Day 277 - Apple Grape Juice

This juice was first sampled under perfect conditions.  Picture this:

It was a Friday.  We both had the DAY OFF.  We slept in.  The sun was shining.  The kitchen door was open – letting a breeze in.  We lazed around and finally sat down for breakfast at 12:25 PM, a time when “adults” would be eating LUNCH, not breakfast.  We sat down to a delicious spread, which included this Trader Joe’s Apple Grape Juice.  Sounds idyllic… 

David with this juice in the store.  Before we tasted it.

 And yet…

To me – drinking this was like drinking industrial strength airport bathroom cleaning liquid in a cup.  This is not what I want to drink.  It was not good.  It is too perfume-y – it smells fake.  The smell totally put me off.  And of course, you SMELL a juice before you TASTE it.  So to me, it seemed like I had a little juice glass full of public toilet water from O’Hare with my breakfast.  JUST FLUSHED and CLEANED airport toilet water, mind you, but toilet water none-the-less.  And that is NOT what I like to wash my omelets down with.  It was, to say the least, off putting… 

The SMELL then influenced the TASTE, making my taste buds think they were drinking toilet cleaner.  This did not help my appetite.

I did due diligence - I TRIED tasting this juice with my nose plugged.  I STILL didn't like it! 

I would rather drink Trader Joe's plain white grape juice  ( review here ) or much better still, Concord grape juice (that is the bomb!):  (review here).   Heck, if you twisted my arm and said, “Susan you MUST drink a glass of this fake toilet cleaner-scented juice or a glass of actual toilet WATER (without cleaner)!!!” I think I would choose the plain water.  This was that yucky.

David, on the other hand, drank the juice then said, “It’s mild.  Mellow.  Very peasant.  It’s alright by me!”

David, happily drinking toilet water cleaner.

And when I explained the whole “toilet cleaner” thing, David replied, “This is a fiiiiine toilet cleaner!”.

You can keep this toilet cleaner crap.  I bought a bottle of TJ’s Honey Crisp Apple Cider that I adore (to be reviewed soon) and I pushed this gross toilet juice to the back of the fridge (David is still drinking it, ewww.)

"Slightly sweet" my ass!  Slightly GROSS is more like it.  Organic or not, this juice isn't coming home with us again.

Price – $3.99

Rating – 2.25 (this score would be lower, but David likes it...)

Day 265 - White Grape Juice (organic)

So yeah…  The year has 100 days left, meaning this project can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I finally decide to make a Facebook page for the blog.  Can anyone say “LATE BLOOMER”???  Oh well, late or not, it is up and running now!  You can find it at:  https://www.facebook.com/traderjoes365  Do me a favor and “like” the page, will ya?

Now on to today’s review.

Organic White Grape Juice- find it in the juice aisle at TJ's (non refrigerated)

First off, let’s address the elephant in the room.  This White Grape Juice being reviewed today cannot compare to the awesomeness that is Trader Joe’s Concord Grape juice (reviewed on day 137).  I’m sorry, it just CAN’T be that good.  So do not go in expecting THAT.   Then again, the Concord is the SAME PRICE for only HALF THE JUICE.  (Concord is 32 oz and this White Grape is 64 oz…)  And both are organic.  So see, how rich do you wanna go?  That’s what you have to decide here…  Really though, both bottles are cheaper than name brand grape juice, so whichever one you choose you cannot go wrong.  Concord Grape Juice review here

But as far as the White Grape Juice goes, to me it seems like this Trader Joe’s brand is not as sweet or quite as tasty as the name brands (like Welch’s).  But it is extremely acceptable.  It is good with breakfast.   It is not too watery.  It is not too sweet.  It is PRETTY GOOD.

Verily I say unto you - this is miracle juice (though it sort of looks like something else in this glass...)

This juice should really be called “miracle juice”.  It is like the Biblical parable of the loaves and the fishes if you know that one – every morning when I go to pour this juice, somehow there is MORE of it in the bottle!  It multiplies overnight… 

Twice the juice for the same price if you go with the white variety. Not twice the taste, but not half bad.
(That is a lot of math for one caption.)

David agrees with all the points I made.  And we both agreed on our rating, too.  Ahhh it is a good morning.

Price –$3.99

Rating – 3.75

NOTE - 100 DAYS OF REVIEWS REMAIN FOR THE YEAR!  MILESTONE!!

Day 137 - Concord Grape Juice

“Slurp”

“Ahhh”

“Man, that’s good!”

These are the sounds/words I hear as I sit across the table from David eating breakfast.  He adores this Concord Grape Juice! 

Ahhhhhh

We do not normally get our juice from Trader Joe’s, but we needed to stock up on non-perishable products to review while we are in a town with no Trader Joe’s (sad, I know, NO TRADER JOE’S!!).  Anyway, one thing we chose to bring is this grape juice, and we are glad we did!

It comes in a small bottle (1 quart) and it is not cheap ($3.99), but boy is it yummy.  It is “certified organic, pasteurized, and made from fresh pressed organic Concord grapes” (all from the label) but what we care about is “IS IT DELICIOUS?” and the answer is “YES IT IS!!”.

Not cheap, but grape juice never is really

The only downside to this product is that every time we have poured a glass, it somehow dribbles down the side of the bottle and gets onto the bottom of it.  That means when you put the bottle down on the counter or in the fridge, you get a ring of very hard to remove purple grape juice as a stain.  Something is not quite right with the design of the bottle.  I recommend always WIPING the bottom of the bottle after you pour so you do not have to do a clean up later.

Were it not for the messy grape juice rings, this would get a 5 star rating.  Alas, like Carrie Ann Inaba on Dancing with the Stars always dinging couples for doing lifts in their dances, I must ding this product a tiny bit due to the malfunctioning bottle.

Price - $3.99

Rating – 4.75