Monday, August 31, 2015

Day 243 - Baronia Elbow Macaroni

Elbow macaroni is a shape of pasta we do not normally buy.  Let’s face it – elbow macaroni is a younger peoples’ macaroni, no?  Sure, it is not DINOSAUR SHAPED macaroni or anything as kiddie as THAT, but it is also not linguine or angel hair pasta. 

It does not look like normal Trader Joe's packaging
Even so, we bought it the other night to give it a whirl.  After all, when you have a project to write a new review every single day for a whole entire year, you are bound to end up with stuff in your shopping cart that might not normally be there.

This was a good choice.  It was a simple, honest, al dente macaroni.  We served it with pesto (made from our garden and frozen, not sure which year this one was from, but we will be making THIS YEAR’S BATCH this weekend!). 

Baronia Elbow Macaroni with homemade pesto
(I snapped this pic before we added other ingredients that made it hard to see the pasta)
This would be a good pasta to use to make mac and cheese (not that we ever make homemade mac and cheese, but now that I am thinking about it I realize we need to try that).  You could also use it in a soup or stew.  And of course, if you have kids, I think this is a good kid pasta.

Overall a fine little elbow macaroni.  It is a product of Italy and not in “normal” Trader Joe’s packaging.  But it is priced right and tastes fine.

Price – .99

Rating - 4

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Day 242 - Uncured Black Forest Bacon

Have you ever ordered bacon at a café or diner and went, “What the WHAT?  How is this bacon so delicious???  What IS IT about this bacon that makes it so amazing?  And why does the bacon I buy in the grocery store and cook at home never taste this good???”

We have.  In fact, we had two experiences recently where we thought just that.  One was in Chicago and we sat outside at a little restaurant and marveled over the amazing taste of the bacon (Chicago 2015 seems obsessed with MEAT, but that is neither here nor there for this review).  I also remember sitting in a chi-chi restaurant once in New York City, the kind where the lights are so dim that you cannot read the menu even though it is DAYTIME and you are there for breakfast…  You know those kinds of places?  We were there for brunch and we had a side of bacon.  I think we paid like $20 for 3 strips of bacon. Ok, it was not THAT expensive, but you get my  drift.  And. We.  Freakin’.  Loved.  That.  Bacon. *

David, afraid that this Trader Joe's purchased bacon would taste like every other grocery store purchased bacon in our checkered past...
So do you know what I mean about grocery store bacon never tasting as amazing as that perfect café bacon?

Well fret no more.  WE FOUND THE ANSWER.  It is totally THIS BACON.  This is it!!!!!  Do not waste money on Oscar Mayer bacon ever again!  BUY THIS STUFF. 

Yes.  Yes.  And more YES.
Seriously!  We had it for breakfast yesterday (thanks for making a great breakfast, David!) and we looked at one another in awe.  I didn’t think it was possible to have THIS GOOD OF BACON at home.  I figured those cafes rubbed crack or some other dangerous thing into theirs to get it to taste as good as it does. 

But nope.  We can now replicate the awesomeness in our own kitchen. 

Amazing breakfast made by David - Uncured Black Forest Bacon served with homemade fried potatoes (with onions and peppers!) and an egg.  Lovely.
This will now be our go to bacon.  In fact, even though we just ate it for breakfast yesterday, today we are planning on having BLTs with it for lunch!  We may die of clogged arteries now that we have discovered this bacon, but damn it, we will die happy.

Price – $5.39
Rating – 5

*I looked on TripAdvisor because I thought I had reviewed that dark, snippy toned restaurant with the amazing bacon in NYC.  I found it!  J  It says we paid around $5 for 2 pieces of bacon.  So not as bad as I estimated in the review above, but still, $2.50 for a piece of bacon is a bit of a rip off, no?  Buy the bacon reviewed above at Trader Joe’s and have your own bacon heaven at home!



Saturday, August 29, 2015

Day 241 - Blue Stilton

Blue Stilton is a lovely cheese.  A strong cheese.  Ok, it is a cheese most people would call a STINKY or SMELLY cheese, but it is darn good!

And this Trader Joe’s version of Blue Stilton was GOOD.  So good, in fact, that after we shared our first one with other artists at the Indy Fringe over wine and I had to leave town for a couple of days, David went BACK to Trader Joe’s and stocked up on ANOTHER one.  Then, after we finished  that one and came back home to Virginia, last night at Trader Joe’s he bought ANOTHER ONE.  So that is 3 purchases of this lovely cheese in just 2 short weeks.  Ahhhh – stinky cheese rules!
  
Trader Joe's Blue Stilton - a right good stinky cheese
This cheese is good to put on a cracker and eat while sitting under the stars and sipping red wine. 

It is also good to eat in a salad while sitting in front of a television watching trash tv like “Naked and Afraid” and drinking San Pellegrino (which got a great review on day 94 of this blog)

I imagine it would also work well crumbled up and spread over a thin pasta.  Or in an omelet.  The sky is the limit.  J

From England - like lots of other good things
As you can see from the signage in the Indianapolis Trader Joe’s, this cheese is from England.  Lots of good things are from England!  Let’s think of a few:  the Beatles, Hobnob Digestive Biscuits, fish ‘n’ chips, my Aunt Shirley, and Amy Winehouse.  Now we can add this Blue Stilton to the list.

Aunt Shirley!!!  The best Aunt in England.
If you do not like smelly cheeses this is not the cheese for you.  But Greg, a hybrid musician from Boston who was in Indy with us, is a foodie and DOES like smelly cheeses and here is what he thought of this particular one when we shared it with him:  “This Stilton was a fine version of the cheese.  It is a little sharp and a little pungent.  It has a good flavor and balance of salinity.  It is a delightful snack at the end of the day.”

It is not cheap, but it is much cheaper than airfare to England to pick up the cheese there.  
David says:  “This cheese is DELIGHTFUL!  It is flavorful and pungent.  It has some structure to it, yet is nice and creamy as well.”

This cheese is a win for stinky cheese lovers.  

Price – $11.99/lb

Rating – 4.5

Friday, August 28, 2015

Day 240 - Marinated Olive Duo with Lemon and Herbs

I have some fun news to share!!!

This project (reviewing one Trader Joe’s product per day every single day of 2015) began (obviously) on January 1, 2015.  Since that date, we have shopped in Trader Joe’s stores in 10 states and one district – in a total of 16 cities.  I have sent each and every one of the stores (except Dublin, Ohio, I have not written them yet but I will soon!!) a letter and a few of the business cards for this blog.  I also sent a letter to corporate.  Only the corporate office had written me back.  Of course, I was thrilled about the letter from corporate (I wrote about it and showed the letter on day 121).

Well guess what?  Another store wrote back!  Our closest Trader Joe’s is in Clarendon, VA and Rebekah from that store wrote me!  Look, she loves the blog!  J
   
WOW!  The Clarendon, VA TJ's wrote me back! 
She wrote on a Trader Joe’s greeting card – how appropriate (reviewed on day 10 http://traderjoes365.blogspot.com/2015/01/day-10-greeting-cards.html  ).  She mentions that her store has some beers not available at Bailey’s (which is our usual go-to store, even though Clarendon is closer…  We were customers at Bailey’s before they built the Clarendon store, plus parking is usually easier at Bailey’s.  But we really like the Clarendon store, too!)  We will go in and introduce ourselves and pick up some of the beer soon.

And guess what else?  REBEKAH INCLUDED A TJ’S GIFT CARD!  Wow!  So cool.  I am not sure how much it is worth because I have not taken it into a store yet.  But I shall. 

So that was very exciting for me.  The card came while I was out of town (at a stressful event) and my partner David opened it for me and read it to me over the phone.  What a treat!  Thanks Rebekah.

ALSO very exciting is this big news:  we finally found GREAT OLIVES at Trader Joe’s!  I was beginning to think it could not be done.  Oh but it can (and was) done.  With much success!

New product - Marinated Olive Duo...  Ahhh, music to my ears.
Here are the olives we tried from TJ’s before finding these gems:
Picholine Olives (day 32) 
Jumbo Pitted Greek Kalamata Olives (day 192)
Lucques Olives (day 76) 

The only olives we tried before and were happy with (not thrilled with, but happy enough) were the Jumbo Pitted Greek Kalamatas. 

But THESE NEW OLIVES beat those hands down.  These are on par with the olives we buy at the “olive bar” at another store!  These olives are the bomb!!!

Having been bitten before, I was nervous to invest in more Trader Joe’s olives.  But the $1.79 we spent on these puppies was money WELL SPENT, trust me.  Here is what we thought of them:

Marinated Olive Duo with Lemon and Herbs- Kalamata and Chalkidika (we hadn’t heard of this one) Olives from Greece

Me:  The packaging is a fail for me.  You have to cut open the vacuum sealed plastic bag and have a Tupperware-like container ready to decant the olives into.  I wish they came in some sort of re-sealable packaging.  And the current packaging is not even recyclable – boo. 

David decanting from the odd packing into fake Tupperware
But the taste of the olives is a-frickin’-mazing.  The green ones are for sure the best ones I have ever had from Trader Joe’s.  The purple/black ones are also very, very good.  They have a lemony and herb flavor.  Delicious!  They have pits, so be careful of your teeth when you bite into them, but I personally prefer olives with pits. 

David tries out a green one
The price, $1.79, is also super reasonable.  These olives are a WIN!  I just wish the packaging was better.  If it was, they would get a perfect 5 star rating from me.

David:  the green olives are meaty and delightful. The black ones are soft but flavorful.  In both cases they are so tasty that you want to keep sucking on the pit (Susan adds – that’s what she said…). 

This is the package you are looking for - go get some!
I would not ding them for the packaging as it is perhaps energy efficient and good for mother earth.  Perhaps the point is that you need to not put these in a Tupperware container, but instead put them in a BOWL and eat them all that night with some wine.  (Susan adds here – that would be like the time David ate a whole bag of Cheetos and vomited…  I think eating the whole package of these olives would be tooooo much in one night.)  David counters that he meant having FRIENDS over to share the olives and wine.   These are the perfect olives to set out in a bowl and eat before dinner while sipping wine. 

Price – $1.79

Rating – 4.75

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Day 239 - Zucchini Fries

I cooked these in the oven as the package suggested.  It took 5 – 6 minutes longer than the package suggested.  They were MUSHY and somehow they tasted FISHY to me.  Not “fishy” like “something is strange here, this is FISHY…” but “fishy” like “do these have a slight hint of COD???”.  And fishy in this instance is not a plus. 
 Deceptive packaging - the ones we had did not seem to have this much breading on them.
Also, there is not enough breading to go around.  Overall these zucchini fries are quite disappointing.

Here are ours - I wish the photo could capture the mush factor
David thought they tasted “very zucchini-y”.  He felt the breading was the appropriate amount and slightly crunchy.  He thought the only disappointing part was that they were rather mushy.  He says he would rather fry his own zucchini, but if you are in a hurry and want to eat some mushy zucchini, you could try these (note – he didn’t know it had taken over 30 minutes to cook these, I wouldn’t call that “in a hurry”). 

Ahhhh - I am re-reading the caption  on the price tag and it says "lightly battered"...  Yes, that is the case.  Too lightly for me.  If you are gonna eat a FRY, let's make it a FRY.  :)
I recommend buying and cooking FRESH zucchini instead of these.  It will taste lots better. 

In the end, I must say, these Zucchini Fries are rather poopy.

Price – $2.69

Rating – 2.25

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Day 238 - Steamed Mussels in White Wine Sauce

I am guessing this was the first time in Indy Fringe history that MUSSELS were served at the BEER TENT… 

We had picked up a box of mussels at the Indy Trader Joe’s on the advice of a really cool employee.  When he heard about the blog he wanted to make sure we got some new products to try, so he steered us to these brand new, reasonably priced MUSSELS.  We bought a box.  Then proceeded to forget we had them in the freezer of the apartment we were staying in for our time in Indy.  Oops!  But the final night of the festival I remembered, so OUT THEY CAME!

Here is the box - find it in the frozen food section
 The box explains that you can leave them in the bag and cook them in the microwave or in hot water.  Since we were trying to get them to the party before everyone left (we didn’t think of them until around 11:00 PM) we chose the faster microwave method.  Lucky for us our apartment was only a couple of blocks from the beer tent, so we poured the mussels and sauce into a bowl, covered THAT bowl with another bowl, and rushed to share them with friends.

We are not huge mussels eaters.  The only time I can remember having them is in Paris, and we have never made them at home, only ordered them while out to eat.  So I was a bit nervous but excited to try them.

Something about MUSSELS made me want to make a FISH FACE
They were pretty good!  They were super easy to cook.  The sauce was good, I really wished we had a baguette to soak it up and eat it.  The garlic was nice.  The mussels themselves were a bit chewy but not too bad.

Laura, the mother of a performer who had come to town to see her son’s shows, tried the mussels.  She said they were very flavorful, in fact, delightful!

Laura likes mussels!
Taylor, a magician, liked the mussels.  As a magician, she made several disappear (into her belly!).  She said the mussels were “not bad”.  She is from the Northeast and claims these were “just a little chewy, but some people like them that way”.

Taylor did some magic on the mussels
David also ate some and he started a discussion at the table of what the HERB was in the sauce…  Tarragon?  Something else?  In the end we learned it was THYME. 

Eating mussels and drinking beer at the end of a long festival - life is good
They are really pretty cheap, considering how much you would pay for this many mussels in a restaurant.

Only $3.99!
Price – $3.99

Rating – 3.75

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Day 237 - Cold Pressed Watermelon Juice

So, we visited ANOTHER TRADER JOE’S in yet another state!  This time we were on a road trip – driving from Indianapolis back home to Arlington, VA.  I took a nap while David drove and when I woke up I said, “Wait, are we near a Trader Joe’s???”.  Lucky for me we were!

Tada!  The 16th Trader Joe's int he 10th state we have visited since January 1, 2015 - DUBLIN, Ohio!
Dublin, Ohio has a very nice TJ’s.  We talked to a super sweet and cool employee (whose name I have forgotten…) and he told us there are only 5 or 6 Trader Joe’s locations in all of Ohio.  And guess what?  There is no special OHIO REUSABLE SHOPPING BAG!  Trader Joe’s corporate, are you reading this?  We need an Ohio bag, stat!  You could put the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on it!  Or heck, you could put Cornhenge on it, which we stopped at right before shopping at TJ’s!  There are loads of Ohio things you could choose, just pick one and make a bag for those poor people.  I feel sorry that they do not have one.

The miracle of CORNHENGE, very near the Dublin, OH Trader Joe's!
Anyway, I picked up a Cold Pressed Watermelon Juice.  You must understand, the concept of this product sounds gross to me…  I have seen it in stores before and skipped it because I wasn’t sure I could give it a fair review.  To me, DRINKING watermelon sounds yucky.  But for some reason, on this sunny Ohio day I decided to give it a shot.

Isn't it a pretty color??
I am glad I tried it.  Granted, it doesn’t go into my “favorite juice” category, but it was not nearrrrrly as horrible as I had feared.  In fact, it was not HORRIBLE at all.  Here is what David and I thought of it:

David – It is good.  It’s light, refreshing.  It needs to be drunk cold but the little bit of lime juice is a good balancer.  (Editor’s note – it tasted like lime to David but is actually lemon juice.)  I guess I would give it a 4. 

As you can see from this photo, David didn't expect to like it either...
Susan – I expected to hate it.  Even when I opened the bottle and smelled it, it smelled disgusting…  To me, watermelon is something to be eaten, not DRANK.  The first drink was surprisingly refreshing!  We drank it right after leaving the store – it was very cold.  It’s light, not at all thick, gloppy or chunky (which is what I feared).  It is a very pretty color, but it looks gross on the shelf because all of  the watermelon pink part separates and goes to the bottom of the bottle. That is very visually off-putting to me.  You need to shake it really good before drinking.  I would give it a 3.5.  It is everything it is advertised to be – cold pressed watermelon juice.  It is just not the best taste for a juice for ME it is not disgusting like I feared it would be.

A little taste of summer in the Ohio sunshine
It is cool – the side of the bottle explains exactly what is in it.  That one little 15.2 oz bottle contained 2 lbs of watermelon and ¼ lemon.  I think that explains why the cold pressed drinks at TJ’s are so expensive!  2 lbs of watermelon squished into one bottle!  Yowsa!!

See how it looks BEFORE YOU SHAKE IT?  Bleck - the watery part on top doesn't look great
If you want to see Trader Joe’s info on this product, read here:  http://www.traderjoes.com/digin/post/cold-pressed-watermelon-juice

Overall, though this is a good product, I still would rather EAT a watermelon than DRINK one.  J

Price – $3.69

Rating – 3.75 (average of 2 ratings)

Monday, August 24, 2015

Day 236 - New Day South Cider

This is a pretty good cider.  We got it at the Indianapolis Trader Joe’s, where the employees are kind and friendly.  We wanted some local products so this one jumped out at us. (Of course it did not literally jump out…  When I say “jumped out” I mean I NOTICED it as being made in Indianapolis…)

See - the sign says FROM INDIANAPOLIS, IN - so it is LOCAL!
We drank this cider served very cold in a glass (not from the bottle).  Perhaps we were trying to be fancy, I do not know.  J

It is dry (ish) and has an apple-y flavor, but not as apple-y as some other ciders, which in my opinion is a good thing.

Sorry, this photo is a bit blurry.  And it was taken BEFORE I had anything to drink!
This cider would be a good drink for an evening where you want something refreshing to drink but are not quite in the mood for beer.  It comes in a good sized bottle- 16.9 ozs (we shared one).  It would be nice served with a sharp cheddar on a fresh baguette.

Me pretending to chug a cider while still in the store.  Note the cap is still on...
If you are in an area where they sell this (I am guessing only Indiana), it is worth a try.

Price - $5.49

Rating – 3.75

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Day 235 - Uncured Bacon Ganache Bar

Oh boy, this is a fun review!!!  This is the first review that comes with a VIDEO and an original SONG about the product (ok, it is about one ingredient in the product, but it is an awesome song!)!

Let me back up.

We saw this Uncured Bacon Ganache Bar at our local Trader Joe’s (Clarendon, VA).  It sounded good.  A TJ’s employee told us it was good.  And as we were deciding if we should invest in it or not, another person grabbed one.  So all signs seemed to be pointing to GET IT!  So we did.

They had a display of these up by the check out line.  Can you say, "Impulse purchase??" anyone?
But we did not eat it right away.  We had lots of other chocolate stuff to eat, it was a big bar, and I think deep down we wondered if it might taste yucky…

So I brought it to Indy with us!  I had to be oh so careful with it while traveling – you don’t want something as fancy as this bar to melt so it had to have special treatment!

Ganache.  Bacon.  What could go wrong?
But the bar traveled just fine and last night after midnight, near the end of a 2 week long theatre festival, I pulled that sucker out at the beer tent.  I offered it to several performers and one awesome photographer and asked them to help me review it.  Here is what happened:

Jeff the Clown:  The texture and the after taste are the best parts…  Overall, this is a NOVELTY chocolate bar.

Jeff, at the beer tent, looking a bit blurry.  
Les the Solo Storyteller, also a vegetarian who I did not think would try this product because, well, BACON:  Woah!  You can TASTE the bacon.  There were BURSTS of bacon. This was not worth giving up my vegetarianism.  I am gonna go RIGHT BACK to being a vegetarian now.  (I offered him another square of the chocolate).  Well sure, I will have another square.  THEN I will go right back to being a vegetarian.  This is a NOVELTY chocolate bar.

Les gave up his vegetarian ways for a short time to help test this chocolate bar - what a trooper.
Daniel the Photographer – There is a DISAPPOINTING lack of bacon in this chocolate bar.  This NEEDS MORE bacon.  And what the *&$% is “ganache”??  Is it “panache” with a “g”??  It is “panache” gone bad??  The dark chocolate itself is a quality chocolate.

I ran into Daniel today (after he tested this chocolate bar last night) and he is STILL bitter about the lack of bacon.
David, my partner and a Solo Performer – WOAH, that is TERRIBLE.  I mean, the chocolate is great.  The ganoche is lovely.  But what the hellll is going on with the BACON??  The actual chocolate part is very good though. 

It sounded so good when we were at Trader Joe's...
Let’s take a quick break from REVIEWS here to listen to an original song performed by Jeff the Clown and his co-conspirator Anna, also a clown.  Sadly, Anna could not taste the chocolate bar because she cannot eat dairy.  L  But she still agreed to sing this awesome song for us.  Watch it here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFxGs22NZlU




Neil,  a Hybrid Musician and Actor – Ummm….  Huh…  There was a good bit of bacon at first, but now I am not so sure…  It could use MORE bacon.  Little bacon depth charges (this insightful line was applauded by many at the table).  There is not enough BACON and this sort of thing really needs to be a BACON EXPERIENCE.

Neil seriously considering the taste of this product...
Laura, a Clown – I would say that the caramel doesn’t know whether or not it is meant to be SALTY.  I don’t think they conched the chocolate right…  (Again, applause from the fellow performers for her fancy foodie words.)  The texture is a little brittle.  But I love chocolate.  I didn’t like the COLOR of the inside.  (Editor’s note – it was very dark outside, I am not sure anyone could accurately see the color of the inside J ).  This is a sad excuse for chocolate covered bacon.

Greg, a Hybrid Musician – I was AWARE of the bacon.  There was a brief moment of smokiness but it didn’t go anywhere.  It is kind of like “meh” dark chocolate.  I mean, it is fine, but it doesn’t GO anywhere…   Overall it is not there.  It’s not REPULSIVE.  I mean, it’s a fine thing to eat.  But…

Greg and Laura use foodie terms to describe their experience with this chocolate bar
And finally me, the director of a show, a sign language interpreter and the writer behind this blog – NOT ENOUGH BACON.  The chocolate is too brittle.  It is very messy to break into pieces to share and eat.  It’s all a bit bitter, too.  If the label says BACON, I want me some BACON.  This chocolate bar is just a tease. It goes in the same category as the Fireworks Chocolate Bar I reviewed on day 210 of this blog – fun for a novelty or to give people a tiny chunk, but not a bar I would ever want to just sit down and eat. 

Everyone thought this bar deserved around a 3 rating.  Well, Greg thought perhaps a 2.75, and I was tempted to go that low, too.  But I think the general consensus was 3, so that is what I will give it. 

Price – $1.99

Rating - 3

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Day 234 - Triple Cream Brie with Mushrooms

This cheese is DECADENT!   It is the sort of cheese you would expect to find in a little case in some super fancy schmancy wine shop – only it is AT TRADER JOE’S!  And instead of being a bazillion dollars, it is $9.99 a pound.  That means our chunk which was plenty big (almost half a pound) came in for under $5. 

$9.99 per pound
Brie with MUSHROOMS?  I'm in.











Remember how I recently explained that we are in the middle of the Indianapolis Fringe Festival, and that traditionally Fringe artists eat crap the entire time of the Fringe?  Well we are mixing that up a bit this Fringe, and so we showed up at the beer tent with this cheese, a Stilton (to be reviewed soon), some crackers (also deserving of a review forthcoming), and a bottle of wine.  Trust me, this cheese was a change of pace from your “normal Fringe Festival food”. 

We shared with a few artists and later asked them to tell us what they thought of it.  Two performers from the Fourth Wall, a hybrid music group, replied.  Hilary said, “I’m terrible at describing food!  Greg will be better”.  Gee, thanks Hilary!  

Greg is playing accordian.  Oh - and that is Hilary playing upside-down flute...  You can learn more about their group at 
https://www.facebook.com/TheFourthWallEnsemble?fref=ts

But she was right, Greg was good.  Here is a foodie and here is what he had to say about this cheese, “The mushroom Brie had a nice mushroom flavor.  Good earthiness without being over powering like some truffle cheeses (see – I told you he was a foodie!  He has other truffle cheese in his head  to compare this to!).  The cheese itself was somewhat lacking in character, but its’ luxurious creaminess was an excellent backdrop for the savory mushrooms.”

Damn.  Drop the mic.  He needs to be a food critic, no?

This is a damn fine cheese
I would disagree with him slightly in that I do not think the cheese lacked in character, but hey, everyone has their own opinion.

I left this out on the counter for the evening to warm up.  It was lovely and spreadable.  It would be ah-frickin’-mazing on a fresh baguette.  The mushrooms are sooooo good in this! 

I am glad we discovered this one at the Trader Joe’s in Indianapolis.  We will certainly get it again – both for us to chow down on and to serve to guests. 

This cheese is a winner.

Price - $9.99 per pound

Rating – 4.75

Friday, August 21, 2015

Day 233 - Coconut BonBons

I am an ACTIVE person.  Not, like, WORK OUT, active, cuz I don’t ever work out.  But active in a DO STUFF sort of way.  I like to be UP, moving around, active!  Why, just the other day I went to see the World’s Largest Ball of Paint in Alexandria, Indiana!  See – THAT is active, isn’t??

Seriously - it is in the Guiness Book of World Records!  The WORLD'S LARGEST BALL OF PAINT!

Here we are adding layer number 24,648 to the ball (you can learn more about it here:  
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/world-s-largest-ball-of-paint

So I have never understood the concept of “lie on the sofa and eat bonbons all day”.  The only time I would ever lie on a sofa all day is if I was SICK, and if I am sick I sure as heck don’t want to be eating BONBONS…

But if there were EVER a bonbon that might persuade me to lie on a sofa all day – this Trader Joe’s Moist Chewy Coconut BonBon is IT!  Oh man, these suckers are amazing!  They are sort of like Mounds candy bars (which I hesitate to say because I do not even like Mounds…) but they are 100 gazillion times better!  They are rich.  They are very, very moist.  The chocolate, oh man, the chocolate is amazing!!!  And they have a perfect chocolate to coconut ratio. 

GET.  THESE.  COCONUT.  BONBONS
I asked David what he thought of these bonbons and he was just as enamored as me.   He said, “They are fabulous.   Actually, luscious is a better word.  They have enough chocolate to cushion the sweetness of the coconut.  The size is perfect to eat in a few bits (editor’s note – I think most normal people (i.e. people other than David) would pop the whole bonbon in their mouths).  These are a lovely late night treat, particularly if you had them with coffee or tea.”

David eating a bonbon - see, boys like them, too!
So yes, we loved these.  They deserve more fan fare on the shelf at Trader Joe’s.  I bet if they ever cut these up and sample them they sell out for the day.  Seriously, if you like chocolate and coconut, this is a home run.


$3.99 - worth every penny

Bonbons on a plate
















Note – if you ever consider getting the super poopy Chocolate Coconut Macaroons at Trader Joe’s, don’t.  Read my review on day 97 of this blog before spending your money.  Then use that money to buy these bon bons instead!

Price – $3.99

Rating - 5