7 of the Best New Products Coming to Trader Joe's This Spring, According to Employees
While our devotion to Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups (which are now officially in the Trader Joe's Product Hall of Fame), Cauliflower Gnocchi and Movie Theater Popcorn will hold steady, we're always excited when we receive a notification of new TJ's drops on the horizon. Admittedly, some EatingWell staffers aren't quite sold on Trader Joe's. But most of us swoon over the surprises, seasonal features and constantly-evolving inventory. Each trip is like a new adventure!
After listening to the latest edition of the Inside Trader Joe's podcast, episode 62, it sounds like we'll be able to stock up on a good dose of something old and something new during our next visit.
Co-hosts Tara Miller, marketing director, and Matt Sloan, vice president of marketing, shared that several springy fan favorites should be back on shelves now—or will be very soon. Start making your list and checking it twice, Spicy Mango Lemonade, Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage, Peanut and Crispy Noodle Salad, Jalapeño Limeade, Organic Cold Brew Black Tea Concentrate, Chocolate Mousse Eggs, Coffee Bean Hold The Cone and Portuguese Custard Tarts are all returning to the supermarket.
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Related: 12 New Trader Joe's Hacks You Need to Try, According to Employees
7 of the Best New Products to Buy at Trader Joe's This Spring, According to Employees
In addition to those seasonal greatest hits, Sloan and Miller leaked details about several items that are debuting in spring 2023. Ahead, a selection that we're most jazzed to add to our baskets.
Mini Almost Everything Bagel Sandwich Crackers
Arriving on shelves in a few weeks, these bite-sized sandwich crackers are reminiscent of Ritz Bits, just with a deli-style makeover. Two bagel-shaped (hole included!), everything-seasoned crackers surround a schmear of cream cheese filling.
"It's kind of like a crunchy mini bagel with cream cheese," Miller says. As for the flavor, it's "savory, [with] like just the tiniest bit of sweetness that's in the cream cheese filling. They're just very, very, very cute."
Take note, EBTB seasoning purists: You'll find that these are one ingredient shy of "everything." Sloan says that the cracker manufacturer doesn't process sesame seeds since they're among the most common allergens in America.
"A lot of production facilities keep their production lines separate from, free from, different allergens, sesame among them. And I don't know that you really miss it," he adds.
Vanilla Cardona Goat's Milk Cheese
Sloan jokes that Trader Joe's tasting panels almost unanimously approve new cheese items, "because cheese is generally pretty wonderful."
But this is a beyond-basic fromage. In fact, it was raved about so much, it was selected as the spotlight cheese for April, Miller adds.
"Our goal is to introduce people to cheeses they might not have had before," she says. "Sometimes it's introducing us to cheeses we haven't had before, and we call them a spotlight for a reason. We wanna shine a light on them, and then the following month we're gonna have a different one."
It sounds like the program will be off to a strong start with Vanilla Cardona Goat's Milk Cheese. Unlike tender, fresh, spreadable chèvre, this made-in-Wisconsin mild goat cheese is hard and ideal to enjoy alone or with fruit as a final course.
"It doesn't have a lot of that sometimes called barnyard-y, goaty quality, very subtle flavor-wise, and it's rubbed with a vanilla sugar. And while that might make you think that it's really, really sweet, it's not. It's sweet-ish," Sloan says.
Coffee and Dark Chocolate Joe-Joe's Cookie
Pair a cup of coffee to enjoy with that goat cheese or the latest flavor of Joe-Joe's. Essentially TJ's twist on Oreos, these sandwich cookies are filled with cream, coated with dark chocolate and drizzled with a coffee-flavored vanilla glaze.
"This is probably as much a piece of candy as it is a cookie. I actually think of this as the cookie form of an expertly pulled long shot of espresso," Sloan says, adding that it smells like a "fresh cup of joe."
Related: 20 Trader Joe's Items Our Editors Won't Leave the Store Without
Lemon Mini Sheet Cake
Just one-to-two weeks away, per Miller's product launch estimations, the limited-time Lemon Mini Sheet Cake is a citrusy spin on the chocolate and vanilla mini sheet cakes they've sold before. It's vibrantly lemony without the artificial tang you might recall from other lemon-flavored desserts. The citrus isn't just included in the cake batter here, either.
"The cake itself is lemony, the cream cheese frosting is lemony and on top, sprinkled little bits of candied or crystallized lemon zest," Sloan says. "This tastes more like Meyer lemon; a sweet lemon as different from a, like a Eureka, a very tart, bright acidic lemon." (Mmm…that description reminds us of our Glazed Lemon Cupcakes!)
Miller shares that some Trader Joe's loyalists are known to carry a "purse fork" to their shopping trips so that when they get in the car after buying the chocolate and vanilla mini cakes, they can dig right in.
"I think that the lemon is equally purse fork-worthy," she says.
Chromatic Celebration Cake and Baking Mix
If you'd prefer a semi-homemade cake, keep an eye out for this funfetti-style cake mix. The dry cake ingredients, including a colorful array of rainbow sprinkles, are tucked inside the box. Just add eggs, oil or butter.
"It was unbelievably easy…All you do is you make the batter, you add eggs, mix it up, and you bake it. You can do cupcakes; you could do multiple circle cakes, or you could do one big rectangle cake," according to Kathleen, a Trader Joe's crew member who tested out the product.
Then to make the frosting, simply add softened butter, "mix it up, and that was it," Kathleen explains. "It tastes like my childhood and my childhood is just butter and sugar. Sprinkles are in a separate packet, and you can kind of add them however you like," either on top or folded into the frosting. There are also sprinkles already incorporated into the cake mix itself.
Related: 15 Healthy Birthday Cake Recipes for Your Next Celebration
Tomato Leaf Scented Candle
In non-food news, look for this garden-inspired candle in a brown glass jar with a silver metal lid. Twist open that lid, and you'll find a dual-wick candle that Miller says will infuse your home with "a really interesting fresh kitchen, garden kind of scent."
It's reminiscent of "that very green, that very living smell," Sloan says, that you might experience when your green thumb (or hands and arms) brush against tomato plants. "This is really pleasant."
Waffle Weave Kitchen Towels
If you, too, are trying to break your paper towel addiction, this new home item might help make the transition easier. Trader Joe's has offered kitchen towels in the past, Miller confirms, but "we have decided that these towels are actually way better at drying dishes than the ones we were offering. As you use them and as you wash them over and over again, they don't lose their absorbency, but they do get really soft over time. They kind of break in like a sweater."
