First off, let me say this:
I MADE A HUGE PARTY FAUX PAS. I was invited to a Cinco de Mayo dinner (yes,
I am THAT FAR BEHIND in reviews, I am writing on September 20th
about something I ate on May 5th, don’t judge…). Anyway, I was invited to a Cinco de Mayo
dinner and asked to bring dessert. Not
only did I not bake or make anything, I didn’t even bring
anything appropriate for the theme!!! Yes, I was “that guest” that showed up at a
dinner with a boxed dessert from TJ’s, an Italian Tiramisu to be precise.
But, but, butttt, to
make matters even worse, it turns out that the party hosts (who I am related to and should know better) are not fans of tiramisu.
Fail fail fail on all fronts, Susan (I say to myself in the third person). You win the SUCKY GUEST award.
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| Hey, at least I didn't just bring it over still in the BOX! As you can see here when you peek into our fridge, I put it on a very pretty plate (and you can also see that we have a 3/4 empty bottle of margarita mix and some left over pizza in the fridge... Charming.) |
Ok, now that I have gotten that off my chest, let’s take a look at
Trader Joe’s Tiramisu Torte, shall we?? (NOTE
– until today when I finally wrote up this review, I thought we had been eating
and reviewing Tiramisu, not Tiramisu Torte…
See note at the end of this article.)
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| It looks pretty on the box, no? |
I shared this product with my in-laws, Greg, Joan, and Chris. I served tiny slices since we had just
indulged in lots of tacos for dinner.
Here is what people thought:
Chris: Chris is a college
student who had just returned home for the summer. He is not a fan of coffee
(an important element of tiramisu….). Here
is what he thought, “It… Ummm… It is not
BAD…. I am not the biggest fan of coffee
and coffee flavors, so naturally I am not THAT keen on it… But the coffee flavor is not so overwhelming
that I can’t continue eating it. It’s
good. I give it a 1.75.” (Editor’s note: for someone who hates coffee, he sure did eat
the whole piece of tiramisu.)
Me: I didn’t choke on this
tiramisu, and I have choked on others in the past. You know that whole thing where you
accidentally suck a big breath in just as your fork-load of tiramisu reaches
your mouth, and you choke on the powder?? (Crickets…)
Umm, you don’t know that
feeling? Is it just ME then?? Well, this particular tiramisu did not have
that weird affect, so that’s a plus. I
like the texture of this dessert – the bottom layer was not what I would call a
“normal” tiramisu layer. I also liked
that the dessert had some little chunks in it – little chocolate bits, which
tasted good. The middle layer seemed
almost ice cream-ish, almost like an ice cream cake. It was obviously very easy to prepare. I like it.
it would be nice to pair with an espresso if you are a coffee lover. I do think it is sort of expensive when you compare it to other stuff at Trader Joe's. I give this a 3.75.
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| As you can see, David thought it was going to be a good dessert. Sadly, he didn't even get to eat any of it, since he was busy that night and couldn't come to the dinner. |
Greg (father of the family also not a coffee fan, which I
obviously forgot before I brought this dessert to the gathering): “It is sweet.
The texture is good. But it is
coffee. I give it a 2.” (Editor’s note: he DID finish his whole piece.)
Joan (mother of the family, liker of coffee): “There was nothing exactly bad about this,
but if you could only eat one dessert, I would choose many other desserts over
this… The best part were the fresh
raspberries (editor: I added those, they
do not come in the box 😊 ). The
bottom is like chocolate cake, not the traditional tiramisu layer. It did not appear to have been SOAKED in
coffee. It was somewhat dry-ish. The coffee flavor reminded me more of Kahlua
than coffee – so more like a coffee syrup.
In general I am not a big fan of tiramisu. This was not tiramisu-ish, so I thought it
would be better for me… But I would
prefer a cheesecake to this. This looked
more like cheesecake than tiramisu actually, though it had a nipple…
(Greg pointed out that the nipple was an indicator that it was mass
produced. The TJ's price tag says it is handmade, so... Not sure.) The cocoa powder was the
highlight for me. I would give this
tiramisu a 1.”
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| The raspberries (also from Trader Joe's, of course) made the plates look pretty and were Joan's favorite part. |
Ok then… This tiramisu is
made in ITALY. Maybe this is more like a
real ITALIAN version of the dessert? It is
hard to know what to give the product overall, since most of the taste testers
were not fans of the ingredients, let alone the final product. But I think the fact that I, someone who
likes tiramisu, and Joan, someone who may not be the biggest tiramisu fan but a
lover of coffee, both were not bowled away by this dessert says something. I am not going to score this with a mathematical
average of all reviewers because that seems harsh, but I am going to take all
viewpoints into consideration before slapping on a final number.
Also, now that I look at the photos I took, I see this is not
called TIRAMISU, it is called TIRAMISU
TORTE… So obviously, that
explains why it didn’t seem like “regular” tiramisu and we were looking at it
thru the wrong lens!!!
Does that fact negate our reviews?? Perhaps…
But I still think our opinions were pretty clear – this isn’t a “must
eat” dessert, no matter what you call it.
whether you are counting calories or counting pennies, I would use your diet
and your money in another manner…
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| Price tag |
Price: $6.99
Rating: 2.75
