monrovia-based Trader Joe's has spent eight figures on a 1.4-acre parcel just over a mile inland from the coast. The corner site doesn't just offer premium visibility for high-net-worth locals in Santa Monica, where the median home price is over $1.8 million, it also offers 125 parking lot spaces and over 17,000 square feet of retail possibilities, both larger than the average Trader Joe's store.

The jellies in this TJ's boxed offering are round discs covered in coarse sugar, coming in cherry, pear, mango, and peach flavors. As far as texture goes, they represented the slightly toothsome yet soft consistency of a jelly candy. The sugar coating gave a nice crunchy contrast, but even the best texture couldn't make up for their flavor. We wanted to give these candies points for originality, as pear isn't a flavor you see every day.

I walk in with a list, and inevitably end up pondering in front of the freezer case or that seasonal section that houses the Jingle Jangle mix and peppermint bark. This year, Trader Joe's put me in an even larger predicament. Between bakery-style frozen treats, festive ice creams, and a few desserts that left me wondering whether to serve them at a holiday dinner party

Trader Joe's is well known for its private-label products. As far as where Trader Joe's food comes from, many of the items are actually made by popular name brands in a process known as "white-labeling." From tea to crackers to spreads, dips, and more, fans frequently try to determine which brands are behind the Trader Joe's items they enjoy the most.

I've never met a soul who doesn't appreciate a good cracker. The pantry staple is wildly versatile and, most likely, holds special meaning for each of us, whether you (like me) frequently feasted on Ritz and cream cheese in younger years, or regularly housed bowl after bowl of your favorite Goldfish flavor after getting home from school. Some are tasty enough to eat solo, while others beg to be placed on a fancy charcuterie board or used to top a crunchy casserole.

Every product undergoes a rigorous tasting panel process, in which every aspect of quality, taste, and price is thoroughly evaluated before the product can earn a spot on our shelves,

We've done the hard, yet frequently delicious, work for you and ranked a handful of the holiday items available in 2025. We don't recommend the eggnog or the oat-based eggnog, but a few of our favorite items are included in the list below. In addition to considering our own experiences tasting these products, we also consulted online customer chit-chat. We based prices on what we found listed online for our local store.

There's nothing quite like a Trader Joe's seasonal drop, especially when it comes to all of the Christmas-themed treats that start appearing on shelves this time of year. We've already tried out 13 of this year's winter holiday items, and it's going to be a long road to the end of the year, because many are hard to put down.

Our taste tester found that the tart crust baked up perfectly flaky and golden, without that frustrating sogginess that can plague pie doughs, especially frozen versions. Infused with cream cheese and cinnamon, the apple filling is rich in taste and texture, and a sliced almond topping adds crunch and an extra dash of visual appeal. The overall flavor profile is buttery and fruity with just the right amount of sweetness.

In our ranking of 17 different Trader Joe's Thanksgiving products, the brand's Cornbread Stuffing with dried cranberries, roasted apples, and savory herbs came in last place. Don't be fooled by the tasty description and misleading photograph on the front of the box. A sweet and savory cornbread stuffing sounds delicious, but all we tasted with this box was salt. In fact, it was so salty that the sweet and bright cranberries and caramelized roasted apples were completely lost.

One thing the brand truly excels at is bringing seasonal and unique items into the fold - whether that's summery Trader Joe's snacks or autumnal Trader Joe's hits. I love the wintery holiday season because it's known for cheer, giving, and some flavor profiles that I'm already quite fond of such as peppermint, gingerbread, and cranberry orange. I went through the aisles

Recently, at least once a day, you can find me singing: "Pass the cranberry sauce, we're having mashed potatoes!" in my best Linda Belcher voice. It's a compulsion that I don't try to control - just like the carb-loading you'll also find me engaging in around this time of year. My favorite part of Thanksgiving is undoubtedly the sides. Mac and cheese, stuffing, cornbread - you name it, I'm probably eating it. And while I usually opt for homemade everything, Trader Joe's got me curious: Can pre-made Thanksgiving foods stack up to the DIY versions?

The bake is a one-pan dish that uses a few Trader Joe's packaged ingredients - Trader Joe's frozen dumplings, Trader Joe's Thai Red Curry Sauce, and Trader Joe's Soyaki (a mix of soy sauce and teriyaki sauce), along with coconut milk and garlic. You'll only need to mince the garlic and chop some veggies for the topping. Trader Joe's Crunchy Chili Onion tops the dish with a vibrant red color and spicy flavor.

Trader Joe's has released a new Canvas Micro Tote with a grocery bag inside a limited time. The reusable tiny bags are about four inches by three inches in size and big enough to carry your keys or spare change.

A Nantucket Cranberry Pie isn't one of the unique items Trader Joe's dreamed up. It's a real New England specialty, and it brings a bracingly tart flavor you don't often get in overly sweet holiday pies. It's not even what you might normally think of as a pie, being almost a hybrid between pastry and cake. It features a mixture of cranberries and walnuts, cooked in a cake-like batter.

Trader Joe's cookie game is strong, so it's always tempting to try new varieties. However, one product that we go back to time and time again is TJ's All Butter Shortbread Sandwich Cookies with a Raspberry Filling. It starts with two rich and buttery shortbread cookies. While some shortbread cookies - especially store-bought ones - can be on the crumbly end of the spectrum, that's not what you get here. They're hard, yes, but they have some give to them,

Trader Joe's is beloved for a whole host of unique snacks, spreads, and frozen meals. But, famously, nothing is more anticipated than its autumnal lineup. And the one Trader Joe's fall item we simply can't pass up is the pumpkin spice mini sheet cake. Not only is it a seasonal, pumpkin spice upgrade to Trader Joe's already popular mini sheet cake, but it's quickly become one of our favorite pumpkin products of all time. We're far from the only fans either.

Even though it's been a few years since I worked at Trader Joe's, I still cannot unsee many of the rude (and often quite bizarre!) behaviors that customers repeated on a near-hourly basis. I'm no grocery sociologist, but I do believe the combination of generally chipper employees, 1950s surf rock blasting, and free-flowing samples of your favorite desserts, seems to bring out something in Trader Joe's shoppers that has them, well, not on their best behavior.

It's a known fact that Trader Joe's discontinues products fast. For those who enjoy Trader Joe's frozen scallion pancakes, be it the brand's Korean-inspired Scallion Pancakes (Pajeon) or the similar Taiwanese Green Onion Pancakes, you'll be pleased to know that you can replicate these delights using only four ingredients. All it takes are dumpling wrappers, scallions, oil, and salt for a picture-perfect dupe of these savory snacks.

When you're looking for a quick and easy meal to whip up on a weeknight, Trader Joe's might be the best place to go. The store is known for its variety of prepared fresh and frozen food that can help you get dinner on the table quickly. The chain's frozen dumplings are an excellent example of just that kind of product. Dumplings are generally filled with protein, veggies, or both, and they come together in a matter of minutes.

Leafy greens may often be key to a good salad (except for those salads that don't actually include any greens, of course), but when you really think about it, any good salad truly comes down to the dressing. This is the case for both greens-based salads and those that don't contain any lettuce, like macaroni salad or potato salad - a good dressing makes or breaks the whole dish.

Trader Joe's is known for carrying snack dupes that rival popular brands, and often, the TJ's version ends up being better than name brand. As it turns out, not all brands are too tickled by Trader Joe's copycat products, as proven by the fact that Smucker's is suing Trader Joe's over its alleged knockoff of Uncrustables. You may recognize Smucker's Uncrustables by their distinctive circular shape, crimped edges, lack of crust, and peanut butter and jelly filling.

This year, there was a lot of excitement surrounding TJ's fall items. I must have seen at least a hundred TikToks showcasing the grocery store's seasonal must-haves, and between all of them, there was one common thread: the Pumpkin Caramel Danish Kringle. Danish Kringle is an oval-shaped, flaky, buttery pastry filled with fruits, nuts, or cream cheese, topped with a sweet icing. It was introduced in the US by Danish immigrants who moved to Racine, Wisconsin, in the late 1800s.

While the chain grocery store has plenty of other amazing items that you can pick from, it still hurts to see a favorite go. It's worse because the items just vanish one day, totally unannounced; perhaps you ask a crew member about your favorite dessert, and they mention that it's been permanently pulled from the shelves; it has happened to us time and again.

If you've been craving cheesesteak but don't live anywhere near Philadelphia (or any of these other locations in the U.S. where you can find the best cheesesteaks), then all you have to do is head over to your nearest Trader Joe's and make your way to the meat department. There, in the refrigerated section, you'll find the Trader Joe's All Natural Shaved Beef Steak.