New Zealand Sweet Apple Rings

I bought this bag of dried apples at the Omaha, Nebraska Trader Joe’s but ended up bringing with us on a long flight to Los Angeles.  I thought, “Dried fruit will be great to munch on while on the flight or while driving from LA to Palm Springs!”.  It turns out, in David’s mind at least, I was oh so wrong…

From New Zealand - they must be exotic and delicious, right????

I have to confess that the MARKETING message swayed my purchase.  I am embarrassed to admit it, but the fact that these were not just “apple rings” but NEW ZEALAND Sweet Apple Rings did make me think they might taste exotic, fancy, New Zealand-y.  The front of the package says they are Braeburn, Royal Gala, and “Seasonal Varieties” of apples, but if you read the fine print on the back you see that “seasonal varieties” must mean Fuji and Pink Lady apples.  I guess TJ’s thinks “seasonal varieties” sounds sexier than listing them all out, and that must’ve worked on me, cuz I bought ‘em.

And David was not a fan.  Here is what he said, “No likey.  It’s not pungent.  It’s dry.  Leathery.  A little big cardboard-y.  It has none of the juiciness, none of the tartness, none of the FLAVOR that makes an apple worth chewing.  Umm…  It has a lot of PULPINESS (said with a disgusted look on face…) if you like that sort of thing…  I do not like these.  They taste a little bit of some desiccating agent that maybe they sprinkled on it…  I don’t know what that would be.  Maybe some sugar, salty, some sort of FLAVORING??  (When I explained they are unsulfured and unsweetened, he retorted “Well then I guess they are just naturally UNTASTY!”).  They have all the flavor of a Red Delicious apple (which David dislikes…).  I give them a 1.”

Us at the wedding in Palm Springs, CA.  We disagreed on the dried apples, but agreed that the wedding was lovely.

I did not think they were as horrible as David did.  We do not normally buy dried apples.  I think I have only had them before as little squares in dried fruit mixes (not from TJ’s).  And those little apple square bits were always my favorites in the mix!  I would pick them out of the bag and eat them first. They were always tasty and somehow JUICY, even though they were DRIED, and had a good texture.  So when I saw this bag at TJ’s that was JUST THE APPLES, I thought BINGO, a whole bag of the best part of dried fruit mixes!!   Sadly, these are not as good as the little squares I remember from my youth.

Omaha TJ's signage.  I think David would disagree with the "sweet and lovely" part.
And, umm, why is there a squirrel playing a banjo on the sign?

I disagree with David’s “cardboard-y” assessment.  I think they do have moisture in them, but they do not have a lot of taste.  They are a little boring and bland.  You would NOT want to eat the whole big ass 8 oz bag in one sitting.  David ate ONE apple ring on the airplane and I had to force feed him one more on the car ride just to get his review.  The package says the serving size is ten rings, but David theory is that if you ate ten of them you would throw up.  J  (He exaggerates if you ask me, they are not that bad.) 

David was the officiant of the wedding.  Check out how well he tied his bow tie!!

I think if you have kids and you pack a lunch for them, you could put 4 or 5 of these apple rings into a Tupperware container or baggy for a healthy dessert or snack.  (David says if you pack these in a kid’s lunch it is child abuse…)   Or if you work at a desk I can see eating 4 or 5 of these in the afternoon with a cup of tea.  You might be able to bake with them, but I haven’t tried that.  I think I will sneak some of these in David’s lunchbox when he is not looking.  I suspect they will still be in there when he gets home, unless he cons an unsuspecting coworker into eating them. 

I give these a 2.75.

Since David was so down on these things, I thought it would be good to get a 3^rd opinion, so I chose Adelaide.  She just turned 2 and was attending the same wedding in Palm Springs that we went to.  Being only 2 years old, she doesn’t really TALK all that much…  But I gave her some apple rings and she really liked ‘em!!!  She two fisted it for a while – apple ring in each hand.  And she was happy to put a few apple rings in her dad’s pocket so she could eat more later (her shorts had fake pockets (fockets) so she couldn’t tote the rings around herself).  Anyway, Adelaide thought they were really yummy.  If she could talk and knew her numbers, I think she would give them a 4. 

Adelaide helped me with a bit of artwork

Would I buy them again for US?  No.  Would I buy them again if Adelaide and her brother and sister came to visit?  Sure enough.

Adelaide taking a quick dip in the pool with her dad

Price – $3.49

Rating (average of 3 raters, one of which was too little to give her own score so I had to surmise it…) – 2.5

Day 338 - Soft and Juicy Mango (dried)

Guys, it is DECEMBER.  December!!!!  That means this is my last month of this project!!  Oh my – the emotions!  The decisions!  What should I review??  What is worthy of LAST MONTH attention?  I find myself in an Elaine (from “Seinfeld”) like situation, trying to determine what is “sponge worthy”…  see a short Seinfeld clip here

I want to review at least a few NON-SEASONAL products, things that are staples at TJ’s and always on the shelves.  Things you can find, buy, eat, and ENJOY long after I am done writing reviews.  J  I have given props to the nut/dried fruit aisle at Trader Joe’s before, but it is worth saying it again:  TRADER JOE’S HAS AN AMAZING SELECTION OF NUTS AND DRIED FRUITS.  If you are new to shopping there, you need to really explore this aisle.  And even if you are an experienced TJ’s shopper, you can often find something new and exciting that you have not tried before in this section of the store.

So I think I should review a staple – SOFT AND JUICY MANGOS.  They are dried and cost $1.99 per bag.  TJ’s dried fruits are cheaper than fancy name brand ones you will find in other stores. 

Aren't they a lovely color??

The other day when we went to a brunch, our hostess (Joan) started grabbing all the Trader Joe’s products she could find in her cupboards and asking me if they had been reviewed.  J  These mangos used to be a go-to item for me, but since I have changed my shopping patterns a bit this year to accommodate this blog, they had slipped off my radar.  So I gladly accepted Joan’s offer to bust them out, and I invited some fellow brunch goers to help me review.  Let’s see what they thought:

Connie (used to live in northern Virginia, has since moved to New Mexico):  “It is indeed SOFT and JUICY.  However, I find mango in general to be super sweet, and Trader Joe’s putting SUGAR on this mango I think was not called for.  It adds something – it is sort of like gilding the lily.  I think it is over the top.  I think I would give these just a 2 because the sugar makes it way too sweet for me.”

Snap - Connie gave these a TWO!  Ouch.

Stan (the sausage man):  “I found these way too sweet and not acidic enough.  I had Zabar’s mangos 2 weeks ago and they had a really good balance between the natural acidity of the mango and the natural sweetness.  (Zabar’s is a cool New York grocery store, you can see it here:  Zabars.)  I will give it a 2 also.”  (David inserted a lovely Zabar’s joke here, saying that what Stan meant is that, “The mangos at Zabar’s had more Hasidic-ty…”)  (I don't have a photo of Stan, sorry.)

 Judy (this brunch was the first time I met her, I think Judy and I would get along swimmingly, she was fun):  “I think these are FINE, I get good mango flavor.  But they are too sweet.  I give them a 3.” 

Here's Judy, mixing mango with coffee or tea.

Doug (Connie’s husband):  “I think these are toooo sweet.  When I think of mango – this is not a natural sweetness.  It tastes like an artificial sugary sweetness.  I give them a 2.”  (Oops, no photo of Doug, either...  I was too busy eating cinnamon buns to take pictures...)

Chris (our nephew, senior in high school, currently debating which college to attend): “I thought these were very nice!  The way the sweetness and the natural flavor of the mango mixed together made a nice taste.  The aftertaste was fairly good.   I would give these a solid 3.”

Chris, looking like a mango-eating Zombie...

Me:  I like these.  I used to eat them all the time.  They are very MANGO-Y.  These are a good dried fruit – more interesting than your “normal” dried fruit like apple (not that there is anything wrong with dried apple!).  I can imagine these chopped in pieces and put on top of Greek yogurt.  TJ’s has a few different variations of dried mango and this is the most simple, classic one.  I would give these a 3.75.

Look guys, it says LIGHTLY SWEET on the sign...  

Price - $1.99

Rating (average of 6 raters) – 2.75 (I am a bit disappointed they got this low of a score, but I am taking into account several people’s opinions, so perhaps this is what they deserve)

Day 302 - (Dried) Soft and Juicy Mandarins

I had seen these dried mandarins in the store but never purchased them.  I didn’t think they looked all that appetizing.  Then a reader of this blog, Ttrockwood, commented and said they were really good and that they tasted like “natural JELLY BEANS”!  I like mandarins, and a real person (as opposed to a marketer for a product) said they were good, plus David loves jelly beans, so why not give them a try!

So many choices in the dried fruit and nut aisle at Trader Joe's...

My first bite left with me a bad impression.  They have kind of a crystallized texture.  I wasn’t sure if I could taste the MANDARIN or orange flavor, they just tasted sweet, sweet, sweet.  The second bite wasn’t all that much better.  After I ate a few – I think I ate 3 or 4 pieces that first day – I thought that they weren’t that great.  The second time I tried them I thought the same thing.

But now I have had them 4 times and guess what?  They grew on me!  I like them much better.  They are a nice, funky, bizarre little snack.  The nutrition label says that the serving size is 14 pieces.  I can’t imagine eating that many in one sitting, because they are quite sweet.  David agrees that is a bit excessive – we think maybe 5 or 6 pieces in a sitting (though he did say that given enough time (and television I presume…) he could eat 14 in a sitting). 

He likes 'em!

Now that I have eaten them more I realize that they DO taste like mandarin oranges.  They make for an interesting dried fruit.  They are not as run of the mill as, say, the dried apple (not that I hold anything against dried apples!  I like a good dried apple..).  We haven’t cooked with these or put them on a salad or anything, we just snacked on them out of the bag.

If you put one of these in your mouth and let it sit in there a bit, it “rejuvenates itself” more than other dried fruit does.  I am not saying it returns to its original mandarin orange slice shape, but it PLUMPS UP!  Other dried fruit just sort of gets soft…  Do you know what I am trying to say here?  You may need to try one of these mandarin bits to understand.

Try some.  They are, Like Ttrockwood said, natural jelly beans :)

David says, “These mandarins are very nice.  They are delightful.  They are like Trader Joe’s gummies (review here) but it is even MORE of a concentrated taste than those.  These are SWEET because of the outside, and it is tangy and fruity because of the inside.  It is nice and chewy, but it is not leathery, it is chewy like those TJ’s gummies.  I would give them a 4.5.”

Wow!  I wasn’t going to rate these quite THAT high, but I think I am going to go with David on this one.  More people should try these.  They are interesting and make for a different snack.  And they give you yet another excuse to wander down the dried fruit and nut aisle at your local TJ’s, and that aisle is indeed a place of wonder.

Price – $2.69

Rating – 4.5

Day 280 - Whole Roasted Cashews

Overall, I do not think I have raved enough on this blog about Trader Joe’s nut and dried fruit aisle.  It is THE BOMB.  If you have a nut need, Trader Joe’s can (likely) solve it.  They have eveeeerything!  Mixes.  Raw.  Roasted.  Sliced.  Whole.  Etc, etc, etc.  You could spend an hour just staring at the dried fruits, trail mixes, and nuts.  They take up a WHOLE AISLE people!  Not a little squished section between cake mixes and bags of sugar like in other grocery stores.  Trader Joe’s does this department right.

That being said, I have never been a cashew fan.  To me, cashews have always tasted OILY.  And mealy.  And, well, just yucky.  I have never met a cashew I really liked.  Which is why I never eat them.  So when we got this bag I figured this would be a DAVID ONLY review.  I didn’t want to bias it with my “cashew hating self”. 

Then I tried one.

And for the first time I can remember in my life I LIKED A CASHEW!  So I tried another.  And I liked it.  Repeat repeat repeat until I had eaten lots of cashews!

Ahhh the NUT AISLE at Trader Joe's...  Heaven for nut and dried fruit lovers

Originally these were David’s treat, so he decided he wanted to ROAST THEM more than they already were.  He said they were "lightly roasted" and he wanted MORE.  I sort of think it is because he likes the act of ROASTING them.  It is sort of “zen” to him I think.  He is a very loving roaster.  I think his gentle care and roasting of these is what made them taste so good to me.  He also roasts slivered almonds (which may get reviewed before the year is out) and enjoys roasting granola, too.  I guess, at heart, he is a roaster.  I am glad he roasted these, because if he hadn’t I doubt I would have enjoyed them.

Here are some of the cashews after being lovingly roasted by David.  Don't they look happy and well cared for?

Here is what David said about these cashews:  “These are very good.  Nice.  I am not sure what the comparative pricing is but this is a big bag so it has a “big price tag”.  (Editor’s note – see pricing info below.)  The cashews are very nice.  I personally prefer them a bit more roasted and a little bit more salty than they have here right from the bag.  So I roasted them a bit myself and they are fabulous and delicious!  I added salt when I roasted them but I do not think it “took”.  I think when they roast them, to make the salt adhere they spray on a salt and water solution so the water gets ABSORBED and the salt crystals stick.”

But after another taste (we HAD to, for the sake of this blog…) we both agreed that David’s salt to nut mixture was near ‘bout perfect.

Look - he was caressing them even before he put them in the cart!  He loves cashews.

The bag claims these are WHOLE CASHEWS and that is absolutely 100% correct.  Other cans/jars/bags of cashews sometime say “whole cashews” but contain broken bits.  These were big, meaty, whole cashews.  High quality.

As far as pricing goes, I think they are really well priced.  I have not done enough comparison shopping in brick and mortar stores to make that claim, but let’s look around a bit online, shall we?

·         A site called Piping Rock.com, whose tag line is, “Always the Best for Less”, is apparently lying,       because they have a 1 lb bag for $9.49 (plus shipping)

·         A site called Nuts.com (I mean, THEY have to have good prices, right?  With a name like that?)         is charging $10.99/lb

·         And on “The Peanut Shop” (which categories cashews as “other nuts”) they price them at $27.99         for an 18 oz tin

HEY!  Beyond pricing, check out what nuts.com had to say about the HEALTH BENEFITS of eating nuts!  “A 2013 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine examined 76,464 women and 42,498 men and found that consumption of nuts such as cashews was inversely associated with total and cause-specific mortality. The study also found that eating nuts regularly can stave off weight gain. Previous studies have indicated that the high nutrient content of unsaturated fats, dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals in nuts may help reduce the risk for chronic conditions such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.” 

There you have it – eating these puppies will make you skinnier, healthier, and help you live longer.  What more can you ask for, people???

All I can say is:  KEEP EATING NUTS, DAVID!  I want you to be healhy and live a really long time!

Since David is the expert I, of course, asked him for his rating of these cashews first.  He gave them a 4.5 and I am happy to support that.  In fact, now that I see how the price seems to rate compared to other retailers, I am bumping that rating up a bit!!  If you like cashews these are really good. 

Price – $6.99 (16 oz)

Rating – 4.75

Day 136 - Dried Apricots

We got these as a “road trip snack” but have ended up eating them (and sharing with other artists) as a “theatre festival snack”.  They are nice!

Last minute addition to our shopping cart - dried apricots from Turkey

They are dried, but not “shriveled-up-no-liquid-left-dried” like some dried fruit.  I thought this was exciting and unique, but when I shared one with a fellow artist he declared that no, this was not unique, this was indeed how most (all??) dried apricots are, and that these were, in his opinion, average.

Way to be a Debbie Downer! 

I will follow my original opinion of this snack and not be swayed by a dried apricot connoisseur.  J 

Not all shriveled up and dried

These are plump, moist, tasty apricots.  The bag (1 lb) is plenty big to share with friends old and new.  I have not tried cooking with them, just munching them straight out of the bag.  They make me feel like I am eating a healthier pick-me-up than, say, a bag of Doritos (which, let’s face it, happens sometimes…). 

Good snack. 

Price – $3.99

Rating – 3.75

Day 67 - Turkish Smyrna Figs

Let me start by saying that the dried fruits and nut aisle at Trader Joe’s is OUTSTANDING.  I mean, it is honestly fabulous.  There are SO MANY choices and variations – nuts of this persuasion and that, dried fruits with spices and those that are naked…  You must walk down the dried fruit and nut aisle to truly appreciate it.

A NUT looking at the dried fruit and nut aisle in a Trader Joe's in North Carolina

 That being said, the Turkish Smyrna Figs are a lovely choice!!  This was our first purchase of this particular dried fruit and we were very happy with it.  We ended up sneaking the bag into an all day Best Picture nominated Oscar movie watching fest, and I am quite certain we were the healthiest snackers in the whole entire sold out theatre. 

Tasty and healthy snack - dried figs

A fine price for a fine fig

The packaging for these figs works well – after opening there is a little Ziplock-like closure on the top and it really works (as opposed to some packaging which HAS the zip top but for some reason it can’t close…).  The figs are really tasty!!  They are plump and soft and yummy.  Try them!

Full disclosure – as soon as summer hits we will have our own FRESH FIGS right in the side yard.  Last year was the first time our tiny fig tree (her name is Pudding…) bore fruit, and boy was it NICE!  I had never had a fresh fig until I plucked one off of Pudding and bit into the lusciousness that is fig.  Ahhhh. 

A real live FIG ON OUR TREE!

This is on of our fresh figs cut in half - isn't it gorgeous?

But until the new figs appear on our tree, these dried ones from TJs will do juuuust fine.

Price - $3.49

Rating - 4