Day 361 - Partially Popped Popcorn with Butterscotch and Sea Salt

We had a fun visit this morning with our friends Korin and Josh!  They were in Florida for the holidays and managed to squeeze in a bit of time to have breakfast with us.  We ended up at a restaurant sitting outside with an ocean view (well, it had an ocean view when other diners didn’t rudely park their vehicles right in front of us instead of in the dang parking lot…). 

This was the breakfast view when no cars parked in front of us (and no motorcycles were driving on A1A...)

So, after the eggs and toast, I busted out the PARTIALLY POPPED POPCORN WITH BUTTERSCOTCH AND SEA SALT!

Here is what the bag looks like

As you may know if you keep up with this blog, I am a big fan of TJ’s original Partially Popped Popcorn.  I reviewed it here and was even kinda sorta addicted to it for a little while a couple of months ago – I wanted to eat it morning, noon, and night (well mostly noon and night).  It’s terrific!  So when I saw this new flavor in the store the other day I grabbed a bag.  Korin and Josh had never tasted the original Partially Popped Popcorn, so the whole experience was new to them.  Here is how things went down:

I used a little bowl that formerly held sugar packets to display the snack.

Josh:  “I really felt like the butterscotch was initially overpowering.  It grew on me a little bit, but not much…  I wish they were a little SALTIER.  I would give them a 2.”

Korin:  “I will second that!  I really liked the texture and the crunch and the size.  The size is excellent for small, ongoing snacking.  But I would say “no” on the butterscotch flavor.  I would prefer just salt.  (Editor’s note:  Korin needs to try the regular Partially Popped Popcorn, I think she would dig it!)  I think I am going to give them a 2.5.”

Korin and Josh displaying the snacks

David:  “I have already had the Partially Popped regular salty ones, so I knew what to expect.  But I think my score is gonna be higher because I kind of enjoy the BUTTERSCOTCH CANDY experience FIRST, then afterwards I am left with the sort of CORN NUT and there is enough remaining salt to make the chewing – FABULOUS texture and crunchiness – really work for me!  So I am getting 2, 2, 2 flavors in 1!!!

  

David trying the "lick them out of your hand" technique

But still, I would rather enjoy a CARAMEL, then have a handful of SALTY NUTS…  (Sophomoric giggles all around for the concept of “a handful of nuts”.) I would give these a 3.”

Me:  I have had the original flavor before, and I prefer that flavor to this one.  To me, the first bite of this product was YUCKY.  It almost tasted like a sugar free butterscotch candy disc, which is really crappy.  The second bite got a little better…  By the third or fourth bite they were good.  I would not call them excellent, they are not my favorite snack.  I give these a 2.75.

Snacks, friends, and sunshine.  Ahhh.  Oh, and COFFEE.  It was a good morning.  

The bag says the serving size is 1/3 of a cup, and every one of the tasters agreed that was optimistic to think someone would eat THAT MANY of these.

We debated what drink to pair this with…  Josh sort of thought a Dr. Pepper, but to me that would be way too sweet.  A beer with this sounded gross.  No one could come up with an adequate wine pairing.  So we agreed on WATER.  A nice, filtered, fancy, chilled water perhaps J. 

David feels that he has boiled down the essential problem with this snack:  schizophrenia.  He thinks it is a schizophrenic snack because it has two distinct personalities that are at war with each other. 

Overall, I say skip this flavor and get the original Partially Popped Popcorn.  You won’t miss anything by not trying this one, and you will enjoy the other kind!

Other big news here:  guys – we have seen TRADER JOE’S NIRVANA!  Ok, it is just the Trader Joe’s distribution center in Daytona Beach, FL, but we went there today and it is HUUUUUUGE.  We have not managed to get IN, mind you, but did get a peek at the highly secretive, massive buildings!!  More news tomorrow (after I call them again and see if they will let us in!).  All signs point to us NOT getting invited in, but it doesn’t hurt to ask!  J

More photos of the distribution center tomorrow, but just know for now THEY ARE HIRING!
Anyone in the Daytona Beach area need a job?  :)

Price – $2.49

Rating – 2.5

Rating of eating a tasty breakfast in the sunshine with friends we hardly ever see – solid 5

Day 284 - Blueberry Kefir

I have a friend who loooooves kefir.  I don’t think she reads this blog, so I doubt she will see this.  J  But she told me about kefir.  Her kids like it a lot, too.  I had never had it, and since this friend also likes KOMBUCHA, to be honest with you I was skeptical to take any sort of food/drink advice from her… 

But then one night we were in Trader Joe’s and met Cecilia, the remarkably knowledgeable, friendly, and professional sample lady I wrote about a couple of weeks ago.  Well Cecilia went down a litany of products that she thought we “just had to try!!” and blueberry kefir was mentioned.  She must’ve seen my nose wrinkle up slightly at the mention of it, so she walked herself right over to the dairy department, grabbed a bottle of it, and cracked it open to share!  Cecilia was going to make a kefir fan out of me if I liked it or not!

Nice container

And she did!  I drank a little paper sample cup of the stuff and liked it!  Which led to BUYING a bottle of it.  Seeeeee how effective the sampling program is???*

Hard decision - strawberry or blueberry???

Anyway, I decided that for THIS product I would do (drum roll….) the FIRST EVER BI-COASTAL SKYPE VIDEO REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Les and I pre-Skype review - getting our Kefirs ready!!!

My friend Les Kurkendahl and I only get to see each other in the summer – he is a touring performer and so is David.  So sometimes Les, David, and I all end up in the same city at the same time, and that is fun!  

Here is a cute photo of Les

Les likes Trader Joe’s, so we worked and worked to find a time when he and I were both home (him in L.A. and me in D.C.) to Skype and review blueberry kefir.  Here is how that went:

I must clarify that in the Skype review I incorrectly stated to find this product in the produce department.  That is wrong – it is with dairy.

And I forgot to mention YOP!  “Yop!” was a drink in Paris that we loved.  It came in little bottles and it tasted like liquid yogurt.  Meeeeaning – maybe I HAD DRUNK KEFIR A LONG TIME AGO AND DIDN’T KNOW IT!  I bet Yop! was kefir!  We could never find anything really like it in America but now we have.  J

Hey - it's NEW!

*If you do not know this already, you can sample ANYTHING in Trader Joe’s – well, any pre-cooked thing.  Just ASK!  They will OPEN it for you and share!!  They WANT you to try stuff.  Cuz look what happens when you do – you might buy it!!!  (Note – they are NOT going to open a raw hunk of beef and cook it up for you, so don’t ask.  But in store personalized tastes are what got me hooked on Partially Popped Popcorn!  read review here    And that is totally what got me to buy this blueberry kefir!

Price – $2.99

Rating – 4.5

Day 203 - Giant Peruvian Inca Corn

In our house we have a word for when something is not interesting.  It is not bad, per se, but it is not good.  The word is BOF.

And after eating these Giant Peruvian Inca Corns, I say BOF.

Bof.

They are corn nuts on steroids if you ask me.  Crunchy but a bit “empty” – just a shell of a crunch.  They are NOT good to snack on while you watch tv, I will say that.  The crunch is so darn noisy in your head that you cannot hear the television. 

The bag talks about how they are from Peru and there are llamas involved – yada yada yada.  I say – these are big ass corn nuts, nothing more.  Less salt than corn nuts, too.

  

Here is what they look like in a small glass bowl.  See - nothing special.

If you want a really yummy treat that is reminiscent of corn nuts but actually tastes amazing, get Trader Joe’s Partially Popped Popcorn (Day 74).  Now that is good!  It is worth the loud crunching!  These, not so much…

Here is one with a penny so you can see the size.

David is sick with a bad cold.  He just tried these too, and I asked him what he thinks.  He said his opinion may not be objective right now, what with being sick and all, but here is what he thinks: 

·         These are big corn nuts.

·         Nice.

·         Crunchy.

·         Kind of like natural fried/crunchy Cheetos (not the puffy kind), but without the cheese.

·         Roasted corn taste and salty.

·         Nice. (He said that twice. See, he is sick.)

·         I am not sure I can taste the Peruvian provenance, but good corn.

·         I would give it a 3.5

No thank you.  I will keep my $1.79.

So David gives them a 3.5, but I think his illness is confusing him.  I give them a 2.5.  I think instead of averaging the two scores exactly, mine should count a biiiit more (I mean this is my blog after all, and achoo, he just sneezed again so can he be trusted??).   So the final rating is higher than I would have given, but lower than a mathematical average.  Fair?

Price – $1.79

Rating – 2.75

Day 172 - Popcorn with Herbs and Spices

Sometimes I fear Trader Joe’s is trying too hard with popcorn blends – they have the Chicago Style (aka Caramel and Cheddar) Mix (glowing 5 star review on day 100), plain caramel popcorn (sucky review on day 162), Partially Popped Popcorn (another favorite of mine that you can find reviewed on day 74), and there is a popcorn with olive oil that I haven’t reviewed yet.  OH!  There is also a bizarre BACON popcorn that we bought, ate, and I forgot to review.  (Ewww, now I have to buy it again and eat more, don’t I?)

The seriously colored dark green bag hints at the serious flavor to be found inside

Anyway, I fear they are taking the popcorn thing too far.  But I shouldn’t have been scared to buy this one.  Popcorn with Herbs and Spices is actually pretty good.  The tagline on the bag is “A Savory Popcorn for Your Snack Cravings!”.  I just have to say that my only cravings are cheese and/or olives, so this snack doesn’t fit the craving bill for me personally.  But it does fit the “tasty treat” bill.

Close up - see the little herb and spice specks?

The spices listed are dill, celery seed, and onion.  Those do “savory” this popcorn up!  It is good with red wine and I am guessing would also compliment a beer well.  I don’t think it is the kind of snack where I would open up a bag and just snarf my way through the whole thing in one sitting, but that is not a bad thing (portion control), is it??

Look for it in the snack section

If you want a snack that isn’t sweet and has more than just salt, give this a try.

Price – $1.99

Rating – 4

Day 74 - Partially Popped Popcorn

We did NOT expect to like this.  We saw it on an end cap of “New Products” and we looked at one another and went, “Ewwww!”.  I mean, it bills itself as “…the little crunchies usually found in the bottom of the popcorn bowl…” – aka the WORST PART OF THE POPCORN EXPERIENCE.  I hate those bits at the bottom of the bowl, doesn’t EVERYONE?  They are hard, don’t taste good, hurt your teeth, and worst of all they break into little razor sharp bits that deposit themselves deep into the bed of your gums where they annoy the heck out of you until you get off your butt and find a toothpick or dental floss to force them out!!!  (Can you tell by my description that the bits at the bottom of the bowl are NOT my favorite part?)

Partially Popped Pop Corn??  David's teeth hurt jusst THINKING ABOUT EATING IT!

Anyway, the description on the back of this bag goes on to say that these bits have, “…a texture that makes them almost addictive and easier on the jaw”.  Hmmmm, color me a doubter on this one…

But we need to try loads of Trader Joe’s products this year – reviewing one per day requires COMMITMENT, folks.  And like they say, in for a penny, in for a pound!  So, we needed to try this.  We asked a Trader Joe’s associate if she had tried it yet, she hadn’t and she sort of wrinkled up her nose and agreed with us that the premise sounded bad…  However, as Trader Joe’s employees are wont to do, she offered to OPEN A BAG SO WE COULD TRY IT!  Yuppers – right there in the store. 

And try we did (as did she).  Turns out – THESE LITTLE SUCKERS ARE GOOD!  They are CRUNCY but not tooth-hurting crunchy.  They taste GOOD.  And they somehow managed to eliminate the little bits that love to get stuck between your teeth!   We put a bag in our cart – sold!! 

La Jolla, CA Trader Joe's sign - each store has an in-house artist to make signage so your sign will look different than this one

We soon found a terrific pairing for this snack – beer!  We snuck the bag into a craft brewery in La Jolla, CA and ate Partially Popped Popcorn with beer – yummmm!  They almost have a “corn nut” flavor (which got me to thinking, “I haven’t had corn nuts in years.  In fact, what IS a corn nut????” – this deep thought may have been because of the beer…).  One negative thing about these – they are made with butter and sea salt, and that really sticks to your fingers.  But heck – just lick ‘em off when you are done!

I highly recommend you pick a bag of these up and TRY THEM.  We are now on our second bag!    If you get them and do not like them, remember, you can always return the opened bag and Trader Joe’s will happily refund your money.  Seriously, they give you no grief about returning a product.  (But I don’t think you will return this one because they are delicious.)

Price – $2.49

Rating – 4.75