America’s Fall and Winter seasons are my favorites when it comes to food. Some of the most common flavors include peppermint, gingerbread, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice, and that takes me back in time to my grandmas house in Wisconsin, when she was baking a pie and the snow was falling outside. These flavors are often found in seasonal foods such as peppermint hot chocolate, gingerbread cookies, and cinnamon rolls, and if there’s a place that knows how to fill us with the spirit, it is Trader Joe’s.
I can’t help it when coming across with its eggnog, its pumpkin cookies, and the cinnamon apple pies at the grocery store. Luckily for me, TJ’s sells most of these products in the under $10 category, and I’ve made a shortlist for you of the best five ones.
Trader Joe’s best under $10 items not to miss out
We all want to spend less money, it’s true. Inflation is hitting almost all of us equally, but it’s hard to have to sacrifice the quality of the food we put on our table. I don’t know how they do it, but Trader Joe’s knows how to offer very high-quality products with wonderful flavors at affordable and highly competitive prices that are even lower than other competing chains.
Who doesn’t love coffee? I can’t start my day or any of my activities over a nice steaming cup of coffee. The other day, I found this coffee at my Trader Joe’s in Redondo Beach. Trader Joe’s Gingerbread Coffee is like an ode to winter. It is made from 100% Arabica beans from South America, with a perfect medium-dark roast, flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, and ginger. The 14-ounce package costs $8.99. Drink it at any time of the day, not just breakfast, and feel invaded by the spirit.
Other Trader Joe’s products we love
For an refined twist, bring in some French elegance into your Winter dinners with the TJ’s Brie en Croûte, ready to bake. The intrepid dish is a type of cheese that is encased in a pastry crust and baked. Brie is a soft, creamy cheese made from cow’s milk with a rich, buttery flavor.
When it is baked in a pastry crust, the cheese becomes even creamier and more flavorful. Enjoy your Trader Joe’s Brie en Croûte by cutting a slice or a small piece of the cheese and pastry and place it on a cracker or piece of bread. Top it with Red Pepper Spread & Toasted Pine Nuts, a dollop of tart Raspberry Preserves, or perhaps a sprinkle of Truffle Powder -all of them available at TJ’s- before putting it into the oven. Buy it for only $6.99 a 12oz pack.
Whenever I come across the Trader Joe’s Danish Kringle, I buy three or four, since it’s one of the costumers’ favorites and they, literally, disappear from the shelves. The circular pastry is flaky and buttery, has a sweet filling, and is topped with delicious white icing. To make it perfect, it’s topped with ground nuts, perfect for a coffee or tea in the evening. You can eat it it with the next item I’ve researched.
Trader Joe’s had the audacity to take one of the iconic cold weather drinks, caloric and delicious to keep you warm, and improve it. It could have gone wrong, certainly, but it ended up being spectacular: kudos on that, Joe’s. It is added with natural salted caramel, which gives it an intense flavor and suggests a smoky, woody aroma without becoming invasive to distract from the central actor: dark high-quality chocolate. The Salted Caramel Flavored Hot Cocoa, 10 oz can, is only $5.49.
All of us today have at least one family member or a friend with celiac disease. Such people can not consume gluten, the main protein of oats, wheat, rye, and barley. Therefore, in order to be inclusive, we must inevitably have a gluten-free dish for these loved ones. Trader Joe’s offers a wide variety of gluten-free products, such as Gluten Free Triple Ginger Muffins. Forget those old celiac-friendly recipes that were dry and unstructured: these muffins are soft, sweet, moist and perfectly prepared so that you don’t even realize that they don’t have wheat flour. The 4-pack is worth $4.99 at any Trader Joe’s where they are available.
