Trader Joe's Yea/Nay/Meh 2017

I bought one of these to take to work yesterday to go with the make-your-own-sandwich buffet thing we had and it was great! Picked up a jar for myself on the way home. Nice heat, not sweet and a faint truffle presence in the aftertaste, not overpowering, just right.

Thanks for the feedback, Gretchen. I havenā€™t opened mine yet but have been thinking about using it in some ham&cheese phyllo bites I want to make to take to a holiday party. Do you have any hunch how it will stand up to baking?

I opened mine too! The day i opened it that stuff was like crazy turbo dijonā€¦! Serious kick to it- but a week later it mellowed a little and now i can better taste the truffle flavor and itā€™s not as overpowering. Might vary jar to jar and how itā€™s stored too. Iā€™m sure it will bake up fine, just taste yours to see if you need to adjust the amount in your recipe

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Soā€¦ I should prolly wait to post until Iā€™ve actually tried any of these (save for the truffled mousse), but today I picked up:

  • Normandy fondue (cheese section)
  • maple bourbon walnuts (snack section, which - as we all know - is most of TJā€™s :smiley:
  • salty honey toffee milk chocolate covered crackers (think thatā€™s long enough???)
  • truffle patĆ© (YAY - had this before)
  • French pavĆ© (cheese section)
  • mini cheese crĆØpes (frozen)
  • hasselback potatoes (frozen)

Looking fwd to trying these and reporting back!

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You might lose the faint truffle but I think it would also mellow out the sharp bite a little. Interesting that Ttrockwoodā€™s mellowed over time.

Does anyone like the Rainbow Honey?

We buy it every year. One of the varieties tastes like medicine, but the rest are great.

@linguafood, I think the French pave is great. On our third square already.

add to the ā€œtoo tempting to have aroundā€ list: cheesy trees crackers. right up there with the cornbread crisps and the baked parm snacks. deep cheese flavor (cheddar is the first ingredient). pitched as a great accompaniment to tomato soup.

of course, i couldnā€™t wait until i got home; ate the whole box waiting for the bus. @ $2.99/5-ounces, thankfully, theyā€™re seasonal:) of course, tjā€™s could bring the same product back without the holiday connectionā€¦

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Thanks for this warning. I donā€™t need it till next week so will open it today.

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Taste it when you open it, perhaps my jar was just super fresh or iā€™m a bigger wimp than i thought i was ā€¦( i buy maille dijon from their store here- more potent than the shelf stable maille at grocery stores since it is kept chilled through the whole process- and TJs certainly had more of a kick than a fresh pot of the maille does! The maille staff lady explained they sell the mustard in smaller jars because it does mellow with time)

Oh, good to know about mellowing. Iā€™ll buy the small jars and not the larger ones.

At one point i would buy grey poupon in biiiig jars at costco but i absolutely noticed that the bottom half of thr jar was very mild and i would have to use a lot more for the flavor i wanted. But then the maille store opened and ruined me on grey poupon foreverā€¦

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I must say, Iā€™d be happily ruined by a Maille store.

The UWS location closed a while back now (which just means now i order it online !) $ighā€¦ condiments are a legit weakness of mineā€¦

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Then you surely must have seen the 7 Salts of the Earth that they have on the shelf now. I couldnā€™t resist, even though I donā€™t need more salt at home. There is no yay or nay from me since they donā€™t do anything other than package the salt up. But its a economical way to get a variety of salt.

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You know i donā€™t like salt that big for finishing salts- looked like the chunky style that makes me worry i chipped a tooth- and i feel rediculous buying multiple salt grinders. (Well, and i may or may not already have several of the salts in the assortment in my cupboardā€¦!!)
LMK of you love it and i will "keep on hand " for if/when i use up whatā€™s in my grinder(s) now

I bought extra jars of an onion honey mustard I liked back when Kitchen, Etc. had a store closing sale. It took me a few years to go through them. The last ones to be opened had virtually no kick left. So itā€™s not just exposure to air that diminishes the pungency.

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The grains actually arenā€™t that big. Sure they arenā€™t the finest either. So I just sprinkle as is and donā€™t run them through grinders.

These are no coarser than the ones that come of my grinder in anything but the finest setting.

Oooh, thanks! Iā€™ll keep an eye out for this then- itā€™s not like it will go bad, and if i refer to my salts as a "collection " i can totally rationalize buying more :wink:

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I rarely buy the goat milk brie for this simple reason- I canā€™t stay away from it, and itā€™s so much easierto not buy than to not eat once purchased. I adore it.