Billionaire Shortbread Truffles

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE AND HAPPY HANUKKAH from us in sunny, warm Florida to YOU, wherever you may be!!

Our Christmas tree!  (Honestly, it is a fire hazard...  Was pretty dead when we got it.  But isn't it pretty?
Handmade shell garland and topped with a STAR FISH!  Christmas Beach Style!

We just opened a sweet treat – Trader Joe’s Billionaire Shortbread Truffles.  So while the Trader Joe’s Brie en Croute is baking in the oven (do you sense a theme here?) I thought I would go ahead and put up the review of the sweets! 

Hmmm, wonder how these will taste???

The packaging says, “A truffled twist on a much loved treat.  Individually wrapped Billionaire Shortbread Truffles.  Buttery shortbread crumbles, gilded with sticky toffee, covered in a rich dark chocolate shell.”  That sounds like a lot to live up to, no??  It is a bit confusing, saying it is a “twist on a much loved treat”…  I do not know of a much loved billionaire treat, do you?  (I know of a certain billionaire I would rather not speak of, but that is beside the point…)  I checked the Trader Joe's article and apparently they are referring to "millionaire shortbread", which is something I do not know about (see more here ).  

Anyway, let’s see what David thought of this seasonal holiday treat:

“First off, the chocolate on the outside is very fragrant and smells delicious and quite rich.  I love that – like a really dark chocolate truffle.  Then, when you bite into it, it is delightfully not gooey, so it doesn’t run out the sides.  That is a plus for me.  It is tasty.  It’s not overly sweet but it is sweet enough.  The center is yielding and the truffle is tasty.  The shortbread cookie kind of gets overwhelmed by all of the other delicious flavors, but maybe it doesn’t mind that as shortbread is kind of the “middle of the range” in cookies.  I just ate one in about 4 bites.  It was a delicious experience from beginning to end.  I am sure you could get through 4 or 5 of these in a sitting.  I would give this a 4.75.”

Take the WRAPPER off first, David...  

Editor’s note:  I think you can tell how much David enjoyed these by his repetition of the word TASTY in his review.  J  Also, David mentioned he took 4 bites to eat 1 of these.  Just to clarify, David is likely one of the few human beings on the planet that would take 4 bites to eat 1 of these truffles.  Some would chomp them down in 1 bite, others 2, a few 3.  But 4 bites?  Oh 4 bites is David territory. 

My take on this treat:  This is the first time we have ever had these.  I am not sure if TJ’s carries them every year and we have just missed them before or if they are something new.  The packaging is what caught my eye in the store – it is very clever.  It looks like a CHRISTMAS CRACKER, which we like.  If you have not done a Christmas cracker before – they are a British tradition (I think).  They are a tube-like shape with twisted ends.  You hold one end of your cracker, your neighbor holds the other end.  You both tug and POP – your cracker opens with a small crack!  Inside you find a flimsy paper hat and a really cheap tacky toy (like, not even as cool as Cracker Jack toys…).  But even though the treats on the inside are typically not “amazing”, the Christmas cracker experience is very fun!  So, the packaging for these Billionaire Shortbread Truffles looks like a Christmas cracker!!!  And the printing on it is a lovely font – the reds and maroons used are really nice.  The DESIGN of the package gets an A+!!!  When you go to open it, you see that it is rather origami-like!  You twist and pull an end to open.  It’s super cool.  However, once you open it, you see that the truffles are sealed into 2 little plastic bags.  That part was odd to me – it felt like over-packaging. 

Made in IRELAND!  

But enough about the package – let’s talk about the truffles!!  Ooohh-la-la!!  These are delicious!  I really like them.  The chocolate is realllllly good dark chocolate – I love it!  My first bite spooked me a tiny bit – the texture felt a little gritty…  I think it was some shortbread, because after that first bite, the gritty factor was not a problem at all.  I think these are a big hit!! 

These would be a really nice gift – put them in someone’s stocking!  I am sorry that I did not review them in time for your gift giving 2016, but if Trader Joe’s has them again next year get some to give (and of course some to EAT).  And if your TJ’s still has some of these left when they re-open on December 26^th, grab some!  The “best by” date isn’t until September 2017, so you have plenty of time to enjoy them if you can still snag a box.

Happy holidays.  May this season find you eating amazing food, talking and laughing with the ones you love, and doing what you can to make the world a better place. 

Panoramic view of my beach walk - see my shadow in the center?  :) 

Price:  $4.49

Rating:  5.0     THIS IS UNPRECEDENTED!!!  We have been eating more of these delicious treats, and we realized that we scored them wrong.  I AM UPPING THE SCORE (it was a 4.75) to a 5.  They deserve it!  

Real Mistletoe - 2016 crop

The things we don't do for you readers...  :)

We purchased another Trader Joe's Real Mistletoe this year.  I mean, we HAD to test it and make sure that it held the same romantic powers as the two previous years' crops, right?  It is all for science, folks!

2016 Real Mistletoe crop - a winner!!

I am happy to report that Trader Joe's Real Mistletoe, 2016 crop is very effective.  It is full of holiday cheer and, most importantly, KISS power.

And it is still very cheap.

Friends Tracy and Vince testing the 2015 crop - 2 thumbs up!

You need it.  Again.  It is something you must renew annually.  (Full disclosure - we also have a silver mistletoe that stays up year round.  It never "goes off".  Cuz you never know when the need for a kiss might hit sometime outside of the holiday season, and you need to be prepared.  I guess you could call us preppers.)

We wholeheartedly recommend you rush out and grab one of these mistletoes at TJ's.  They are an excellent investment.  Here is the complete 2015 review:  Real Mistletoe

Simple package, simple product, great results

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

It worked in 2014, and it still works to this day (well, I mean this year's crop still works)

Price:  I think it is still $1.99 this year, but however much it is you should invest in one
Rating:  STILL A GLORIOUS 5 

Giant Chalkidiki Olives

I saw this jar of Chalkidiki Olives arrive at Trader Joe’s displayed near the holiday items.  

These olives are the pits.  :)  Not really.  Actually, these olives HAVE pits...

The sight of them reminded me of David’s great find last year – the Giant Greek Olives (review here ) which he adored so much that he stocked up on huge ass jars of them as if he were an end of the world prepper.  He still has one jar left!  The jar of Giant Chalkidikis (do you think if I type that word enough times I might actually learn how to spell it?) that I picked up this year is 17.6 oz (as opposed to David’s favorites last year which are 21.16 oz).  The olives DO have pits (which is how we like them, but I feel the need to warn you of this fact cuz I don’t want you to eagerly bite into one and bust your tooth J ). 

David hoarding olives - December 2015

When I saw these Giant Chalkidikis in the store, I thought they they might be the same olives as David’s beloveds and that just the packaging might have changed, but when I got them home and compared them I see that they are a different color.  The size of the olives and pits are about the same, so perhaps they are the same variety of olive, just processed differently?  Being only an olive FAN and not an olive EXPERT I cannot know for sure. 

A tale of two olives

To me, both varieties have the same “meaty” quality, but the Giant Chalkidikis seem to have a bit more FLAVOR.  I also prefer the color of these new ones, as the Giant Greek Olives are always a bit of a scary green hue to me…  Overall, I like these Giant Chalkidikis just as much as I like the Giant Greeks.  They are certainly priced right – the jar is only $2.29, which is really cheap compared to the olives that we often buy at the “olive bars” at other grocery stores.

David:  “These are very good.  I think they are almost as good as the GIANT COLOSSAL GREEK OLIVES.  I mean, I still say those big round jar ones are the “king”, but these guys are great.  They are an excellent green olive.  They are colossal…  I think the flesh comes away from the pit a little bit more easily than the kind of colossal green olives you get at other grocery stores.  They are fleshy.  They are well behaved.  And they are tasty!  What’s not to like??!”

New year, new olives.  Same discerning palate.

 David and I had a big debate over what to SCORE these olives.  For me, I decided I would give them a tying score to last year’s Giant Greek Olives.  David was unsure if he should also make his numbers a tie, or if these olives should get a teeny tiny bit lower number…  Rating things is hard work, folks!!!  It is an awesome responsibility!!  After trying several more olives (which I do believe was a ploy to be able to gorge on olives…) David decide that he would give these Giant Chalkidikis the same score he gave the Giant Greek Olives.

In the end, this olive is a big winner.

Overall, we recommend you get some.  And eat ‘em.

Price:  $2.29

Rating:  5

Chocolate Chai and Almond Bar

I snagged this product at the Annapolis, Maryland store.  I think it was made in Maryland – a kind Trader Joe’s employee was helping me hunt around the store to find some local products to try and, though the packaging doesn’t SAY this is made in the area, he thought he had been told it was.  So in my cart it went! 

The ingredients list a spice blend of cinnamon, ginger, lemon peel, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom.  My take on it:  it is TOO BIG for what it is.  If it was 1/3 of the size it would be a better product.  It is TOO THICK – it is not a chocolate bar you could just sit down and munch on.  And trust me, we munch on some chocolate bars (big non-American ones – Lindt and the like), but this Chocolate Chai Almond Bar one just didn’t do it for me.  This puppy is bigger than a Ritter Sport bar!  It is more like a hunk of BAKING CHOCOLATE (David correctly my language here and said it is not a HUNK, but rather a SLAB). 

See, it LOOKS good, doesn't it??

The packaging says it is milk and dark chocolate – but sadly the dark chocolate functions more as a decoration than a taste.  The best part in my opinion are the almonds, which are big hunks (slabs?) of almonds – like half almonds, as opposed to other chocolates that put in slivers of nuts.  Overall – the bar is just TOO THICK.  The chai taste is also too strong, as is the cinnamon.  Everything is competing for my taste buds and nothing ends up winning with this product.  The outer packaging is cool – it is a funky looking recycled cardboard looking cover, but inside of that is just a simple plastic bag (with the slab o’ chocolate).  I think this is Trader Joe’s attempt at making a good, artisanal, fancy chocolate.  But sadly, the attempt does not succeed.  I would give this product a 2.5.

It's new, but it is not tasty

David:  “When I first bit into this it tasted a bit like a gingerbread boy cookie.  I agree with Susan’s review above  – all of the specifics she mentioned are precisely correct.  I would say that the chocolate tastes like really good quality chocolate, but the CONCEPT itself…  The chai-ness…  And it is a bit GRITTY in the chai-ness, which is not good.  The almonds are great, and like I said the chocolate itself seems to be good.  But I am not a fan.  I will give this a 2.0.”  (Editor’s note: this is a shockingly low score from David for a chocolate bar.  He loves most any chocolate, but apparently not this chocolate…)

Never have I seen David less excited about chocolate.  Never.

When you see this on the shelf, you think it is going to be something special.  It is new!  It looks like it should special!  You think, “Oh, this would be a nice stocking stuffer!” or, “This would be a sweet gift for Larry in Accounting!”.  But don’t.  Don’t gift it.  Or be like David, who says, “YES!  Give it to someone!  That way YOU don’t have to eat it!”.  It looks like something special, but it is not.  It is not worth the calories, let alone the price.  The serving size listed is a third of a bar, but you would have to be a big ass person to get through a 1/3 chunk of that slab!  Plus, you would have to not have a lot of taste buds…

Give presents, for goodness sake GIVE PRESENTS!  Just don't give
THIS CHOCOLATE CHAI AND ALMOND BAR as a present

We do not take many things back to TJ’s, really we don’t.  But we took THIS one back.  I think more than getting your 3 bucks back, it is worth returning it to “vote” and let Trader Joe’s know that this one is not a winner.  I am glad the guy showed it to me, and I guess I am glad I tasted it, if only to let you know not to buy it for anyone on your holiday list.  (And if you have already bought it and wrapped it, well, I hope you don’t really like whoever you are giving it to…)

Price:  $2.99

Rating:  2.25

Fleur De Sel Caramel Sauce - REDISCOVERED!

Once in a while, I rediscover stuff.

Because of my short attention span, sometimes I rediscover stuff that we STILL HAVE in the fridge! I guess that is a bonus of short attention spans, eh?  You can be surprised and delighted without even having to go out and shop!  :)

Yesterday I found a jar of Trader Joe's Fleur De Sel Caramel Sauce buried in the condiment section of our fridge.  David and I have both been sick and not eating much for the last 10 days or so, but when I saw this jar I had a glimmer of a hunger pain and went for it.

A little jar packed full of awesome taste

Boy am I glad I found it!  I heated it up quickly in the microwave and served it over fresh blueberries. It was a great reminder of what an amazing product this sauce is!  Today I had some again, this time I dipped apple slices in it - ahhhh....

Breakfast fit for a queen.  A still recuperating queen, but a queen none-the-less.
See the adorable Picasso espresso cup?  Those are some of my favorites to drink out of.  

YOU NEED SOME OF THIS CARAMEL SAUCE.  It got a well deserved 5 star rating when it was reviewed (read that here:  Fleur De Sel Caramel Sauce review ) .

Pick yourself up a jar next time you are grocery shopping at TJ's.  You deserve it!

Price:  $3.49
Rating:  still a solid 5 stars

Charles Shaw Nouveau 2016

We went to Trader Joe’s a couple of days after “Beaujolais Night” last month (I FORGOT TO PUT IT ON MY CALENDAR THIS YEAR SO WE MISSED IT!).  We went in specifically looking for our favorite Beaujolais Nouveau – Georges Dubouef, but couldn’t find it.  I panicked a tiny bit, “Could we seriously have MISSED IT by just being a couple of days late?  Who hogged cases of it???”  I wondered.  Finally, I gave up and asked, but the employee said she hadn’t seen it and thought they hadn’t gotten any yet.  WHEW!  (Review of 2014 Georges Dubouef Beaujolais Nouveau here , review of 2015 Georges Dubouef Beaujolais Nouveau here )

However, the employee said, they DID have the Trader Joe’s Charles Shaw Beaujolais Nouveau, perhaps we would like to try THAT one?

Our TJ's keeps all the Charles Shaw popular wines on an end cap - easy to grab

Well, at $3.29, who is going to say no to that question?  I mean, sure, lots of people are going to say no – people who assume that any wine under $10 is crap.  And alright, so this one is under $5…  But you know what I mean!  WE were not going to say no, so we grabbed a bottle.  Or two.

And then I found the wine we came in looking for on an end cap, so we threw a bottle of Georges Dubouef in the cart, too!  And off we went.

Only, there were a couple of issues.  The biggest one was:  we were not feeling well.  We both had colds.  David has had his since before Halloween (and this was on November 20^th, folks!).  Plus, we were leaving town to go to Omaha for Thanksgiving…  So I didn’t really want to open a NICE bottle of wine (the Georges Dubouef), drink it with impaired taste buds due to colds, then leave a partially filled bottle when we were gone…

So we did the wise thing – we opened a bottle of the $2 Chuck (which is actually $3.29) instead!

Which lead to another problem:  although the woman at TJ’s had called it Beaujolais Nouveau, if you read the label carefully you will notice that the “Beaujolais” is missing and it is simply a “Nouveau”.  But hey, it is red and it was cheap and we had colds, that was FINE WITH US!  Upon furthering questioning (by calling the NYC Trader Joe’s Wine Store) we learned that it is “Nouveau” meaning it is a young wine and that one is a blend of reds. 

Sadly, we forgot to review it that night, so we opened another bottle this week and did our taste test.  By this time, I had developed bronchitis and a double ear infection.  Yeah, not feelin’ so great…  But I hadn’t started my serious meds yet (they were on the schedule for bedtime) so we popped a cork!

We served this Trader Joe’s Nouveau with a leftover salad that had been prepared and not eaten the night before (it had spent the night in the fridge covered in Saran Wrap), a pasta with TJ’s Bolognaise sauce, and a side of Gatorade (classy, no??  But remember – we were SICK).

Here is what we thought:

  

David: “It seems a bit unfair to review this…  I have a cold, too.  The wine seems quite adequate to the task of not getting in the way of the food, but providing a nice red wine thing to taste.  I think this is a good wine.  I would give it a 4.”

Looking and feeling my best!  I ate dinner while wearing a winter coat and covered in 2 blankets.
But I drank some wine, damn it!

Susan:  I mixed my wine with a bit of cough syrup (not literally), making me hopped up on both alcohol and meds…  Like David said, this wine is good.  It is fruity, bright, and fresh.  If we felt better I think we would like it even more.  But as it stands, I will also give this a 4.

Trader Joe’s only carries this variety during the holiday season, so if you want to try some now is the time to grab it.  We will get a couple more bottles to enjoy once we are healthy again. 

Price:  $3.29

Rating:  4