Showing posts with label New York City. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New York City. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Day 343 - Fresh Squeeze Orange Juice

We bought this little 1 pint bottle of unpasteurized fresh Orange Juice during our shopping adventure at the Chelsea Trader Joe’s with Ttrockwood.  Since we were going to be running around New York City all day, I figured having this little bottle of juice in our bag could both quench our thirst and give us a “pick me up” if we got tired from all of the walking.  Plus, orange juice is high in vitamin C, so bonus!

This photo sort of makes it look larger than the 1 pint it actually is
I opened it and drank the first sips while riding the subway.  That was strange to me, because you CANNOT eat or drink on the metro we normally ride (Washington DC).  When I see people chowing down on NYC trains it surprises me, then I remember that there is no rule about it in NYC (or at least if there is one, they do not enforce it).

I TOTALLY drank this on the subway.  Rule breaker!!!!  :)
I busted the juice out again when we were standing around waiting to see if we won tickets to see the show “Hamilton” on Broadway.  (Note:  we did NOT win tickets in the lottery, but if you are ever in NYC and want to see a show, try the lotteries!  They are fun!  If you win, you get super discounted tickets.  Last time we were there David’s name got drawn in the “Wicked” lottery J.)

The "Hamilton" lottery has begun!  Will we be lucky???  (Spoiler alert:  we were not lucky.)

Here is the sign for the show - we saw the SIGN, just not the SHOW...
Then we drank the rest of the juice while eating our Mega Crunchy Salad with a Bite in Times Square (reviewed yesterday here ).  We sure made that little bottle of juice last!

This was not a cheap juice, but was totally worth the cost.  We like to buy oranges and squeeze them ourselves, but it is not like you have a juicer when you are standing on a NYC sidewalk or in the metro…  This bottled version was just as good as if we had squeezed the oranges ourselves.  It was fabulous.  It had a little bit of pulp but not toooo much – just enough to make it interesting.  It was extremely “orange-y” and very tasty.

Signage at the Chelsea TJ's - their artist has cool handwriting.
David – “I quite agree with Susan’s assessment.  What I normally worry about with store bought orange juices is that they will squeeze the orange so hard that you get that rind bitterness in it.  With this juice there is none of that going on.  It is just pure liquid delight.  It has a tasty sweet orange taste.  I give it a 4.75.”

Upon discussion, we were both tempted to give this juice a rating of 5, but because it was pretty expensive we dinged the score just a little bit.  It is worth the splurge though! 

This photo is from a previous trip to NYC.  It has nothing to do with orange juice, I just really like it.  David can basically jump a mile high.  As you can see here, sometimes the TIMING on our couples jumps are a bit off...
Here's another totally unrelated photo - shot in NYC on an earlier visit.  I love it.  
Price – $2.29

Rating – 4.75

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Day 342 - Mega Crunchy Salad with a Bite

Here’s the thing:  “internet life” is sort of like “pretend life”, isn’t it?  I mean, online, the people “aren’t real”, which is why some folks can sometimes say such mean, hateful things that they would not say in a face to face conversation; or post insane photos of themselves that they would never take out and pass around at a family gathering.  The internet can seem like a make-believe world. 

Granted, my view of life online is decidedly different than that:  I try to live a genuine “online life” just as I do in “real life”.  I don’t make things up, I don’t only post flattering photos (oh heavens, I think this blog is proof that there are some unflattering photos of David and I out in cyberspace…), and I don’t post things online that I would not want to say to someone in a real life conversation.

Even so, “internet life” and “real life” ARE different. 

But sometimes “internet life” and “real life” somehow magically intersect, and when that happens, you find yourself in a Trader Joe’s on a Sunday morning in Chelsea (NYC) saying, “Are you Ttrockwood???”.

YES!!!  I GO TO MEET TTROCKWOOD, A READER OF THIS BLOG!!!!!  (If the ALL CAPS didn’t indicate it clearly enough, I will spell it out for you:  I was very excited!)

LOOK!!!  I met Ttrockwood in REAL LIFE!  In the Trader Joe's Chelsea store.
Ttrockwood is a reader and frequent commenter here.  I always like when Ttrockwood comments.  And I already had a super cool and fun experience with Ttrockwood earlier this fall when we did a HONEY EXCHANGE – they didn’t have Tuscan honey at their Trader Joe’s, so I offered to send some (review here), and in return, Ttrockwood sent ME Mike’s Hot Honey that is only available in THEIR TJ’s (review here).  I mean, that honey exchange already sort of blew my mind – that a person I had never met in real life was interacting with me not only ONLINE but via the US POSTAL SERVICE was bizarre!!!

So when we planned a quick trip to NYC recently, I contacted Ttrockwood to ask if we could meet up.  I was a little nervous.  It was not because I was AFRAID to meet, but because I was afraid Ttrockwood might think I was a weirdo or a stalker or something!  I mean, I just emailed out of the blue and was like, “Hey, do you want to meet us at a Trader Joe’s??”.  Sorta strange…

So when a positive reply came back and a date/time were set, I was so excited!!! 

Ttrockwood teaching David some of the finer points of inner city TJ's shopping
I have to let you in on a secret – for all the months that Ttrockwood has been commenting here and I have been smiling and reading the comments out loud to David, I have been unable to identify Ttrockwood with a pronoun.  That is because I have never known if Ttrockwood was a male or female.  And that mystery was lovely!!!  I so enjoyed the verbal challenge of not applying a pronoun!  (Oh sure, I could have tried the gender neutral “Ze”* but that is quite cumbersome for some reason…)   So I would say things like, “David!!  Ttrockwood is down to meet us at the Trader Joe’s in Chelsea!  They will be there at 10:30 am!”.  J  I LIKED not knowing a gender, but I was also curious to see him/her face to face and figure out which pronoun was more appropriate!   (Side note:  in my work as a sign language interpreter I often face the challenge of unknown gender, as ASL is not as definite as English in pronouns.  So maybe it is because of this experience in my professional life that I found this challenge to be so fun in my personal life.)

Of course, Ttrockwood has seen a bazillion photos of us here, so knew who to look for when we met up.  But all I knew was that the person would be blonde and have a camo backpack.

But it turns out that info was more than enough to quickly see Ttrockwood at the TJ’s entrance and blurt out, “Hey, are you TTROCKWOOD???” and give her a big hug!! 

Introductions (and pronouns) done, we set about shopping at one of her local Trader Joe’s.  It was so fun to have a personal concierge showing us around!  She knew all of the ins and outs of the Chelsea store and was happy to teach us.  And let’s just say, there is sort of a lot to learn about shopping that urban TJ’s! 

Two long ass lines - very organized and cool
First off, the line basically goes through the whole store.  It is really well managed and moves quickly.  There is an employee at the end of the line with a cute “End of Line” banner, and an employee at the middle of the line with a “Middle of Line” banner.  The middle is important because, pay close attention here, the middle is where the line SPLITS INTO TWO lines.  “HUH???” you think.  I KNOW, crazy, eh??  And that is where having a tour guide like Ttrockwood with you makes all the difference!  She explained that if you want to grab BAKED GOODS or REFRIGREATED MEATS while waiting in line, you take the OUTSIDE/RIGHTHAND of the 2 lines, but if you want to continue shopping for FROZEN GOODS or TREATS while in line, you migrate to the INSIDE/LEFTHAND line.  Man, shopping in Chelsea is COMPLEX!!  (But cool.)

Here's the MIDDLE OF THE LINE guy, see his banner??
The store was much, much bigger than anticipated.  The footprint would be big even for a suburban location where they paid much less rent.  Ttrockwood explained that we were there at a “slow time” and amateurs like us would get eaten alive if we showed up during peak hours.  J 

Of course, many things are the same as they are in other Trader Joe’s – friendly staff, double bagged groceries, tasting station.  Actually the tasting station was funny, because it was completely obstructed by the outside line.  Oh sure, I guess you could pick the outside line to wait in if you wanted to grab a sample, but what if you were still SHOPPING and wanted a sample?  I wormed my way between the people in line to nab a tiny plop of oatmeal.  I doubt my technique was “correct” but hey, I was a tourist!!

Ttrockwood taught us her patented “drop it and grab it technique” that she uses at her crowded Trader Joe’s!  It goes like this:
1.        Take your place in the long ass line.
2.       Drop your shopping basket (the little handheld one) in your spot to save your place. 
3.       Quickly grab the desired item from the nearest aisle.
4.       Return to your basket and drop in the item before the line moves!

See, it is lessons like that that you cannot learn from a YouTube video!

Our lunch!
We decided to grab a Mega Crunchy Salad with a Bite to eat later in the day, and Ttrockwood got the same salad.  That way we could review them “together” (though eating them apart).  Ttrockwood sent me her review:

Salad close up
 Ttrockwood - “I had my Mega Crunchy salad today and my deep thoughts are......

I loved the texture and fork sized bites of crunchy veggies.  The beans and quinoa were great additions, so it's a legit salad meal vs salad that leaves you starving an hour later. The cilantro dressing packet had waaaay too much for one salad.  I liked it, but didn't pay enough attention to the label so the spicy kick surprised me (be warned if you're sensitive to spicy stuff). 

I'll totally buy it again. Solid 4.5 here. “

David and I did the totalllllly tourist thing of sitting in Times Square and eating our salad.  It was a strangely warm December afternoon so a great day to dine al fresco!  We thought we sat on the “sunny side” of the steps, but shortly after we dug into the salad the skyscrapers soon blocked the sunshine L.

Panorama of our lunchtime view.  I am not sure you can see it in this photo, but on the left side there is
an ad for KINKY BOOTS very near an ad that says, "A Savior is Born".  Ahhh NYC.
I must point out:  this is the first review I have ever done where, in the middle of the review, a complete stranger walked by us with his hand DOWN HIS PANTS feeling himself.  I kid you not.  In the middle of Times Square.  He made no attempt to hide it.  He didn’t seem to be doing it to “impress” anyone.  He was simply walking up all of the steps to get to the top and take a group selfie with his friends, but along the way he decided he needed to unzip his pants and play with himself.  Only in New York…

Now, here is what we thought of Trader Joe’s Mega Crunchy Salad with a Bite (with quinoa, carrots, adzuki beans, jicama, sunflower seeds, and cranberries with a cilantro dressing) (ironically the list of ingredients on the front do not mention LETTUCE, but I can confirm there is, indeed, actual lettuce in there, too):

Tasty salad in a fun environment!
Me – I really, really liked this!  It is delicious.  Many pre-packaged salads suffer from the dreaded “not enough dressing” problem, making them dry.   THIS salad does not have that issue, in fact my lunch date put the whooooole packet of dressing on and for my taste there is a bit TOO much dressing.  I really like the dressing though!  It has something hot and spicy in it, giving it a real ZIP. 

The veggie bits in the salad are chopped very small and are, as the name promised, crunchy.  I like them a lot.  I did not notice the taste of sunflower seeds until my last bite of salad. 

When reading the list of ingredients one might fear that this salad would be “too crunchy-granola-tree-hugger-y” and that people who were not ardent vegetarians might think it was yucky, but that would be wrong.  It is good.

This is a healthy lunch and it is yummy.  It is easy to grab and go.  Don’t forget to pick up a fork at Trader Joe’s before you leave if you want to eat this on the go (we forgot and had to sneak into a Starbucks and get one).  I give this a 4.75.

We sorta look like giants here!  This was our lunch spot.
David – “THANK YOU FOR PICKING THIS SALAD OUT TTROCKWOOD!  This is a great salad, mostly because of the plethora of sauce (dressing) that you can put on it that kind of blends/melds everything together.  All of the elements are delicious and it has such great “taste-ness” because of that cilantro dressing.  I give this a 4.75.”

Post Trader Joe's selfie :)

Now on to the rating.  Of course, I give the whole experience of actually meeting one of my blog readers and shopping with her a big ol’ shiny FIVE!!!!  It was most excellent.

For the salad, I will average our scores together.  Thanks for coming to Chelsea to shop with us, Ttrockwood.  It rocked.  And guess what guys?  Later this month I get to meet another reader, Marilyn, in Winter Park, Florida!  Wheeeeeee!!!

*Here is a link to an MIT page containing “Ze”, the gender neutral pronoun I referred to earlier:  Ze link here

Chelsea TJ's signage
Price – $3.99

Rating – 4.75

Sunday, December 6, 2015

Day 340 - Autumnal Harvest Pasta Sauce

First of all, I am so excited because TODAY I get to meet one of the readers of this blog!!!! TTrockwood often comments on posts, and because we are going to New York City (where TTrockwood lives) we arranged a MEET UP!  Guess where???  :)  Duh - AT A TRADER JOE'S, of course!  I will report on our meeting soon!

In the meantime, here is a review of Autumnal Harvest Pasta Sauce.

Look - it is tomato based but made with PUMPKIN and BUTTERNUT SQUASH!
David: “It’s ok.  it is like general tomato sauce but more squash-y.  It gives some flavor to the pasta, but pretty much you gotta like the taste of PASTA cuz there’s not a lotta taste in it.  I give it a 3.5.”

Editor’s note:  I suspect someone is cranky.  Look – he barely said anything!  He is rarely this quiet or downbeat about a food item. 

Here is David at a happier moment - talking with the ASK ME MAN at Clarendon Trader Joe's!  There was a super long line and he was standing at the end of it to show people where to go.  Doesn't he look kind?  He was.  :)
Me:  I like this pasta sauce.  It is light and CREAMY.  To me it is not too tomato-y. I don’t really taste the squash in it, but I like that it lets the flavor of the pasta to come through. 

It is also a pretty color.  It is not as red as some tomato sauces.  I think this is really nice.  It is not too heavy.  It is not overpowering.  We served it on tubular pasta shapes and it was a good fit.  It is clean and simple.  To me, the name is right because somehow it does taste a bit like AUTUMN (if seasons can have a flavor…).   (David disagreed that it tastes like autumn, but see note above.  Can you say “cranky-pants”???)

See, isn't it a pretty color??  Served with baby brocolli and a salad.
David OD-ed on tomato sauce last month when he made an eggplant parmesan and stuffed it with tooooo much tomato sauce.  Ever since then he has been ardently anti tomato sauce.  But even HE agreed that this Autumnal Harvest Pasta Sauce is not TOO tomato-y.  I think this is a good alternative to “traditional” pasta sauces.

This is, as the name suggests, only available seasonally.  So if you want to taste autumn poured over a plate of pasta, get some soon.

Find it on the shelf with the other pasta sauces.
I give this one a 4.  I will average our two scores together below.

Price – $3.49

Rating - 3.75

Monday, September 28, 2015

Day 271 - Mike's Hot Honey

You can’t imagine how thrilled I am. 

First off, this whole blog...  I started this as a “project” – one of many that I do.  Most of my projects are local – stuff around my neighborhood.  For example, I turned the “do not cross” red hand on the crosswalk sign next to our house into an “I Love You” ASL sign (black tape, shhhh!). 

Our crosswalk.  Shhh, it has been this way for 2 years. Sharing some love in our hood.
For another project I hung digital cameras (in Ziploc baggies to protect them from the weather) on our front and side gates for a couple of months and put up signs asking people to use them to photograph what to them was “Inspiration, Beauty, and Joy” (if you want to read about that project and see more photos from it, I wrote it up here: Inspiration, Beauty, and Joy )  Here are some of the photos that random strangers who walked by our house took, aren't they great??
Dogwood tree in bloom - mystery photographer at side gate

Mystery shoes
Selfie?  Mystery kid at front gate



Who isn't inspired by iced coffee on a hot day?  Side gate

Peace and roses - beautiful (side gate)

Night time image captured by someone who left a note for the project, too - guy from Brazil.  Cool eh?
So this Trader Joe's blog was one of THOSE types of projects.  Something to let me express my creativity and explore.  But it has turned into so much more!  Today (or tomorrow) I will hit 30,000 views!  30,000 views on my Trader Joe’s reviews!  That seems remarkable to me (maybe in this day and age of stuff “going viral” 30,000 doesn’t sound like a lot to you, but to me, the person whose projects normally only reach people who walk by my home, 30,000 is a lot J ).

This blog has given me a sense of a wider community.  Visiting Trader Joe’s in 10 states (and one District…) so far has been a blast!  We have met cool people in all of those locations.  And so many people are reading this blog - people from all over the world, which is insane to me!  There is someone reading in Bangladesh, in the Ukraine, places that certainly do not have a Trader Joe’s (blog analytics show me the countries which is how I know).   Maybe those readers just end up on the blog through a Google search, maybe they have a friend shipping them TJ’s stuff from the USA, who knows.

And some people take the time to COMMENT on my blog posts.  I LOVE THAT!  Whether they agree with my review or have a different opinion, I love when people comment!! 

One person comments frequently.  I do not know them.  I did not know where they lived.  Just knew that they were reading, enjoying the blog, and sometimes commented.  And every time they DID comment, it made me smile so big.  Well, when I published the review of Turkish Honey (Turkish Honey Review ), they commented:  “  I don’t have this at my Trader Joe’s!  L  Honey on Greek yogurt with fruit is like the perfect breakfast.  I’m sure you’ll use it in hot tea and oatmeal this winter.”  
This stuff is delicious!
Well, I replied to that comment and told them I would be happy to SEND THEM some Turkish Honey!  Heck, I felt like we had commented back and forth so much on the blog that we were friends of a sort!  Cyber friends. 

So we switched the comments over to email and guess what?  THEY OFFERED TO DO A HONEY SWAP!!  If I sent them Turkish Honey, they would send me a special honey that only their Trader Joe’s in Brooklyn carries – Mike’s Hot Honey!  Well you didn’t have to ask me twice!  They could have offered to send me a lump of dirt in exchange for the Turkish Honey and I probably would have accepted cuz I was so excited!!

Mike's Hot Honey, infused with Chilies...  Intriguing, no??
Fast forward – the Turkish Honey arrived in NY, they love it!  J  And the Mike’s Hot Honey arrived at my house this weekend.  I was SO EXCITED!   I opened it last night.  Guess what?  Not only did they send HONEY, they sent a TRADER JOE’S NYC BAG!  You may not know this if you do not shop often at TJ’s, but most states have their own reusable BAGS. They feature something special about that state/city.  This NYC one is great!!!  I love it and will feel very fancy carrying it this afternoon to my local TJ’s.  (Note – the Ohio stores do not have special bags, and their staff was sad about that when we were there.  Corporate, I said it before and I say it again, OHIO NEEDS BAGS.  Please get on that.  J )

Awww, there is a TJ's CARD in the package!
What the what???  A cool NYC TJ's bag, too????
Honey that is HOT??  I am a little worried...



















So I opened the Mike’s Hot Honey (honey infused with chilies).  Let me just say that from the get go, before even tasting it, I loved this product.  I loved that it is LOCAL – most Trader Joe’s have one or two local items (often local beer, sometimes wine) but the rest are standard across the stores.  I love finding the local stuff.  I think it is SO COOL when local companies get their products into Trader Joe’s.  I think it must be a great move for them.  I like the PACKAGING of this product – the artwork on the label is really good and the sort of old fashioned plaid pattern on the bottle is so in conflict with the concept of mixing HONEY with CHILIES – definitely NOT an old fashioned thing to do…  I love the COLOR of this honey – it is a golden amber.  And last (but probably most importantly) I loved that it was given as a gift from a reader of this blog!  A cyber friend!!!

So all that was left to do was TASTE it!

Isn't is a gorgeous color??
I made (not from scratch) pumpkin cookies this morning.  David and I both have the day off and we are in slow motion, so breakfast wasn’t until 11 am.  Grapefruit, kefir (to be reviewed soon), espresso, and pumpkin cookies.  But wait – how about PUMPKIN COOKIES DIPPED IN MIKE’S HOT HONEY??  I thought the spice (like nutmeg spice, not hot spice) of the cookie might be a perfect combination with the SPICY spice of the honey.

Please let this mystery Honey Swap Honey be good...  (This is me in the morning, got my hair pulled back and robe on...)
And I was right!

IT IS GOOD!!!  What a combo!
Oh man! 

This is a 12 oz bottle of awesomeness.  The first taste you get when eating this is HONEY.  Followed shortly by spice…  After that you get a huge kick in the ass of CHILI.  It is; HONEY, WARM, ON FIIIIRE all within a millisecond.

The label says you can enjoy it on “pizza, chicken, ribs, salads, cheese, yogurt, fruits, ice cream, roasted veggies, in cocktails and many other foods”.   I can imagine if you had chicken for dinner and had hot biscuits – put a glop of butter and some of this hot honey on the biscuit.  Oh and dipping fried chicken in it would be amazing.  Or drizzling it on CHEESE – maybe a hard cheese.  But I cannot imagine putting it on yogurt, that doesn’t sound yummy to me.  But PIZZA crust dipped in it I think would be good!  The person who sent it to me told me that a local pizza place has this honey for just that use. 

David, a careful dipper
Here was David’s take on it:  “Nah.  This is an example of cramming two things together that don’t belong together in a desperate effort to create a new product to sell.  You need this as badly as you need a formal ball gown that comes complete with a parachute harness.  I will take my honey sweet, thanks.  I like my honey like I like my women – nice and sweet.  I give this honey a 1.”

Not a fan.
Susan:  THIS IS FUNKY AND COOL.  I, as the author of the blog, completely override David’s lame review and give this a 5. 

David:  “Now you are just being spiteful…”

So this entry was a bit long, but I wanted to share with you the joy I get from writing here, from meeting people in the stores, and “meeting” some of you virtually.  Thanks for being so supportive of this blog.  And if you want to get this Mike’s Hot Honey (you should try it!) and do not live in Brooklyn, you can order it online at:  http://mikeshothoney.com/

Price - $6.99 (which is crazy, cuz ordering the same size bottle from the company that makes it is more expensive…  I guess this is a deal TJ’s cut with them to sell it at a discount and do a high volume)

Rating - 5

Sunday, April 5, 2015

Day 95 - Anthony Road Riesling Semi-Sweet

When in Rome…  Or should I say - WHEN IN NEW YORK CITY!

Fact – New York City not only has more than one Trader Joe’s location, they have a frickin’ TRADER JOE’S WINE SHOP.  Whaaat???  A Trader Joe’s just dedicated to WINE???  Yup.  Color me jealous.  And color me a fan!
Holy Smokes - a whole Trader Joe's dedicated to WINE?
When we went to NYC recently you know “visit Trader Joe’s Wine Shop” was on my list of things to do.  And so do we did!  The wine store is right next to the original NYC Trader Joe’s location.

The Wine Shop was lovely.  Ahhhhh.  Rows and rows of WINE!  No pesky frozen food section to get in your way.  And guess what?  They have free tastings EVERY.  SINGLE.  DAY.  Did you see that, Northern Virginia Trader Joe’s??  And – they deliver.  I kid you not.  Seriously, the store was very nice!  They had all the regular wines we see at our Trader Joe’s wine department (which, sadly, now looks remarkably wimpy compared to the whole store of wine…), plus they had loads of wines that our stores do not carry.  They even had a beautiful section of fancy wines that were recommended to “gift” to someone (“GIFT TO YOURSELF!” – that’s what I’m thinking!). 

Now THIS is civilized.
 But I digress…

When in Rome...  So when in New York, get a New York wine, right???  We decided on this Anthony Road Riesling Semi-Sweet from the Finger Lakes Region (upstate New York).  We chose it because;
a.       It was a “local wine”
b.      We had never tried it before
c.        It had a pretty label (don’t judge)
d.      It had a screw top – which we needed because we got it on our last night in the city so figured we would not finish it and need to haul it home

We made our choice!  Finger Lakes, baby
It was OKAY.  Not fantastic, not horrible, but okay.  I think they could have dropped the “semi” and just gone with the sweet, but hey, we don’t drink a ton of Riesling.  If you are a Riesling fan and live in an area where you can purchase this, give it a try. And if you DO want to try it, buy it at Trader Joe’s, because I just checked the website of the winery, and for some cuh-razy reason it is CHEAPER AT TRADER JOE’S than at the actual winery!!!  HUH?  $9.99 at Trader Joe’s Wine Store, $16.99 for the same exact bottle (same vintage and everything) on the winery website.   http://anthonyroadwine.com/wine.asp

Cheaper than at the winery!
Trader Joe’s Wine Shop – 2 huge thumbs up.
This particular bottle of wine - comme ci, comme ça

Price - $9.99
Rating of this bottle of wine- 3.5

Rating of Trader Joe’s Wine Shop - 5

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Day 92 - Tart Cherry 100% Juice Blend

This juice wasn’t as TART as it was THICK.  Maybe it should be called “Thick Cherry 100% Juice Blend”.  I mean, it was TART, but not toooo tart.  And really not too thick, either.  It was quite good.  It is not the kind of juice you want to grab when you are super thirsty, because it is more like a little MEAL than it is a thirst quencher.  But it feels quite HEALTHY to drink.  J

Tart Cherry Juice Blend - on the left of the photo.  I will try the other juices before the year is out! 
We picked this up on our recent visit to the first ever New York City Trader Joe’s!  We chose it because we had never seen it at “our” Trader Joe’s in Northern Virginia and so thought it was special.  However, I went to our local Trader Joe’s tonight and oops, they DO have it, we just had never noticed it!

Anyway, it is a healthy juice – I would put it in the Pom category if you know what Pom is.  The label says it is “tart cherry juice from concentrate with notes of plum, pear and apple juices and white grape juice from concentrate”.  It definitely tastes mostly like cherries.

It says it is 2 servings and I think that is about right.  One thing that might seem like a small point but to me it was good – it has a tight screw on cap.  Some juices have flimsy pop or snap on lids, and those are not good if you want to throw it in your bag after you have started drinking it.  With this tight cap, we felt confident bringing it with us after we had opened and re-closed it.

See??  You can open and reseal it - drink it in the NYC Subway Station!  
 If you like cherry juice and you want a healthy snack/drink, try it out.

Price - $2.99
Rating – 3.75