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

Day 331 - Cherry Cider

16 years ago today David and I took the plunge.  We had been together for what felt like an eternity already, and the whole wedding part was more party and formality than anything else, but this Thanksgiving season I am sure thankful to have him in my life.  Here is the picture from our surprise wedding invitations - "Susan and David are finally taking the plunge".  Fun times!

Snapped the shot on the first attempt - thank goodness!!  Taking the plunge was never so fun.

But enough anniversary celebrating, you are here for a REVIEW.  Here goes!

I bought this Cherry Cider in an attempt at fairness.  I felt bad that I was so heavily favoring the Honey Crisp Apple Cider (a-maaaa-zing!  reviewed here).  I thought I should spread the juice love out a bit, so in a moment of weakness I forego the Honey Crisp for this Cherry Cider.

 

Found on the juice shelves (not refrigerated)

Big mistake.

It tastes like COUGH SYRUP.  In fact, it SMELLS like cough syrup.  So I get the cough syrup scent before I even get a dribble of this juice in my mouth.  I.  hate.  Cough.  Syrup.  I would rather cough than drink cough syrup.  (Unless I have one of those horrible coughs where you have hacked soooo much that every muscle in your back hurts…  If I have THAT kind of cough, I will consider taking a tiny spoonful of cough syrup…)  So imagine, me, a woman who hates even a spoonful of cough syrup, being confronted by a juice glass full.  Ewwww.

I feel I should point out – I like CHERRY STUFF.  So don’t think that I am dismissing this cider simply because it is the same FLAVOR of many cough syrups.  No, cherry itself is tasty.  But this not only tastes of CHERRY, it tastes of CHERRY COUGH SYRUP.  It doesn’t have the consistency of cough syrup, thankfully.  But it has the scent and taste of it.  L 

David’s opinion:  "I don’t like it.  It is too sweet.  It tastes very cherry-ish, and maybe that is the way a cherry cider ought to taste.  But to me it is like drinking the juice at the bottom of a can of cherry pie filler.  I give it a 1.5."

 A sleepy David being forced to drink some cherry cider for a taste test.  Poor guy.

The only reason I am now drinking this juice is to try and get the bit 2 quart container out of our fridge.  I even tried heating it up one afternoon because I was jonesin’ so much for my hot Honey Crisp Apple Cider.  I thought surely it would be better warm.  Nope.  It was HOT cough syrup in a pretty mug.  Yuck. 

The color is also a little off-putting.  It is not red, but it is not pink.  There is a hint of brown to it, making me suspect prune juice.  If I wanted brown juice, I would buy prune juice.  If I want cherry, make it red please (this is probably years of drinking juice tainted with food coloring talking…).  For complete and accurate reporting I just checked the label – no prune juice here, folks. 

Save your money - invest in another juice instead.

The label says it is “cherry flavored juice blend from concentrates with other natural ingredients.  100% juice, no artificial flavors or preservatives”.  There you go – it is healthy, but not tasty. 

I have since gotten more of my favorite cider.  I couldn’t wait to finish the cherry crap to open the honey crisp bottle, so I now have TWO open large bottles of cider in the refrigerator.  Sigh.  Maybe I will pour this cherry stuff down the drain.  I don’t feel like I can return it after having already forced myself to drink half the bottle.

Oh well, you win some, you lose some.  For us, this one is a lose.  I give it a 2.

Price – $3.99

Rating – 1.75 (average of 2 raters)

Day 299 - Tangerine Juice

Before I start this review, let me express my happiness and appreciation.  Another reader sent me a TJ’s bag and honey!!!!!!!!  Can you even believe it?  Peoples’ generosity really makes me smile!! 

  

LOOK!!!  Another box in the mail from a blog friend!!

This one came from Robert, a reader who also has a Trader Joe’s blog (something I didn’t know existed until I was well into this project – note to self:  Google before starting huge projects!!!).  He got me a bag from the Ashville, NC Trader Joe’s store and it is SO CUTE!  We have used it several times.  The other night our cashier, Carole, at the Clarendon VA store noticed it and loved it!  Carole had a great idea:  people should be able to buy and collect the TJ’s bags from all the states!  She said that she for one would start a collection.  Hey, it would be more useful than those Disney collectible pins, my collection of squished pennies, or some of the other things people collect, wouldn’t it??  She thought the NC bag was awesome, and so do I!  We have not tasted the honey yet, but it came in a delightful jar that made it look as if your Great Aunt Tilly made the honey for you instead of a store.  As soon as we finish one of the honeys we have open this one is next on deck!  Robert’s blog also reviews Trader Joe’s products and is very fun.  You can find it at: Exploring Trader Joe's blog

Look!!!  An adorable NC bag and a jar of HONEY!  

Robert recently reviewed TJ’s Tangerine Juice.  Here is his review that I saw, which piqued my interest in this product:  Exploring Trader Joe's Tangerine Juice review .  Tangerine juice was something I had not tried before, and Robert liked it, so I figured, “Let’s give it a go!”. 

Here's the bottle - 32 fl oz of straight tangerine juice

Ohhhh Robert, Robert, Robert…  What path did you lead me down???

OK, so at $3.29 for a 32 oz bottle, this was not a cheap drink.  It was more of a “splurge” for a bit of excitement, or a health food splurge if you will since the ingredient (singular) is just TANGERINE JUICE.  I thought this would be a nice treat.  I was wrong.

It is very BITTER.  The first drink was horrible.  Bad, bad, bad….  The second drink (this is going to sound weird I know, but I am being honest here) tasted like colonoscopy prep stuff…  If you have ever had a colonoscopy you KNOW the taste I am talking about.  I must have had orange or tangerine flavored prep one time because when the second drink of this tangerine juice hit my taste buds I had a colonoscopy flashback!  (Note:  this is not really a flashback you want to have.)  I was a bit afraid I might have to excuse myself to the bathroom if I continued to drink this juice, but I convinced myself that this was not, as my sisters and I like to call it, “Go All Nightly” (colonoscopy prep stuff).  I steeled myself to take another sip.*

Looks pretty in our juice glasses, eh?

The 3^rd and 4^th drinks got a little better.  Not GOOD mind you, but BETTER.   To me it tastes like Tang.  I don’t remember ever having Tang at our house growing up but I must have had it at a friend’s house, because this makes me think TANG!  To me, the only thing cool about Tang was the idea that actual real live astronauts up in space might have drank it.  The taste, to me, is not cool…   I wasn’t sure what the actual FLAVOR of Tang was, so I Googled it.  Consensus seemed to be that it was supposed to be ORANGE, and I was going to go along with that.  Only, in the middle of the night I had an “Aha!” moment – HEL-LO!  Tang?  T-A-N-G…  Tang.  Umm, those are the first four letters of TANGerine!  Obviously the flavor of Tang is tangerine, it is just tricky in that we pronounce it differently than you would expect!  So Tang is basically a covert astronaut drink.

First taste

Reaction....

Of this TJ’s Tangerine juice, David says, “I agree.  The taste is very bitter at the beginning.  It gets better – I guess you get used to it.  The tangerine taste itself is nice – it is very “tangerine-y”. It’s just I think they made the mistake of squeezing the tangerines a bit too hard so you get a lot of the rind taste, which is a bit bitter.”

The color of this juice is unnaturally bright orange.  It is a very pretty color!  We have a wall this color.  But I would rather see this color on a wall I guess than in my juice glass.

See, our wall is the same color!  New Year's Eve tradition - eat 12 grapes in one minute at the stroke of midnight!  (As you can see we were drinking an excellent Beaujolais Nouveau reviewed waaaaay back on day 2 of this blog!  Review here )

We both gave this juice a 2.5 rating.  The upside is that it quenches your thirst.  Then again, water can do that, too, and it is not as expensive or nearly as bitter.

If you WANT Tangerine Juice, get it at TJ's - it was much
more expensive at Safeway

Sorry Robert, we need to agree to disagree on this one.  J  It is a good example of how some things taste great to some people and “meh” to others.  But THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for the gifts!  I love them!

*Note from David:  Susan has a bit of PTSD about colonoscopy prep, so expressions of her feelings on that issue may appear larger than in your rear view mirror.

Price - $3.29

Rating – 2.5

Day 297 - Honey Crisp Apple Cider

I have an announcement to make.

Honey Crisp Apple Cider is THE BEST AUTUMN PRODUCT at Trader Joe’s.  Hands down.  The BEST.

My newest love, Honey Crisp Apple Cider (it's an affair rekindled from last autumn...)

Oh sure, you may think, “But Susan!!  What about pumpkin this, or pumpkin that…  Trader Joe’s is chock full of pumpkin flavored stuff this season!!”

Well here is what I have to say about that:  PUMPKIN FLAVOR IS THE KARDASHIAN FAMILY OF THE GROCERY STORE.  It is over-exposed.  It’s toooo popular.  It has become passé and boring.  (Plus it has a big butt, but perhaps I am taking this metaphor too far…)

Butt seriously...

HONEY CRISP APPLE CIDER IS WHERE IT’S AT, MAN!

This is the one you want.  Put some in your cart.  Buy it.  Then DRINK IT.

This stuff is insanely delicious.  It is crisp, simple, and delightful.  You can drink it cold for breakfast and it is great.  Or you can heat it up and drink it warm – but if you do that I must warn you that you may well become addicted and “need” it every afternoon or evening…  I speak from experience… (She typed, then paused to take a sip of the steamy hot beverage…)

We went through two bottle of this variety of Honey Crisp Cider and then I decided that, to be fair, we ought to try a bottle of TJ’s Spiced Cider.  The Honey Crisp blows the Spiced stuff out of the water.  I may review the Spiced Cider at a later date, but for now let’s just say, it tries too hard.  Honey Crisp, on the other hand, doesn’t need to try, cuz it is already all that!

Don't pass up a little sample of it if your TJ's has it on offer, but it's even BETTER at home! 

One evening I heated some Honey Crisp Apple Cider up and added a bit of Puerto Rican rum!  That was also good.  Not BETTER than just the plain cider, but good in a different way.  It will be fun to drink it like that on cold winter nights when we have the fireplace going.

If you can only buy one seasonal product this year, get this one.  As a matter of fact, you might wanna just pick up two jugs when you go, because you will get through that first one really quickly. 

This sign didn't match the rest of the signage.  My theory is the stocker was so ecxited to put it out on the shelves
(cuz it is so yummy) that he/she couldn't wait for an official sign to be made.

Price – $2.99 (and worth every penny)

Rating – 5

Day 277 - Apple Grape Juice

This juice was first sampled under perfect conditions.  Picture this:

It was a Friday.  We both had the DAY OFF.  We slept in.  The sun was shining.  The kitchen door was open – letting a breeze in.  We lazed around and finally sat down for breakfast at 12:25 PM, a time when “adults” would be eating LUNCH, not breakfast.  We sat down to a delicious spread, which included this Trader Joe’s Apple Grape Juice.  Sounds idyllic… 

David with this juice in the store.  Before we tasted it.

 And yet…

To me – drinking this was like drinking industrial strength airport bathroom cleaning liquid in a cup.  This is not what I want to drink.  It was not good.  It is too perfume-y – it smells fake.  The smell totally put me off.  And of course, you SMELL a juice before you TASTE it.  So to me, it seemed like I had a little juice glass full of public toilet water from O’Hare with my breakfast.  JUST FLUSHED and CLEANED airport toilet water, mind you, but toilet water none-the-less.  And that is NOT what I like to wash my omelets down with.  It was, to say the least, off putting… 

The SMELL then influenced the TASTE, making my taste buds think they were drinking toilet cleaner.  This did not help my appetite.

I did due diligence - I TRIED tasting this juice with my nose plugged.  I STILL didn't like it! 

I would rather drink Trader Joe's plain white grape juice  ( review here ) or much better still, Concord grape juice (that is the bomb!):  (review here).   Heck, if you twisted my arm and said, “Susan you MUST drink a glass of this fake toilet cleaner-scented juice or a glass of actual toilet WATER (without cleaner)!!!” I think I would choose the plain water.  This was that yucky.

David, on the other hand, drank the juice then said, “It’s mild.  Mellow.  Very peasant.  It’s alright by me!”

David, happily drinking toilet water cleaner.

And when I explained the whole “toilet cleaner” thing, David replied, “This is a fiiiiine toilet cleaner!”.

You can keep this toilet cleaner crap.  I bought a bottle of TJ’s Honey Crisp Apple Cider that I adore (to be reviewed soon) and I pushed this gross toilet juice to the back of the fridge (David is still drinking it, ewww.)

"Slightly sweet" my ass!  Slightly GROSS is more like it.  Organic or not, this juice isn't coming home with us again.

Price – $3.99

Rating – 2.25 (this score would be lower, but David likes it...)

Day 237 - Cold Pressed Watermelon Juice

So, we visited ANOTHER TRADER JOE’S in yet another state!  This time we were on a road trip – driving from Indianapolis back home to Arlington, VA.  I took a nap while David drove and when I woke up I said, “Wait, are we near a Trader Joe’s???”.  Lucky for me we were!

Tada!  The 16th Trader Joe's int he 10th state we have visited since January 1, 2015 - DUBLIN, Ohio!

Dublin, Ohio has a very nice TJ’s.  We talked to a super sweet and cool employee (whose name I have forgotten…) and he told us there are only 5 or 6 Trader Joe’s locations in all of Ohio.  And guess what?  There is no special OHIO REUSABLE SHOPPING BAG!  Trader Joe’s corporate, are you reading this?  We need an Ohio bag, stat!  You could put the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on it!  Or heck, you could put Cornhenge on it, which we stopped at right before shopping at TJ’s!  There are loads of Ohio things you could choose, just pick one and make a bag for those poor people.  I feel sorry that they do not have one.

The miracle of CORNHENGE, very near the Dublin, OH Trader Joe's!

Anyway, I picked up a Cold Pressed Watermelon Juice.  You must understand, the concept of this product sounds gross to me…  I have seen it in stores before and skipped it because I wasn’t sure I could give it a fair review.  To me, DRINKING watermelon sounds yucky.  But for some reason, on this sunny Ohio day I decided to give it a shot.

Isn't it a pretty color??

I am glad I tried it.  Granted, it doesn’t go into my “favorite juice” category, but it was not nearrrrrly as horrible as I had feared.  In fact, it was not HORRIBLE at all.  Here is what David and I thought of it:

David – It is good.  It’s light, refreshing.  It needs to be drunk cold but the little bit of lime juice is a good balancer.  (Editor’s note – it tasted like lime to David but is actually lemon juice.)  I guess I would give it a 4. 

As you can see from this photo, David didn't expect to like it either...

Susan – I expected to hate it.  Even when I opened the bottle and smelled it, it smelled disgusting…  To me, watermelon is something to be eaten, not DRANK.  The first drink was surprisingly refreshing!  We drank it right after leaving the store – it was very cold.  It’s light, not at all thick, gloppy or chunky (which is what I feared).  It is a very pretty color, but it looks gross on the shelf because all of  the watermelon pink part separates and goes to the bottom of the bottle. That is very visually off-putting to me.  You need to shake it really good before drinking.  I would give it a 3.5.  It is everything it is advertised to be – cold pressed watermelon juice.  It is just not the best taste for a juice for ME it is not disgusting like I feared it would be.

A little taste of summer in the Ohio sunshine

It is cool – the side of the bottle explains exactly what is in it.  That one little 15.2 oz bottle contained 2 lbs of watermelon and ¼ lemon.  I think that explains why the cold pressed drinks at TJ’s are so expensive!  2 lbs of watermelon squished into one bottle!  Yowsa!!

See how it looks BEFORE YOU SHAKE IT?  Bleck - the watery part on top doesn't look great

If you want to see Trader Joe’s info on this product, read here:  http://www.traderjoes.com/digin/post/cold-pressed-watermelon-juice

Overall, though this is a good product, I still would rather EAT a watermelon than DRINK one.  J

Price – $3.69

Rating – 3.75 (average of 2 ratings)

Day 230 - Mango 100% Juice Smoothie

We are still at the Indy Fringe Festival.  David is performing his solo show “A Little Business at the Big Top” (I directed it).  We travel to festivals all around and all of them have one thing in common – the people involved with productions do not eat healthy and are exhausted.

So on our trip to Trader Joe’s, I picked up this Mango 100% Juice Smoothie, thinking it would be a healthy addition to our diet.

Not cheap, but chock full of health

And it was!  As soon as I took the first sip I felt a jolt of HEALTH coursing through my veins!  (Even though, technically, the juice was in my MOUTH and my esophagus, not my veins, but you know what I mean…)  It felt like I was pouring a whole mango into my body!  And mangos are both TASTY and HEALTHY. 

Mango is definitely the strongest flavor in this juice, but the label tells me it also contains banana puree, apple juice, orange juice, and lemon juice.  And it is an excellent source of vitamin A and a good source of vitamin C. 

Ahhh - a chug of health

I sort of feel like I should invest in a case of these juices and hand them out to weary performers at the Fringe Beer Tent.  They would do everyone a world of good!  David doesn’t like this smoothie and so wouldn’t drink one, but that would just leave more for other performers. 

This is David in the Indianapolis Trader Joe's PRETENDING he is going to like this Mango Smoothie.  He had already decided he thought it looked yucky, but we liked the CLOUDS they have hanging up so he was being all angelic or something...

I wish the juice was a litttttle less thick, but it IS a smoothie and not a juice, so I guess I cannot rightfully complain.  It comes in a one pint plastic recyclable bottle. 

If I had a Trader Joe’s smoothie competition, I would say this one beats the Very Green Smoothie (reviewed on day 156 of this blog) and the Strawberry Chia Smoothie (reviewed on day 145 of this blog).  This one does the best to balance YUMMY TASTE with GOOD FOR YOU.

Price - $2.99

Rating - 4

Day 163 - 100% Cranberry Juice

Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, nah, that isn’t gonna happen, I am not buying this juice again. 

Here is what to be on the lookout for...  

Let’s just say, when this label says 100% CRANBERRY JUICE, they ain’t a kiddin’…  The little part that says “No artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives” basically means – NO SUGAR OR ANYTHING ELSE TO MAKE THIS JUICE PALATABLE – DRINK AT YOUR OWN RISK! 

I guess I am spoiled.  I see the words “Cranberry Juice” and I must just expect COCKTAIL.  Even though this label clearly does NOT say cocktail and clearly DOES say 100% juice, I did not know what I was getting myself into!  I am not sure who drinks this juice…  It is as bitter, tart and sharp as the night is long.  It is pure, unadulterated squished cranberries.  We could not even get through a shared teeny tiny juice cup – I asked David if he wanted to add some San Pelligrino bubbly water to it to try and cut it to make it better and he said, “NO!  I don’t want to waste any Pelligrino!!  I will dump that juice out!”.

Not a good way to start your morning....

WHAT THE WHAT IS IN THIS JUICE GLASS????

So we dumped out half a cup of juice, and I am now going to dump out the rest of the (almost untouched) bottle.  Sigh.  What a waste.  But we are leaving Florida tomorrow and need to clean out the fridge, and I cannot imagine the neighbors would be thankful to us for dumping this juice on them. 

It is hard to RATE this product.  I mean, I guess I have never had “real” cranberry juice, only the Welch’s Cranberry Juice Cocktail kind…  So maybe, if you are into pure cranberry juice, this stuff is the bomb…  However, for my taste buds, this stuff just totally BOMBED.   So I am sorry to say I am going to have to give it a zero…  I mean, not even being able to drink a small juice glass has to equal a zero, right???  If you are a 100% cranberry juice drinker, try this.  Maybe it is good.  But if you are more on the cranberry juice COCKTAIL side, steer clear.

P.S. – my partner points out that this juice IS, in fact, what it says it is, PURE JUICE.  So perhaps the score should be higher.

P.P.S. – this stuff tastes like #^&*, I stick by the 0.  J

Price – $3.99

Rating - 0

Day 156 - Very Green 100% Juice Smoothie

We visited YET ANOTHER Trader Joe’s today!!!  This one was in Pembroke Pines, FL.  The Captain (manager), I think her name was Sarah, was super sweet.  And I really liked some of the signage in this store – it was all beach-y/Florida themes!  Nice. 

Their sample area is called THE GECKO GALLEY - perfect for Florida!!

This was a big painted sign on the front window - "Trader Joe's, where shopping is always a picnic"  :)

One product we picked up was the Very Green 100% Juice Smoothie.  While I adore green veggies, we do not often drink green drinks.  David, in fact, wrinkled up his nose at the prospect of tasting this…

You can tell he is thinking, "Do I really have this??  It is YOUR project, Susan...."

The label on the front says this smoothie is a blend of banana, mango and kiwi purees, apple and pineapple juice, and (I quote) “green foods and other added ingredients”.  Hmmm….  The “green foods” part was a bit off-putting…  Green WHAT?  Oh sure, I doubt it would be green M&Ms, but still, why the secret???  However, when I took time to read the nutritional information, I found out what all of the ingredients were, including the seemingly top secret ones not listed on the front:  apple juice, banana puree, mango puree, pineapple juice, kiwi puree, spirulina, chlorella (what the hell is that one??), natural flavor, dried greens blend (broccoli, spinach, barley grass, ginger, blue green algae, parsley, garlic).

GARLIC?  In a SMOOTHIE? 

As you can see it really IS very green!

But guess what?  It is not half bad!  It says 2 servings, and I would say that is accurate, not sure I would want to chug the whole 16 oz container in one sitting, but it was good.  The first and strongest taste I got was banana (ironic, since bananas are not green, unless of course you are eating/drinking unripe bananas…).  We also could taste the mango and apple juice and perhaps a hint of pineapple.  It tasted like I was drinking something HEALTHY, but not like I was trying to force down medicine or anything.   I think it is quite expensive for the amount of drink you get, but I guess if you think of the cost of all of the ingredients it is probably not over-priced.

And guess what again?  EVEN DAVID LIKED IT!  Oh sure, at first he only took a teeny tiny sip cuz he was nervous.  But after a drink or two he had to admit that it was good.

Price - $2.99

Rating – 3.75

Day 145 - Strawberry Chia 100% Juice Smoothie

I thought it was just ME who was childish.  But no, lucky for me, it turns out my partner David is, too J. 

We rushed into the Orlando Trader Joe’s today with only a few minutes to shop between seeing plays.  We wanted a SALAD so that we could have a healthy meal (as opposed to the poutine, pizza, and other meal choices available from vendors at the festival (though we did have a good Greek salad from a vendor one night…).  Anyway, it was super hot out (as Orlando can be in the summer time…) and I decided a cold, healthy drink was in order, too (to balance out all the beer from the festival).  So I grabbed this Strawberry Chia 100% Juice Smoothie.

If you do not know from previous reviews on this blog, we are not health nuts.  We do not go out of our way to buy things with fancy organic ingredients, and CHIA, in my mind, is only for pets, as in the Willy Nelson Chia Pet I saw on the clearance table at Office Depot recently!  (Why a gem like that would be on a clearance table is beyond me!!)  Anyway, I thought it was just me who would think something so silly, then David quipped, “If I drink this will chia grass grow in my belly?”.  Haha – see why we get along so well?

A pint of health - strawberry chia smoothie 

So this “strawberry puree flavored blend with apple juice and chia seeds” is pretty good.  It mostly tastes like strawberry.  But there are strange little BUMPS all up in it…  At first I thought they were the little bits from the outside of strawberries, then I realized, duh, those are the CHIA SEEDS!  They are actually a bit more fine and delicate than a strawberry seed thing would be.  This drink is chock full of them.  After the first sip or two I got used to them, but still, if I am going to have “bits” in my drink, I would rather they be tapioca bubbles (yum – bubble tea!!).

I would say this snack drink would be better consumed not in the hot humid sun.  I can picture it going down better while a person is sitting at their desk and needs a bit of an afternoon pick-me-up. 

Price – $2.99

Rating – 3.25

Day 137 - Concord Grape Juice

“Slurp”

“Ahhh”

“Man, that’s good!”

These are the sounds/words I hear as I sit across the table from David eating breakfast.  He adores this Concord Grape Juice! 

Ahhhhhh

We do not normally get our juice from Trader Joe’s, but we needed to stock up on non-perishable products to review while we are in a town with no Trader Joe’s (sad, I know, NO TRADER JOE’S!!).  Anyway, one thing we chose to bring is this grape juice, and we are glad we did!

It comes in a small bottle (1 quart) and it is not cheap ($3.99), but boy is it yummy.  It is “certified organic, pasteurized, and made from fresh pressed organic Concord grapes” (all from the label) but what we care about is “IS IT DELICIOUS?” and the answer is “YES IT IS!!”.

Not cheap, but grape juice never is really

The only downside to this product is that every time we have poured a glass, it somehow dribbles down the side of the bottle and gets onto the bottom of it.  That means when you put the bottle down on the counter or in the fridge, you get a ring of very hard to remove purple grape juice as a stain.  Something is not quite right with the design of the bottle.  I recommend always WIPING the bottom of the bottle after you pour so you do not have to do a clean up later.

Were it not for the messy grape juice rings, this would get a 5 star rating.  Alas, like Carrie Ann Inaba on Dancing with the Stars always dinging couples for doing lifts in their dances, I must ding this product a tiny bit due to the malfunctioning bottle.

Price - $3.99

Rating – 4.75

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

Day 86 - Pineapple Juice

THANKS HEIDI!  Heidi is my friend who had this tasty Trader Joe’s Pineapple Juice in her fridge when I stayed over.  Now, thanks to her, we have it in OUR fridge, too!  And boy is it good.  It is REAL JUICE, none of that imitation watered down stuff.   

Find this juice back by the milk and yogurt refrigerated section

We hadn’t bought any pineapple juice in a very long time, and had never tried the Trader Joe’s variety, so this was a nice find.  It is very juicy and very fruity, and after all, isn’t that what a juice SHOULD be?

Two thumbs up for this great addition to your breakfast table. 

Price - $3.99

Rating - 4.25