Friends, if you have culinary cravings for the holidays, look no further than your local Trader Joe’s, where the seasonal treats are now on shelves. Egg nog's arrived, but besides that, there are plenty of lesser-known winning items with candy cane flavoring and sugar plum vibes.
Here are our 10 best Trader Joe’s holiday treats, in no particular order; fill your cart as you will.
1. The chocolate advent calendar
These sell out quickly, so if you see them, grab them. They’re a fun way to count down to Christmas, if you celebrate it. This year the four different designs have the traditional doors to open with a miniature chocolate figure waiting inside.
2. Latkes
the company’s Fearless Flyer newsletter announces ‘lots and lots of latkes,’ but the item is titled Potato Pancakes. Why not holiday brand them and tout these as a Hanukkah special? We’d love to see more Jewish options.
3. Candy cane Joe-Joe’s
These cookies are essentially Oreos but the cream inside is studded with bits of peppermint. Yes, please, over and over.
4. Chocolate peppermint loaf and baking mix
It’s like banana bread but without the ghost of any redeeming fruit: instead, gleeful chocolate! And if you don’t love loaves (who doesn’t?), you can instead use the mix for mint-chocolate crinkle cookies with a suggested dusting of confectioner’s sugar.
5. Jingle Jangle
The name doesn’t say it all, but this is a tin of pretzels all dressed up in three kinds of chocolate: milk and dark chocolate, with a white chocolate drizzle. Adding to the mix is dark chocolate covered caramel popcorn, Joe-Joe’s cookies broken up but then revived with a dark chocolate coating, red-candy-coated milk chocolate gems (essentially, M&Ms masquerading as holly berries) and mini peanut butter cups covered in milk and dark chocolate. Typing all this has been exhausting: may we have some Jingle Jangle to re-energize?
6. Winter Wassail Punch
There’s that Christmas carol we’ve never understood: ‘Here we go a’wassailing?’ Well, we still have no answers, but at least this beverage gives winter feels with apple, sour cherry, black currant, and lemon juices flavored with cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, and orange peel. Tthe company indicates you can drink it cold over ice or warm it up with mulled red wine and throw in a cinnamon stick garland. Then LMGTFY to understand what on earth we’re getting lightly buzzed on.
7. Sugar Plum Sparkling Beverage
For the Nutcracker afterparty, this drink in a festive bottle consists of carbonated water, plum and white grape juice concentrate and natural flavors.
8. Handmade candy cane with cocoa crème center
Candy canes are not easy to make. They’re sticky, require that used-once-yearly candy thermometer and never quite look right. So let TJs partners (who have made these for more than 100 years) do the work. Bonus: no corn syrup used in the making, and the red stripe is from red radishes: radical! These normal-looking candy canes have a little surprise inside, a soft center of cocoa crème.
9. Gift Wrapped Chocolate Crème Filled Panettone
Baked in Italy and sold in four festive colored boxes, this traditional sweet bread is filled with raisins, candied fruit peels and almonds. Panettone is also fun to say: it’s pronounced ‘pan-nuh-tone-nay’ with the stress on the third syllable (yes, we listened to a clip of an Italian man online to confirm, and now we feel legitimately Italian).
10. Hot Cocoa Polar Bear
This adorable guy plunges into your hot cocoa and melts. He’s a bomb. Inside his white and milk chocolate exterior are marshmallows and milk chocolate drops that will exude into your beverage: a sweet death.
BONUS: Dark Gingerbread Covered Gingerbread Cookie Folk
In the candy displays by the checkout, grab a few packages of these delicious treats—we appreciate the gender-neutrality of the concept!
Also, we’re old-fashioned this way: we love greeting cards (often tucked near the back hallway, after wine and before the bathroom), and the TJ's holiday cards continue this tradition with attractive designs. One more thing: don’t forget the flora area, where poinsettias and the lemon cypress grump tree set the mood for the season.
Want to eat breakfast spaghetti like Buddy in Elf? Order your limited edition box.
Or maybe you should try for the McDonald's Gold Card? Details are here.