Such A Good Idea, Such A Poor Execution! How Trader Joe's Peppermint Hot Chocolate Fails.

The Good: Good flavor when made properly
The Bad: Expensive, Irksome packaging, Can only be properly made with milk, Shockingly high fat content
The Basics: Trader Joe's Peppermint Hot Chocolate is a product I wanted to love, but found myself more and more disappointed with than I ever would have thought!


I am not a fan of the illusion of choice. I am a big believer in labeling things truthfully and letting consumers make an informed decision about the product they are considering purchasing. So, when I first came across Trader Joe's Peppermint Hot Chocolate - when a tin canister of the powder was gifted to me - I was actually ecstatic. I am a big fan of (most) all things chocolate mint and Trader Joe's has a much-deserved reputation for high-quality products. Sadly, Trader Joe's Peppermint Hot Chocolate is not one of those products because it offers the illusion of choice.

The packaging for the Trader Joe's Peppermint Hot Chocolate indicates that the beverage may be made with water or milk - milk being the parenthetical addition to the directions. The truth, however, is that the Trader Joe's Peppermint Hot Chocolate must be prepared with milk in order to get any seriously decent results. Whenever I get anything new, in terms of food and drink, I play culinary mad scientist and I begin by making up the product with scientific precision to the directions. In the case of the Trader Joe's Peppermint Hot Chocolate, I tried three times to make the beverage with water, but each time I created a drink that was chunky, separated fast, and was a poor representation of the flavors. I tried again with milk and voila! Trader Joe's Peppermint Hot Chocolate was absolutely delicious. The truth, however, is that there is no real choice in preparing the Trader Joe's Peppermint Hot Chocolate: if one wants something other than a messy disappointment, they must make it with milk.

Basics

The Peppermint Hot Chocolate mix is part of the Trader Joe's premium Hot Chocolate line. The mix comes in an 8 oz. sealed foil package that is stuffed into a decorative tin that makes it a complete pain to try to get the powder out. The tin is cute, but the mix is fairly inaccessible from the tin given the relative size of the tin and the size of the packet that houses the actual hot chocolate mix.

As one might expect, the Trader Joe's Peppermint Hot Chocolate is not an instant beverage; it is a powder that must be reconstituted into the promised hot chocolate.

Ease Of Preparation

The Peppermint Hot Chocolate mix is not all that simple to make. The tin that the packet comes in is cute, but the foil packet for the actual cocoa mix is stiff and quite a bit larger than the actual tin. And it's a tremendous pain to open. So, there's usually some loss of product simply by trying to open the packet of cocoa after extracting it from the tin. To get around this, I recommend using scissors to actually cut the foil packet, as opposed to trying to find a way to tear it open. Then, when done with the cocoa, fold the packet up so shoving it back into the tin does not cause it to disperse cocoa powder like a fungus releasing spores.

Once one has extracted the foil packet, measure out three Tablespoons of the powder into a mug that is at least eight ounces large. Then, heat up (at least) 3/4 cup of milk (or, if one is looking for a crappy, chunky, beverage, water) to just below boiling. Pour the heated fluid into the mug with the powder and stir vigorously. If you used milk, the drink will become a rich, creamy brown fluid. If you used water, you'll end up with a mostly brown beverage that will inevitably have some chunks still in it (or fused to the bottom of the mug).

Taste

Trader Joe's Peppermint Hot Chocolate smells divine when it is properly prepared. The aroma of chocolate enters the nose immediately after the scent of peppermint invites the airway to open up and breathe in the scent. Trader Joe's Peppermint Hot Chocolate smells absolutely amazing!

In the mouth, the Trader Joe's Peppermint Cocoa is delightfully minty. Trader Joe's did not skimp on the peppermint flavor and the mint flavor dominates with a cool, sweet flavor. The chocolate flavor in the Trader Joe's Peppermint Hot Chocolate is not to be outdone, though and the dry, rich chocolate flavor asserts itself as soon as the peppermint flavoring allows. The result is a beverage that actually manages to embody well both promised flavors!

The Peppermint Hot Chocolate has a slightly sweet aftertaste that does not endure long in the mouth at all.

Nutrition

Trader Joe's Peppermint Hot Chocolate is a Hot Chocolate mix and therefore not the most nutritious things ever, though the Peppermint flavor could be far less nutritious than it is. The Peppermint Hot Chocolate has a few ingredients that cannot be easily identified, which is nice. The primary ingredients are bittersweet chocolate, cane sugar, and coconut oil. It is not vegan compliant as a result of the milk powder in the mix. There is no actual mint in the ingredient list.

What is not a mystery is how high this product is in sugars. In each serving of Peppermint Hot Chocolate, there are 140 calories, sixty of which are from fat! There are a whopping five grams (25% RDA!) of saturated fat, so while one might be tempted to curl up and enjoy this while resting, they are likely to pay for it later on! There is no cholesterol (2 mg) and only 3% of one's recommended daily allowance of sodium out of a single serving of this beverage! There is a negligible amount of protein, but not enough to live off this. In other words, this product is not a nutritious food product.

This product contains milk, soy and coconut. Because there are no notations on it, one must assume it is not Kosher or gluten-free.

Storage/Cleanup

So long as one leaves the Peppermint Hot Chocolate powder in its packet, in its tin canister, it ought to stay usable. One assumes it will last quite a while and dissolve appropriately when one attempts to use it. The tin I received a few days ago had an expiration date of September 12, 2019, so it's not a bad product to stock up on (if one likes it!).

Cleanup is very easy. If the product spills while dumping it into the mug, simply wipe it up or brush it up with a dry or damp cloth. If it has already been reconstituted with water or milk into hot chocolate, simply wipe it up. Light fabrics are likely to stain if this gets on them, in which case consult your fabric care guide to clean it up.

Overall

Trader Joe's Peppermint Hot Chocolate is a good idea that is tremendously expensive, fairly messy, obscenely fatty, but - when made properly with milk - yields a pretty fantastic result!

For other hot chocolate reviews, please check out:
Stephen’s Gourmet Chocolate Mint Truffle Hot Cocoa
Land O'Lakes S'mores Hot Cocoa
Swiss Miss Mint Premium Cocoa

4/10

For other beverage reviews, please visit my Food Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Intriguing, But Without Either Flavor Breaking Out: Trader Joe's Marbled Mint Crunch Chocolate Bars Are Good!

The Good: Wonderful flavor, Good size, Great ingredients
The Bad: Neither flavor pops, Packaging
The Basics: Trader Joe’s Marbled Mint Crunch Chocolate Bar chocolate bars are enjoyable, though for the price one tends to expect a more vibrant pairing of flavors.


For those who do not follow my reviews, I am a huge fan of chocolate mint, especially dark chocolate mint. So, when I visited Trader Joe's for the first time and stocked up on some new (to me) products, it was pretty obvious that I would go for the Trader Joe's Marbled Mint Crunch Chocolate Bar! The Trader Joe's Marbled Mint Crunch Chocolate Bar are an interesting blend of dark chocolate and minty white chocolate . . . though neither flavor truly explodes in the mouth, which was a bit of a surprise to me.

Basics

Trader Joe’s Marbled Mint Crunch Chocolate Bar chocolate bars are six inches long, two and a half inches wide and made up of eight squares. The entire bar comes wrapped in a simple white paper wrapper, with a plastic wrapper inside. The 2.82 oz. bar is a product of Ireland and was priced in-store at five dollars. This is competitively priced for similar quality products.

Ease Of Preparation

These are candy, so preparing them is as simple as opening the paper and plastic wrappers from around chocolate bar, breaking off a segment and consuming. The seams between the different segments make it exceptionally easy to break the bar apart and leave the rest of it intact. There is no grand secret to eating the Trader Joe’s Marbled Mint Crunch Chocolate Bar chocolate bar. I discovered, however, that the inner plastic wrap was not particularly well-sealed; so when I removed the bar from the outer cardboard wrapper, the bar fell out the back of the inner plastic wrap!

Taste

The Trader Joe’s Marbled Mint Crunch Chocolate Bar chocolate smells rich and chocolatey, with only a slight hint of mint in the aroma. The scent is strong, but does not deliver as much of the mint scent as one might anticipate; the chocolate scent is fairly potent and overwhelms the mint.

The Marbled Mint Crunch Chocolate Bar bars are sweet and chocolatey. The fairly dark flavor blends with the minty flavor so that both flavors are able to manifest surprisingly well. The chocolate is dark, but not overly dry; the mint flavor is not incredibly cooling or milky. As a result, the Marbled Mint Crunch Chocolate Bar is a good blend of both flavors, without either overwhelming the other.

Interestingly, the Marbled Mint Crunch Chocolate Bar does not have an overly strong or dry aftertaste. Instead, the sweetness of the balanced chocolate flavors result in no real aftertaste being left in the mouth.

Nutrition

These are candy, so they are not particularly healthy. Even so, the Trader Joe’s Marbled Mint Crunch Chocolate Bar chocolate bars are not nearly as bad on the nutrition front as they could be. The primary ingredients are white chocolate, dark chocolate and chocolate coated mint pieces. There is nothing unpronounable in these candies and that was very reassuring.

A serving of the Trader Joe’s Marbled Mint Crunch Chocolate Bar chocolate bar is considered half a bar. From one bar, one consumes in 210 calories, including 110 calories from the 12 grams of fat. There are only 10 mg cholesterol and 30 mg sodium (1% RDA) and each bar has 3 grams of protein. There is, surprisingly enough, 8% of one's daily Calcium in a bar, so that is nice.

These are not Vegan-compliant, nor are they recommended for anyone with a nut allergy as they have an allergy warning for milk, soy, wheat, egg and hazelnuts. They are not marked as kosher or gluten-free.

Storage/Clean-up

The bars of Trader Joe’s Marbled Mint Crunch Chocolate Bar chocolate remain fresh for quite some time. The ones I picked up last month had an expiration date of October 31, 2017. One assumes that if they are kept in a cool, dry environment they will not melt or go bad for quite some time. Given that they are plastic wrapped in a fairly sealed package, it is hard to imagine just what it would take for these to go bad outside melting and refreezing.

As for cleanup, simply throw away the paper and plastic from around the bar when you are done with the candy bar. Outside that, there is no real cleanup needed, unless one is eating them in a hot environment. In that case, it is likely one would need to wash their hands. If this chocolate bar melts into most fabrics, it will stain.

Overall

Trader Joe’s Marbled Mint Crunch Chocolate Bar chocolate bars are a muted flavor delight; not one that overwhelms with either flavor.

For other chocolate reviews, please check out:
Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Filled With Speculoos Cookie Spread
Ghirardelli Chocolate Squares Milk Chocolate Peppermint Brownie chocolate squares
Lindt Dark Pineapple chocolate bars

7.5/10

For other candy reviews, please visit my Chocolate Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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When The Hell Did Speculoos Become A Common Thing?! Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Filled With Speculoos Cookie Spread Are All Right!

The Good: Wonderful flavor taste, Decent size, Good ingredients
The Bad: Fairly expensive, Speculoos flavor is not the most powerful
The Basics: Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Filled With Speculoos Cookie Spread chocolate bars are an impressive example of dark chocolate with a fairly good cinnamon secondary flavor.


On my recent trip, I picked up several products at Trader Joe's and I was pretty excited by getting all sorts of candy there. One of the bars I picked up was a Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Filled With Speculoos Cookie Spread. Before this, the only Speculoos product I had yet tried was the Ben & Jerry's Spectacular Speculoos Cookie Core Ice Cream (reviewed here!) and I'm still not sure when Speculoos became a mainstream thing. Fortunately, the Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Filled With Speculoos Cookie Spread chocolate bars were pretty wonderful, save that there was not really enough filling to really make the cookie spread pop.

Basics

Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Filled With Speculoos Cookie Spread chocolate bars are four and a quarter inches long, one and a quarter inches wide and 1/2" tall. These bars are made up of six segments. The entire bar comes wrapped in a bronze foil wrapper wrapped in a dark teal paper wrapper. The 1.58 oz. bar is imported from Belgium and each bar was three dollars in the store.

Ease Of Preparation

These are candy, so preparing them is as simple as opening the wrapper from around chocolate bar, breaking off a segment and consuming. The seams between the different segments make it exceptionally easy to break the bar apart and leave the rest of it intact. There is no grand secret to eating the Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Filled With Speculoos Cookie Spread chocolate bar.

Taste

The Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Filled With Speculoos Cookie Spread chocolate smells appropriately dark, like exactly what it is supposed to; a strong dark chocolate confection. The dark chocolate coating is complete and creates a unified aroma for the candy; there is no hint of the cookie batter in the aroma.

The Dark Chocolate Filled With Speculoos Cookie Spread bars are dry and appropriately chocolatey in their flavor. The dark chocolate is powerful, flavorful and more dry than sweet. The Speculoos is almost entirely overwhelmed by the dark chocolate; its flavor manifests as a mild cinnamon aftertaste as the dark chocolate flavor melts away. The Speculos cookie spread has a familiar texture, but the flavor is not overly sweet. The cinnamon dryness compliments well the dark chocolate coating.

Interestingly, the Dark Chocolate Filled With Speculoos Cookie Spread has an only mildly dry aftertaste that does not endure very long after the last of the candy is consumed. It is not so dry as to be unpleasant, though!

Nutrition

These are candy, so they are not particularly healthy. Even so, the Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Filled With Speculoos Cookie Spread chocolate bars are not nearly as bad as they could be. The primary ingredients are sugar, cocoa mass, and cocoa butter. There is nothing unpronounable in these candies and that was pretty reassuring.

A serving of the Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Filled With Speculoos Cookie Spread chocolate bar is considered a single bar. From one bar, one consumes in 260 calories, including 150 calories from the 17 grams of fat. There is no cholesterol and only 15 mg of sodium. Each bar has 2 grams of protein. There are no other real nutrients in the Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Filled With Speculoos Cookie Spread chocolate bars.

These are not Vegan-compliant, nor are they recommended for anyone with a nut allergy as they have allergy warnings for milk, soy, wheat, coconuts, egg, almonds, pistachios and hazelnuts. These bars are not marked as Kosher.

Storage/Clean-up

The bars of Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Filled With Speculoos Cookie Spread chocolate remain fresh for quite some time. The ones I picked up last month would have expired on December 7, 2017, but I ate them well before that! One assumes that if they are kept in a cool, dry environment they will not melt or go bad for quite some time. Given that they are foil wrapped, it is hard to imagine just what it would take for these to go bad outside melting and refreezing.

As for cleanup, simply throw away the foil and paper when you are done with the candy bar. Outside that, there is no real cleanup needed, unless one is eating them in a hot environment. In that case, it is likely one would need to wash their hands. If this chocolate bar melts into most fabrics, it will certainly stain.

Overall

Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Filled With Speculoos Cookie Spread chocolate bars are flavorful and enjoyable, though the cinnamon flavor blends more with the dark chocolate instead of popping separate from it.

For other chocolate reviews, please check out:
Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate With Almonds
Jelly Belly Milk Chocolate Malt Balls
Hershey's Cookie Layer Crunch Mint

6/10

For other candy reviews, please visit my Candy Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Enough To Sell Anyone On Trader Joe's: Trader Joe's Dark Coffee Satisfies!

The Good: Great flavor, Wonderfully caffeinated, Good aroma
The Bad: Expensive
The Basics: Trader Joe's Dark Coffee is one of the few dark roasts for home brewing that holds its own against flavored creamers and still will thrill those who love dark coffee!


On my recent trip out of state, I had my first direct experiences with Trader Joe's. I had tried a smattering of Trader Joe's products in the past, but I had not ever been to a Trader Joe's market until a few weeks ago. There, I discovered a variety of very cool products and I picked some up to bring home with me. One such product was the Trader Joe's Dark Coffee, which I have been enjoying daily since I returned home.

Trader Joe's Dark Coffee might well be one of my new favorites for home brewing coffee!

Basics

Trader Joe's is an upscale grocery store that has been steadily climbing to the top of the annual lists of Best Places To Work and seems to cater to an upscale clientele, which means they are not everywhere in the United States. The standard size bag for the Dark coffee is a 13 oz. bag and that has endured for a couple of weeks around my heavy coffee-drinking house.

The Dark Blend is an aromatic blend that smells potently of coffee beans and it is a caffeinated blend. This is intended to be a bold coffee and it does come across as that, from the aroma to the first sip!

Ease Of Preparation

Trader Joe's Dark Coffee is remarkably easy to prepare, as are most ground coffees! First, open the bag. Trader Joe's Dark Coffee is vacuum sealed when first purchased, so when it is opened, the bag will likely plump up a little. Then, measure out one heaping tablespoon for every two cups of water in your coffee maker. This Dark Coffee is intended for automatic (drip or percolating) coffee makers. This is NOT an instant coffee. As a result, it needs to be brewed and I use a Hamilton Beach machine (reviewed here!) with a Crucial coffee permanent filter (reviewed here!).

Consult your coffee maker's instructions for how to brew the coffee. However, as far as the basics go, you'll need a coffee filter, which you put the Dark Coffee in and then brew through your coffee maker. The directions recommend making a pot at a time and use this coffee within a week of opening the bag. As long as the bag is kept closed in an airtight container, it seems to remain fresh beyond the recommended week.

Taste

Trader Joe's Dark Blend smells rich and robust, exactly like one would hope for from a dark coffee. The coffee aroma is powerful, distinct and enough to open up one's eyes with its delicious, roasted bean scent.

In the mouth, the Trader Joe's Dark Blend is bitter and strong. The flavor is black and earthy, without ever tasting burnt or even a hint of watery. Instead, the Trader Joe's Dark Blend tastes like a concentrated blend of coffee - like drinking five sips of a medium blend coffee in a single sip of the Trader Joes's Dark Blend. The coffee flavor is appropriately dark and concentrated with a bitterness that is distinct to great coffee without ever stepping over the flavor line into being unpleasantly bitter.

The Trader Joe's Dark Blend can be accented with a creamer well. I write "accented" for accuracy; the Trader Joe's Dark Blend is one of the few coffees I have reviewed where it maintains its richness and strong coffee flavor when creamer is added to it. In other words, creamers are unable to overwhelm the coffee flavor, making it an ideal coffee for blending with flavored creamers.

Trader Joe's Dark Blend coffee has a slightly bitter aftertaste that does not endure long in the mouth long after the last of it is consumed.

Nutrition

This is coffee, not something that appears on the nutrition pyramid! Trader Joe's Dark Coffee does not contribute anything to one's daily recommended allowance of anything. In fact, this coffee is made entirely of Arabica Coffee beans with no other additives, flavors or preservatives.

This is a caffeinated blend and it feels like it! This has enough caffeine to pop one's eyes open between the taste, aroma and caffeine. Because it is a caffeinated coffee, it appears to not have undergone any of the chemical processes that sometimes cause complications in decaffeinated coffees.

Storage/Clean-up

Dark Coffee ought to be stored sealed in its bag with the top closed and folded down. Coffee is known to absorb flavors of food nearby it, so keeping the top folded tight is highly recommended. There are different schools of thought on refrigerating open coffee and I have a very clean refrigerator with a lot of ways to segregate coffee, so I tend to come down on the side of refrigerate it. The Trader Joe's bag makes no recommendations in that regard, though the bag of Dark Coffee I bought a few weeks ago had a March 10, 2018 expiration date.

After brewing, coffee grounds ought to be disposed of. These grounds may be thrown in the trash when used or put in a compost pile, if available. Coffee grounds make great compost and these grounds are no exception.

Overall

Trader Joe's Dark Coffee is an exceptional dark coffee and it is enough to please those who love truly rich, dark blend, despite the initial expense being comparatively higher than other home brew brands of similar quality.

For other coffee reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Seattle's Best Level 5
Starbucks Espresso Roast
Lavazza Super Crema Espresso Coffee

9/10

For other food or drink reviews, please check out my Food And Drink Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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It Only Took One Week To Sell Me On Trader Joe's Tea Tree Tingle Conditioner!

The Good: Incredible aroma, Truly revitalizes hair, Easy to use, Good ingredients (cone free)
The Bad: Comparatively expensive.
The Basics: Trader Joe's Tea Tree Tingle Conditioner is pricey, but it actually works on all its promised fronts!


I have been away from home for over a week now and when I went on the road, my hair was unfortunately damaged. My wife encouraged me to try Just For Men ControlGX Grey Reducing Shampoo (reviewed here!), pretty much just for the review benefits, not because she disliked my greys. Unfortunately, it stripped my hair and left it very dry and brittle. So, I've been working on getting my hair back to lustrous, manageable and good-looking. Arguably, the most useful tool I have yet found in that pursuit is Trader Joe's Tea Tree Tingle Conditioner.

Trader Joe's Tea Tree Tingle Conditioner is a minty hair conditioner that is expensive. It's $12 for a 16 oz. bottle. The thing is, the fact that it works so well makes it worth the price. But that's the only real strike against Trader Joe's Tea Tree Tingle Conditioner!

Trader Joe's Tea Tree Tingle Conditioner is a blend of peppermint, tea tree and eucalyptus botanicals. The conditioner comes in an translucent bottle with the 16 fl. oz. being spread upward - this is a tall bottle, which is great for shorter fingers and makes it very easy to use in the shower when one's fingers and the bottle are wet. The Trader Joe's Tea Tree Tingle Conditioner is itself an opaque white cream (it's not particularly fluid) that truly needs to be squeezed out to get access to it.

I am a huge fan of products that play off my senses to transform mundane experiences - like showering and conditioning one's hair - into an event. Trader Joe's Tea Tree Tingle Conditioner does just that. The scent is strongly of peppermint and it is great in the morning to wake one up and actually reinvigorate the user. The scent is strong, but not overbearing and it endures in the hair for several hours after use, which I like and is an added benefit as far as I am concerned. But it makes every use both a cooling contrast to the hot showers I take and an experience that perks me up each time. It's like being inside a mint sundae!

What impressed me more than the smell was how impressively the Trader Joe's Tea Tree Tingle Conditioner functions. Over the past week of daily use, my hair has gone from dry, static charged and easy to break to stronger, manageable and not at all dry. Trader Joe's Tea Tree Tingle Conditioner cannot take all the credit - I have also been using Garnier Fructis Frizzy, Dry, Unmanageable Hair Fortifying Leave-in Conditioning Cream (reviewed here!). But it is the scent of the Trader Joe's Tea Tree Tingle Conditioner that endures in my hair and I have noticed an acceleration of healing for my hair that was not present with the Leave-In Cream alone or other conditioners. Trader Joe's Tea Tree Tingle Conditioner actually works to revitalize hair effectively!

The Trader Joe's Tea Tree Tingle has great ingredients. The conditioner is cone-free and uses almost-exclusively certified organic ingredients. This is an ethically-produced, highly-functional conditioner that does what it promises while giving an awesome boost to the energy level when one uses it.

It is hard to ask more from Trader Joe's Tea Tree Tingle Conditioner . . . except that, perhaps, it get put on sale!

For other conditioners, please check out my reviews of:
Suave Professionals Keratin Infusion Smoothing Conditioner
OGX Gravity-Defying & Hydration + O2 Conditioner
Shea Moisture Mongongo & Hemp Seed Oils High Porosity Moisture-Seal Masque w/Baobab Protein & Apple Cider Vinegar

9/10

For other health and beauty products, please check out my Health And Beauty Review Index Page!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Very Expensive, But A Decent Chocolate With Nuts (For Those Who Do Not Like Nuts!): Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate With Almonds Chocolate Bars!

The Good: Good taste, Decent size, Generally natural ingredients
The Bad: Somewhat expensive, Not at all the most impressive flavor.
The Basics: Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate With Almonds chocolate bars are good, but not extraordinary in any way enough to justify the expense.


I have not, until now, had any experiences with Trader Joe’s. Yet, for my birthday, a friend of mine sent a three-pack of Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate With Almond Bars. The verdict after chomping down two of the three is simple: these are good. These are a good dark chocolate bar with nuts for those who do not like chocolate with nuts. Trader Joe’s chops the nuts so fine that they add a slight crispy texture to the dark chocolate, but nothing else of significance.

While that made it enjoyable to me (who is not a fan of chocolate with nuts), it seemed a bit expensive for a bar that is essentially a crispy dark chocolate bar.

Basics

Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate With Almonds chocolate bars are four inches long, two wide and made up of twelve segments that are approximately 5/8” wide by an inch long. The entire bar comes wrapped in a simple maroon paper wrapper. The 1.65 oz. bar is imported from Belgium and the three-pack for over ten dollars. This is exceptionally expensive (in my estimation) for what one gets!

Ease Of Preparation

These are candy, so preparing them is as simple as opening the wrapper from around chocolate bar, breaking off a segment and consuming. The seams between the different segments make it exceptionally easy to break the bar apart and leave the rest of it intact. There is no grand secret to eating the Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate With Almonds chocolate bar.

Taste

The Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate With Almonds chocolate smells dark, like fresh-brewed coffee. It is a distinctive, dark chocolate scent and it is appropriately inviting to fans of dark chocolate.

The Dark Chocolate With Almonds bars are dark and tastes dry and surprisingly sweet for a dark chocolate. This is strong enough to be distinctly not a milk chocolate flavor and it is dry with a dry aftertaste. As one who is not a fan of nuts, I was impressed by how little the almonds contribute. In fact, outside the crispy texture, the nuts do not contribute to the flavor.

Interestingly, the Dark Chocolate With Almonds does not have a terribly try aftertaste. Instead, the sweetness of the sugar leaves the mouth delightfully moist and satisfied.

Nutrition

These are candy, so they are not particularly healthy. Even so, the Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate With Almonds chocolate bars are not nearly as bad as they could be. The primary ingredients are cocoa mass, sugar, and almonds. There is nothing unpronounable in these candies and that was pretty reassuring.

A serving of the Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate With Almonds chocolate bar is considered a single bar. From one bar, one consumes in 250 calories, including 160 calories from the 17 grams of fat. There is no cholesterol or sodium, but each bar has 3 grams of protein. There is, surprisingly enough, 35% of one's daily iron and 2% Calcium in a bar, so that is nice.

These are not Vegan-compliant, nor are they recommended for anyone with a nut allergy as they include a lot of almonds. They are, however, (surprisingly enough) kosher.

Storage/Clean-up

The bars of Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate With Almonds chocolate remain fresh for quite some time. The ones I was gifted last week would have expired on August 8, 2013, but I beat it too it! One assumes that if they are kept in a cool, dry environment they will not melt or go bad for quite some time. Given that they are foil wrapped in a fairly sealed package, it is hard to imagine just what it would take for these to go bad outside melting and refreezing.

As for cleanup, simply throw away the paper when you are done with the candy bar. Outside that, there is no real cleanup needed, unless one is eating them in a hot environment. In that case, it is likely one would need to wash their hands. If this chocolate bar melts into most fabrics, it will stain.

Overall

I might not usually be a fan of almonds in chocolate or milk chocolate in general, but Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate With Almonds chocolate bars is good, if not exceptional for enjoying chocolate with nuts!

For other Chocolate reviews, please check out:
Ghirardelli Luxe Milk Almond
Coconut 3 Musketeers Bar
Lindt White Chocolate Truffles

5/10

For other food and drink reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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