Day 321 - Brownie Crisp

In my world, brownies are not SUPPOSED to be crisp.  The “crisp” parts of the brownies are the BURNT parts, the RUINED parts.  You know what I mean, the parts on the edges of the pan that are so burnt to a crisp that you can even saw them out with a sharp knife.  The ones that are still stuck on there after all of the GOOD BROWNIE are eaten and you have to soak the pan in the sink to even chip them away.

Yeah – the YUCKY BITS.

So WHY Trader Joe’s felt the need to make a whole bag of the ruined bits is beyond me.

However, this concept excited David, who put a bag of Brownie Crisps in our cart.

It's a given that I won't like these, but will DAVID????

Needless to say, I have recused myself from this review as I refuse to try these abominations.  This review is the sole opinion of David.

David says (in a sad, forlorn voice), “These are okayyyy.  If you need a cookie and you don’t have a cookie it’ll do.  But it’s not what you had hoped for – not what I had hoped for.  It doesn’t have a depth of taste.  It doesn’t have a buttery-ness.  It doesn’t have a richness.  It doesn’t really have….

It even looks SAD on the plate (IMHO)

It’s, it’s, it’s, ummm, it’s CRISP in a way that a stale cracker is CRISP.  Not in the way that the edges of a nice homemade brownie are crisp.

Crunch, crunch, crunch.

Don't bust a tooth there, David

I had such HIGH HOPES.  I am not going to take ‘em back, they are EATABLE, but I’m not gonna get them again.  (I clarified – are they EATABLE or EDIBLE?)  Well, they are EATABLE, which is a little different than EDIBLE.  Virtually everything is EDIBLE, but I won’t EAT everything.  These, I will eat. “

We got these in the Dublin, Ohio Trader Joe's where they apparently thought they were
hard enough little cookies that they should change the name to BRITTLE, even though the bag calls them "crisp".  

It takes a lot for a cookie (or cookie-like product) to make David sad, but these Brownie Crisps did it.  L

Price – $2.99

Rating – 2.75

Day 115 - Brownie Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies seemed to have a LOT going for them – first off, the name itself starts with BROWNIE, that’s a good sign.  Then CHOCOLATE CHIPS, hello, those are tasaty!  And wait a minute – WALNUTS, TOO?  Stop the goodness before you overload me!   There were a few varieties in the same sweet, down home’y” looking packaging and they actually took up a bit of prime real estate on the shelves.   I figured we might have hit a homerun with this one!  I mean, who doesn’t like a good cookie? 

Don't they look delicious from the packaging?

Maybe that’s the problem – this is not a good cookie.  Turns out, these cookies are bleck.  The ingredient list swears otherwise, but they taste really ARTIFICIAL.  The sugar in them does not feel all the way dissolved, either, so there is a grainy quality.  And David felt they were undercooked.  (I felt they were UNDERWHELMING…)

We do not take returning products to Trader Joe’s lightly.  Seriously, we do NOT return things very often.  But we each ate one of these and then said, “Nah, we do not need these in our lives.  They are NOT good”.  After returning them, we later found one of the cookies at home that David had taken a bite out of and left on a plate not finished.  He THREW IT AWAY rather than eat it.  If THAT doesn’t tell you something, nothing will.  Because NOTHING will get between David and a good cookie!!!

$4.29 is nothing to sneeze at - we took them back

When we returned these, the nice guy working at Customer Service suggested we TASTE the bag of cookies that we were exchanging these yucky ones for before buying them.  The replacement ones were in the same cute packaging but were called Sutter’s Formula – peanut butter cookies with milk chocolate chunks.  I thought for suuuuure they would be better than the Brownie Chocolate Chip ones!!

Same price, still yucky

David was worried before we even opened the package and tasted these....

I was wrong again.  And boy was I glad the Trader Joe’s guy recommended we taste them before buying, because in the end we just said, “No thank you!  We will just stick to the big pile of stuff already in our cart,”.   So, although David and I each only ate part of one Sutter’s Formula Cookie, this will be their only mention in this year long blog.  I don’t feel as if I can give them a complete review on their own, or a score of their own, since we didn’t even purchase the bag and take it out of the store with us.

The score below is based only on the Brownie Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Price – $4.29

Rating – 2.25