Cold Brew Latte Dessert Bars

This is a brand new product for us (and new to Trader Joe's, too).  It is the 2^nd of 2 “cold brew” Trader Joe’s products we have tried lately (in case you missed it, here is my review of - French Vanilla Cold Brew ).  

Cold Brew Latte Dessert Bars - how will they taste???

We tried this “dessert bar” on a lovely spring day (it was 75 degrees!) after we had spent the entire day outside doing things that needed to be done:  cleaning out the car port, trimming rose bushes, pulling weeds, repairing outdoor steps, and cleaning picture frames that I will use in an upcoming art project.  After all of that work, I thought we deserved a treat!  So, we plopped down on the back stoop, sat in the sunshine, listened to birds sing, and ate COLD BREW LATTE DESSERT BARS.  Here is what we thought:

One of the rose bushes I trimmed!  

Susan:  Honest truth:  we do not eat popsicles at our house much.  The only time we ever have them is if someone is sick with a fever (and that someone would have to be ME 'cuz I don’t think David would ever be lying in his sick bed and ask for a popsicle…) or if it is colonoscopy prep time (HEALTH NOTE:  IF YOU ARE AGE 50 OR OLDER OR HAVE A FAMILY HISTORY OF COLON CANCER, NOW WOULD BE A GREAT TIME TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT FOR A COLONOSCOPY!  This reminder brought to you by someone on the “every 5 year” plan.)  In those situations, we buy a box of popsicles.  The sick/colonoscopy person eats one, perhaps two popsicles, and the remaining frozen confections stay in the freezer until they have ice crystals all over them and are so gummy they stick to the paper, at which point I throw them out.  Sometimes I am smart enough to give them away to someone on my local “Buy Nothing” group, which I prefer to wasting them for sure.

But back to the Cold Brew Latte Dessert Bars…

Here is what they look like (with the green, green backdrop of our backyard!)

These are the same consistency as Dreamsicles.  I would think that would make me not like them, since I am not a Dreamsicle fan, but apparently it is not the texture but the taste of Dreamsicles that is yucky to me, cuz I like these TJ’s Cold Brew Latte Bars.  They taste good!  I personally would prefer a bit more coffee flavor in them, but even as is I like these.  They are good for a warm summer day.  They taste like an adult version of a popsicle. 

I am not sure if Trader Joe’s will keep these in stock, or if they were just a part of their recent coffee mania where every 3^rd product on the shelves was coffee flavored (including a body scrub…).  I hope they keep them in stock through the summer.  I give these dessert bars a 4.

This baby bunny lives in our yard and entertains us all the time.  He prefers grass to Cold Brew Latte Bars

David:  “I am not a big popsicle fan, but this is very nice.  It has enough milky, creamy stuff in it to make it quiescently frozen."  (Editor’s note:  The word “quiescently” made me giggle.  I mean, QUIESCENTLY??  Who USES a word like that??  Don’t worry, I look it up so you don’t have to:  “Quiescent:  adjective  1.  Being at rest; quiet; still; inactive or motionless.”   Yup, now that I know the meaning, I can confirm, these dessert bars were motionless!) 

Back to David’s review: "So, this is nice!  It is kind of like a coffee flavored, no, a CAPPUCCINO FLAVORED Dreamsicle.   I would give it a 4.”

Nice treat after a long day of working outdoors.

Not too expensive - try 'em!

Price: $1.99

Rating:  4

Bonus photo: Yikes!  Sean Spicer is in our bushes!!!!  

French Vanilla Cold Brew

We drank this can of Trader Joe’s French Vanilla Cold Brew on our front porch on a nice, sunny day. 

Pretty can

Our neighborhood had been super noisy all day because they were resurfacing the street out front.  In fact, our house even SHOOK part of the day because the rolling machine also had a “vibrate” function to wiggle and jiggle the new blacktop I guess, and it also wiggled and jiggled our house.  But in the end the noise and the vibrations were worth it because we have now have a nice, smooth street.

A fresh, new street.  Ahhhh.

Anyway, back to the drink.  The 8 fl oz can says the cold brew is made of 100% Arabica coffee.  I bought it a couple of months ago and it got lost in our fridge, but the best buy date is October 8, 2017, so it was still “fresh” when we busted it out.  It was super cold, too, which was good!   I served it with a tasty carrot cake with walnuts donut from our fancy local donut store, Sugar Shack (Sugar Shack website).

Afternoon snack in the sunshine

David’s take on the cold brew: “It is like a coffee flavored Yoo-Hoo drink.  (I, of course, was then curious and asked, “And do you LIKE Yoo-Hoo drinks??” to which he answered, “Not so much…”).   But this is not bad, though, if you like this sort of thing.  It’s not bad actually.  If you like a cold drink, and you want to have coffee, or you wanna have a lot of caffeine going into ya, it’s not bad.  I will give it a 3.5, cuz it does its’ thing quite well and when it is cold it is quite nice.”

David was leery when we bought it...

But liked it better when he drank some

Susan:  Cold brew coffee is trendy, so maybe David and I are just not trendy enough for this stuff…  (Although the day we drank this David did wear a trendy shirt that says, “National Sarcasm Society – Like We NEED Your Support”.)  As far as the coffee, I guess it was good, but it didn’t really taste all that much!  I would like it better if it had a little more coffee punch to it.  I am by no means a cold brew expert – is it always a bit weaker than regular coffee?  I thought it would be the opposite, so my taste buds were surprised.  (David said it like SUN TEA compared to tea made from boiling water, soaking tea bags, then cooling it.)

We usually each just drink one cup of coffee with breakfast each day, but the day we drank this we needed an afternoon pick-me-up.  David had worked hard teaching all day and we were going to a play, so we thought this coffee would help keep us awake.  David also drank some Pepsi with the donut, thus ensuring he had sufficient caffeine to stay wiiiide awake for the show. 

See, if you hold the can the right way you can show passersby how hip you are!

I guess if you are hip and trendy, and if you like to drink cold brew, and if you want people to KNOW you are drinking cold brew, you can HOLD THIS CAN proudly and everyone will know what you are drinking.   Neither of us feel well versed enough in the “art” of cold brew to really rate this product accurately, so I am gonna cheat and just copy David’s score of 3.5.

New Item (well, new a few months ago when we bought it...)

Price – $1.79

Rating – 3.5

Bonus photo for people who look all the way down here to the bottom - us on a night out on the town!
 (Walking to the theatre we happened on this pretty fountain)