Finding a crisp 20-dollar bill in the pocket of your winter coat. You haven’t worn the jacket since last winter and just yesterday it was pulled from behind the clothes that you went to the pool in, camped in, and hiked in. But with the first opportunity of the season to wear the heavy winter jacket you find this gold mine in the pocket. This might have been yesterday but today you find yourself at good ‘ol Trader Joe’s and lucky for you, their seasonal items are in full force. That 20 dollars… well… it will be used.
The Newspaper class is very enthusiastic about Trader Joe’s. The snacks: were incredible, the pre-packed meals: were incredible, and the skincare: was incredible. ( I happen to exclusively use Trader Joe’s skincare). But the seasonal items have to take the cake. First off, the price. You will not get a better bang for your buck than at TJ’s. Period. full stop.
I believe the best seasonal item you can buy at Trader is the Peppermint Pretzel Slims which go for $2.99 per bag. It is a screaming deal and they fly off the shelves. Even now, with the holiday season not even close to ending, the downtown location is sold out and has been for weeks. I would rate them a 10/10 not only for the taste but the price as well. The magnificent peppermint scent wafts up from the bag, teasing you with a tantalizing scent from the moment you open it up. From there the experience only gets better, as the white chocolate and peppermint combination merges with the crisp, salty pretzel to send you to a new level of existence.
The Peppermint Meringues would tie with the Dark Chocolate Stars at an 8.5 out of 10. Both are very worth it in price as the meringues are $2.99 and the stars are $4.99 but are in a huge box that I think could feed anywhere to 6-10 people depending on who and how hungry they are. Both are highly bingeable snacks that you could eat a substantial amount of without getting sick of.
The next tier down would be a tie between the English Toffee, Candy Cane Covered Almonds, and the Dark Chocolate Covered Peppermint Jo Joes. All are competitively priced but have weird proportions of ingredients. The toffee is too almond-forward, and the candy cane almonds and Joe Jo’s are too chocolatey. If I were reaching for a snack these aren’t the items I would immediately go for but if there were there I would still eat a couple. I would rate them a 6/10.
The lowest tier would probably be the Pound of Milk Chocolate with Carmel and Pretzel bits and the Pomegranate Punch. The punch is in between a soda and a seltzer and it’s just weird and not a good halfway point. The pound of milk chocolate was just too much. It was hard to eat and just like what are you doing buying a pound of chocolate? C’mon Chen. 4/10.
