Day 263 - Milk Chocolate Truffle Bar

What a bizarre shopping experience tonight!  Just as we were pulling into our parking spot in the TJ’s Bailey’s Crossroads parking lot I got a text from our sister-in-law Joan saying, “We are at Trader Joe’s, what should we get?”.  I texted back asking “WHICH TJ’S ARE YOU AT??  We are going into one right now!”.  But before she could read the text and reply I had found her down an aisle of the same store we were going to!  Yippee – shopping buddies!  Joan doesn’t like to grocery shop.  Greg (her husband, my brother-in-law) normally does their shopping.  They were both there tonight.  And David was with me.  It was a little family reunion by the meat section of Trader Joe’s!

Joan and Greg attended our Trader Joe’s Dinner Party back in April, where every item served, from appetizers to wine to bubbly water to dessert, was from Trader Joe’s.  It was a fun evening!  And now that we were shopping with them tonight we realize that we need to have ANOTHER Trader Joe’s dinner party!  Who’s in???

This is the table full of ingredients before the Trader JOe's dinner Party in April

Anyway, I walked around the store with Joan pointing out stuff that we like (and a few things I recommended she avoid…) while David and Greg chatted.  The items in Joan’s cart piled up pretty quickly!  J  I am glad she took our advice and is trying the bacon we love (reviewed on day 242 http://traderjoes365.blogspot.com/2015/08/day-242-uncured-black-forest-bacon.html ).  Actually, while we were raving about the bacon to Greg and Joan a woman was listening and put some in her cart, too!  I hope everyone likes it as much as we do.

When they checked out with their food they must have gotten to talking to the nice cashier (Courtney) and SOMEHOW gotten hooked up with a free chocolate bar!  Joan came rushing back to find us, saying we could all taste test a candy bar!  Well you didn’t have to ask us twice – we followed her to the front.

David loves chocolate

David picked out a bar we had not tried before – an organic Milk Chocolate Truffle bar.  The turquoise packaging is really pretty, don’t you think?  They said we could take it home to do the taste test, but we were having so much fun, plus we had met a really sweet, cool lady (Wendy) in the frozen food aisle and we wanted to share it with her, so we busted it open right in the store!  Here is what we thought:

Pretty packaging

Wendy:  (She ate hers as the cashier was ringing up her purchases) – “It is smooth and very chocolate-y.  I give it a 3. See you here at the same store next Saturday night so we can have fun shopping again, right?”

 (Wendy showed me the chocolate bars in a box that are her particular favorite, and also recommended we try Inner Peas (which I have been scared to try since I gagged on a product I think is similar, Embrace Your Inner Bean, on day 62…  Review here:  http://traderjoes365.blogspot.com/2015/03/day-62-embrace-your-inner-bean.html ).  But hey, if our new friend Wendy recommends Inner Peas, I am gonna try Inner Peas!

Here we are in the store before trying the chocolate bar (Wendy is not pictured - cuz she TOOK the picture!)

Greg:  Ah – it has a dark chocolate truffle layer inside!  That is what makes it truffle - a ribbon in the middle.  It has a slight bitterness.  It is not my favorite chocolate.  I gave it a 2.

Joan:  I give it a 2.

David:  it is pleasant.  It has a nice filling.  It is sweet, not as creamy as some, but chocolate-y.  The squares are nice and attractive.  It has a good, firm crispness in the bite.  I give it a 4.5

Susan:  It is kind of hard…  I like the little “Trader Joe’s” written on the squares.  It is good, but I don’t want to marry it or anything.  I would eat it again though.  I would give it a 3.25.

Here is the shelf David chose from

So to get the final rating here I will average all of our scores.  And to reiterate – this bar was eaten, reviewed, and scored while still standing in Trader Joe’s.  J  Ahhh what a fun Saturday night.

Price – $1.99

Rating (average of 5 tasters) – 3

Day 257 - Truffle Marcona Almonds

I covered up the label of these almonds before serving some to David and his little brother Ted (I say “little” but by that I mean he is YOUNGER THAN DAVID, not that he is actually little) so that the taste would be a surprise.  Here is what they thought:

Ted:  (After eating a nut or two) “I disqualify myself from participating in this review…  I like a high quality nut, but dislike the combination of a FLAVOR and an ALMOND.  I am an ALMOND PURIST.  This particular almond tastes of garlic and smoke…  Maybe people would eat it with a sweet tasting beer…  These are not to be eaten by the handful like peanuts.  I can imagine a high end restaurant serving them on a cheese plate with some other fancy nuts.”

Truffle Marcona Almonda - fancy

David:  “GARLIC.”  (Interesting, eh?  In the blind taste test Ted thought the truffle flavor was garlic, too.) “These are nice.  I would be happy eating these (editor’s note – there is little that David would NOT be happy eating – he loves to eat…).  (Then I told them that the taste was actually TRUFFLE and showed them the bag).  Now that I know they are TRUFFLE they taste FANCY!!  They do what they set out to do.  You know what they are perfect for??  If you are giving a party, you put out little bowls of these in a few places.  People nibble on them and think, "These are interesting.  What are these??”.

David and his "little brother" in Cincinnati - his "little" brother is taller than he is

And here is my opinion (obviously mine was not a blind taste test):  These are very Truffle-y (that is not a proper word but it fits in this situation).  I wouldn’t want to eat a whole bag of them.  I think they would pair well with a red wine.  They are weird.  I would consider them a “novelty nut”.  They are for chi-chi parties – a chi-chi nut.  They MIGHT work chopped up really fine and sprinkled on a salad.

Marcona almonds are expensive.  Truffles are expensive.  Put them together and what do you get?  EXPENSIVE
(But they would be more in other stores than they are at TJs, so if you want them, go to TJs for them)

They are pricey - $6.49 for 6 oz.  These are not BAD, but I would rather spend that $6.49 on something else.

Price – $6.49

Rating – 3.5