Saturday, October 10, 2015

Day 283 - Dark Chocolate Covered Pomegranate Seeds

Last night I was sitting in front of the tv (watching “Survivor” if you must know…) and a friend sent me a Facebook message with a link to a reviews of ten dark chocolate covered things from Trader Joe’s.  Guess what I was munching on at the same exact moment she sent met the link??  DARK CHOCOLATE COVERED POMEGRANATE SEEDS!

I will review those today, but first here is the link to the cool review and ranking of the 10 dark chocolate products that she shared: Spoon University Ranking of Top 10 Dark Chocolate Covered Trader Joe's products here

Of the products reviewed at that link, I have reviewed:
-          Chocolate coconut almonds:  review here 
      Their review was MIXED, mine (way back on day 7 of this year long project) was full on in support of these babies.
-          Dark chocolate covered espresso beans: review here 
      Our reviews matched – we both think these are great.
-          Dark chocolate almonds: review here
      This one got a coveted 5 stars on my blog and ranked the highest in the other people’s ranking, too!  Obviously this one is a clear cut WINNER and you need some.
-          And now I will review the product that allllmost made it to the top of their list – Dark Chocolate Covered Pomegranate Seeds.

Pretty packaging for a delicious treat
I like these little things!  They are really a good combination of the little seed and a little bit of chocolate.  The chocolate on them is amazing and the seeds just “balances” so well with it.  It sounds very simple – a pomegranate seed and some dark chocolate.  But somehow the blend of those two tastes winds up being COMPLEX.  They are a very unique treat.

I have found them to be a really good dessert.  The last few nights when I have finished dinner I just popped open this little plastic carton and ate a few of them!  The package says a serving size is ¼ cup but to me that is WAY too many for one sitting.  Maybe I just have super willpower J, but a 10 – 12 of these little treats really satisfies me.  I can’t imagine eating a whole box in one sitting – they are just too rich to do that.

Check out the artwork!!!  This DC location has some signs with PRESIDENTS on them.  Super cool.  The ugly price tag STICKERS covering up the real TJ's sign though, not cool...  More about those below.
I think these pomegranate seeds would be really nice in Greek yogurt, too.  And that, of course, would allow you to eat them for breakfast…  When you have them for dessert may I recommend pairing with a nice red wine.  David doesn’t like pomegranate as much as I do so I have not subjected him to this product.  I am keeping them all for myself.

Artwork inside this Trader Joe's - no matter what age you are, you have to admit that FOGGY BOTTOM is a funny name for a part of town.  :)  It is also a metro stop here in DC.
A note about where I bought this snack:  this store, at on 25 St NW in Washington, DC is sadly on the bottom of my list of favorite Trader Joe’s.  We have been to 20 different locations on this adventure and this one just didn’t make the cut. This is a store close to my home yet this was the first time we visited it.  We went on a busy Saturday afternoon. The store was just, oh, how do I say it and not sound cranky, it was not FRIENDLY.  It didn’t seem VIBRANT.  There were no employees to smile at you or ask if you needed help.  When we DID need help we searched someone out, and he was good at finding us what we needed.  But it just didn’t seem like the regular “Trader Joe’s” experience.  The line was super long, which is to be expected on a Saturday afternoon.  They had almost every single register open and the line moved along very efficiently, but none of the employees seemed happy to be there like they usually do at other stores.  I did think it was cool to listen to two employees talk while they stocked some produce – they were talking in a way you would only hear in DC, about the effectiveness of internships they were doing outside of work – it was all very wonky and cool. 

Before we went in...  See - everything was all happy OUTSIDE...
And the SIGNAGE in the store is the worst I have seen in all of the stores we have visited.  There is some local DC regulation I guess that makes the store have to put official stickers on their signs.  At all of the other TJ’s we have been to the signage has been one of the most fun things to explore, but at this store the signs looked much more like a traditional grocery store, a Safeway or Von’s, than a creative TJ’s.  The writing on most signs was not great and those ugly stickers took up lots of space.  I am sure they HAVE to put the stickers, but I wonder if they could make their own signs bigger somehow to showcase the artwork instead of the industrial looking stickers.  They did have some fun DC themes going on in some departments – candy had politician’s faces on the signs and some departments had DC landmarks.  But overall, the signage was sad.  I did see that they are looking to hire a sign maker, so maybe they know they are lacking in that department and are trying to spruce it up. 

They do have a cool "chill out" area outside the store where people can sit and chill
(and eat dark chocolate covered pomegranate seeds and the like...)
On the plus side - I gave a card for my blog to a guy working in Customer Service (after I asked him about the mysterious stickers littering up their signage) and he said he had heard of my blog.  J  That is fun! 

So, though the store is not my favorite, the Dark Chocolate Covered Pomegranate Seeds ARE GREAT and deserve two thumbs up.

Price – $2.99

Rating – 4.5

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