If you’re someone who gets excited about maple, apple and pumpkin flavors this time of year, you need to do a victory lap through Trader Joe’s, scooping everything into your cart. Even the cadence of those two syllable words with the pop of the P in them is pleasant: maple, apple, pumpkin (and they form a great acronym of “map” which we can follow to deliciousness). Walt Whitman could’ve written a grocery list poem and we’d settle down each fall with a cup of coffee to reread it and devour our TJ’s stash. So here’s what you need to know: there are seasonal favorites that return temporarily and you must grab them when you see them because they will not return until next fall, the store puts out a cute publication called the Fearless Flyer, available for free at the checkstands (or it may arrive unbidden at your home) to tell you of the new items rolling out this year, and finally: as shoppers love to share, there are some TJ’s foods which blow your mind and some which miss the mark. So here is our “imho” list of the best fall foods at Trader Joe’s this fall.
1. The apple cider donuts
They may be a little more sugary than a traditional New England apple cider donut, but it’s okay; first thing in the morning these feel more authentically “autumn” than a glazed donut or a chocolate frosted. We’d love future incarnations to have more cider flavor, but we can’t all be Cold Hollow Cider Mill.
2. The maple spiced nut mix
Only here seasonally, this lightly sugared nut mix has almonds, pecans, pepitas and dried cranberries, covered in a buttery rosemary maple glaze. Herbaceous, nutty and sweet: best flavor combo out there. I missed these somehow on my latest trip to the store and need to go back for them.
3. Fall Leaf Tortilla Chips
We look out for these multi-colored tortilla chips each year. They’re cut into various leaf shapes (maple, oak, beech), so you can enjoy crunching into the leaves without needing to rake anything. This year, they’re displayed alongside a fall harvest salsa made with pumpkin, apples and butternut squash.
4. Pumpkin ravioli
These gluten-free ravioli are thin pasta pillows filled with cheesy pumpkin filling. Boil water and throw together a salad: here’s dinner!
5. Pumpkin biscotti
Made with pumpkin purée and spices, this is a nice, not-too-sweet accompaniment to your morning coffee (or your seasonally available pumpkin spice rooibos herbal blend).
6. Pumpkin cheesecake
In the freezer section (next to the butternut squash mac and cheese), you’ll find the pumpkin cheesecake in a deceptively simple brown and black box. This 30-ounce creamy dessert is made with cream cheese, lots of real pumpkin and those spice combinations we adore.
7. Pumpkin cheesecake croissants
And if you want to further upscale the pumpkin cheesecake, these ready-to-bake croissants are a generously sized square with a circular dollop of cheesecake in the center. Set your alarm a half-hour early so you can get these into the oven for breakfast while your kitchen fills with that incredible aroma.
8. Pumpkin & spice Snickerdoodle cookie mix
I hadn’t seen this before this year, and the Frequent Flyer confirms that this is a new product. It’s a cookie mix that just requires you to add an egg, butter and milk and then roll the dough balls into the provided sugar and spice mix. As you expect from a Snickerdoodle, this will be crispy on the edges and chewy in the center. Making them may be a great after-school or after-work wind-down activity.
9. Pumpkin-flavored Joe-Joe’s
Every season, there’s a different kind of Joe-Joe’s available (basically a knock-off Oreo). This fall, it’s pumpkin-flavored sandwich crème cookies with other natural flavors. The two faces of the cookie are nicely decorated with scrollwork.
10. Pumpkin spiced Joe-Joe’s pumpkin sandwich cookies
How are these different from the cookie above? It’s the same cookie but dipped in a pumpkin-spiced yogurt-flavored coating with sea salt.
11. Apple shortbread cookie
Made with all-butter (each cookie is a quarter butter, by weight!), dried apples and apple juice concentrate, these cookies come in small batches from a U.K. supplier. They look amazing plated, because each cookie has a tiny indented apple shape pressed into it.
Want to read last year’s picks? The only repeats are the apple cider donuts because we’re obsessed and the leaf-shaped tortilla chips because they are unbearably cute.
