Thank you for sending in your Trader Joe’s love on Twitter! Overwhelming deliciousness lives in this reply thread. As promised, I put everything you recommended on one master list.
I also classified your recs so it’s easier if you go/when I go shopping. Overall, there’s a lot of love for the frozen Mac and Cheese, the gnocchi, the dried fruit, the cheeses, the nuts and those peanut butter-filled pretzels with crack in them. (Not really but maybe really.)
Remember, TJ’s has a lot of seasonal items and it breaks our hearts when it discontinues items inexplicably. So I hope everything’s still available when you go!
Frozen, Savory
Hash browns
Dairy and Gluten free home style pancakes
Cauliflower gnocchi
Sweet potato gnocchi
Quinoa Cowboy Veggie Burger
Mandarin Orange chicken
Parmesan Pastry Puffs (aka the puff pastry-wrapped hot dogs)
Vegetable Penang curry with jasmine rice
Sage gnocchi meal
Tamales
Arancini bites
Trader Giotto frozen pizza
Organic Woodfired Sicilian Style Pizza
Chile relleno
Burritos of all sorts
Eggplant Parmesan
Raw chicken tenders
Indian frozen meals and samosas
Artichoke hearts
Frozen, Sweet
Coffee Bean Blast Ice Cream
Cold brew latte dessert bars
Cookie butter ice cream
Mango Mochi
Veggie Gyoza
Mac and cheese
Mini sheet cakes
Key lime pie
Mini ice cream cones
Lime Fruit Floes
Savory Snacks
White truffle potato chips
Elote chips
Pine nuts
Dolmas
Jerk style plantain chips
Multi seed Tamari soy sauce crackers
Thai lime and chili almonds
Honey butter potato chips
White cheddar corn puffs (TJ’s Pirates Booty)
Beef jerky, original flavor
Chili lime cashews (Are these the same as the Thai-spiced ones? Y’all mentioned both.)
Nacho cheese tortilla chips
Sweet Snacks
Crispy, Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Triple Ginger Snaps
Peanut butter-filled Pretzels (I prefer the kind with salt but reasonable people can disagree)
Fig bites
Maple Leaf Cookies
Sesame honey almonds
Honey-roasted peanuts
Stroopwafels
Jumbo raisin medley
Dark chocolate covered pretzels
Vanilla meringues
Dark chocolate peanut butter cups
Dark chocolate covered cherries
Chocolatey Coated Chocolate Chip Dunkers
Dark chocolate covered peppermint joe Joe’s
Aussie style licorice
Chocolate-covered espresso beans
Sea salt dark chocolate almonds
Chantilly Cream Vanilla Bean Mini Sheet Cake
Sour gummies
Fruit jellies
Alphabet cinnamon crackers
Fruit
Dried baby bananas
Dried baby pineapple
Tart dried cherries
Just mango slices
Jumbo raisin medley
Dairy
European-style yogurt, plain
Hand pulled mozzarella cheese
European-style goat milk yogurt
Blueberry kefir milk
Unexpected Cheddar Cheese Ball
Goat Milk Brie
Goat Milk Gouda
Reduced fat swiss cheese
Seasonings, sauces and spreads
Everything but the Bagel Sesame Seasoning
Sriracha Roasted Garlic Barbecue Sauce
Olive oils
Chili lime spice
Salsa verde
Peach Bellini Jam
Grade B Maple Syrup
Chunky guacamole
Wasabi mayo
Red pepper spicy hummus
Almond butter
Beverages
Two buck chuck wine
Cupcake vanilla vodka
Coconut creamer
Coconut cold brew
Organic Sumatra coffee medium dark roast
Joe’s medium roast
Hendricks Gin, for the TJ value
Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Beverage
Breads and Buns
Overnight Pain Au Chocolat
Brioche buns (these double as awesome hot dog buns)
Garlic and herb pizza dough
8 Mini Croissants (also overnight rise)
Meat/Fish/Poultry
Pastrami style smoked salmon
Soy chorizo
Jerk chicken skewers
Produce and Prepared Meals
Vietnamese noodle salad
Bagged lettuce
Vegetable and Soba noodle stir fry kit
What am I missing? Leave me a note in the comments or on the original thread.
What?? No Jo-Jos? I don’t want to stumble on that TJs…!
They’re on there! Under “sweet snacks,” which is admittedly a very long section.
How did I miss this survey?? Here’s our standard list (including EJ’s faves)
Japanese fried rice (the kimchi one was really good, but gone the way of so many TJ Loves)
Gochujang bag salad
Frozen turkey bolognese (super-quick weeknight non-Doordash meal)
Peanut bamba snacks (kid)
Jerk seasoned plantain chips
Truffle potato chips
Marinated mushrooms and Greek Giant Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce
Their Italian-made bronze dye dried pasta (value)
Tiny ice cream cones
Dried tart cherries
Californian dried apricots
Dried blueberries
Freeze dried fruit for kid snacking
Cheese for adult snacking
flowers…
“flowers” — nice touch. And yes, those bamba snacks are ostensibly for the “kids” but I end up eating entire bags at a time.
Kung Pao breaded cauliflower (I leave the sauce off)
powdered chai tea mix
Many of Trader Joe’s cheeses are sliced too thin, on their bricks, blocks or wedges. A PITA to use on Triscuits. I’ll still occasionally buy cheeses there. And, I think you missed all the deli meats that are next to the cheese.
Other than that?
Central Market (a Texas-only HEB spinoff that’s better than Whole Foods, you deprived Californians), a bit of Whole Foods and yes, even a bit of Winco are all ahead of Trader Joe’s.
I was just saying last week that I am so deprived of Central Market flour tortillas!
Ahh, so you’re from here …
Dunno where exactly you may have been from, but … the addition of Winco to the Metromess shopping mix has been welcome. I never go to Aldi anymore; Winco has a better, and broader, and healthier line of house brands.