The New Trader Joe’s Products You Need in Your Life

Trader Joe’s is the only supermarket where it’s just as easy to fill your cart with purple ice cream as it is jarred curry sauces. It’s a magic wonderland for an adventurous eater—or just someone who wants to eat a ton of new junk food. There's something for everyone: frozen entrees for those on the go, gluten-free options, and tons of vegetarian-friendly items.

We tasted a bunch of new products—items that are six months old or less, at least—to determine all the new food you have to buy right now. Even better, a good portion of them happen to fall into the aforementioned categories above. Here are the products you have to pick up on your next Trader Joe's run. 

Pickle fanatics, this salad kit was made for you. It’s crunchy thanks to a base of radish, kale, green and red cabbage, lettuce, and cauliflower and dressed in a creamy dill ranch dressing. If that doesn’t feel like enough dill for you, fret not: The kit also comes with a packet of dill seasoning (dehydrated onion, garlic, and dill) and crushed dill pickle-flavored potato chips (because every salad needs crushed potato chips).
 

These new strawberry waffles are wonderfully nostalgic. If you grew up on Eggos, you know the deal, but the pops of jammy strawberry make these waffles even more delectable than the varieties I grew up on. The strawberry bits are generously woven throughout and sweet enough that the waffle doesn’t necessarily need syrup or butter (but, hey, those additions wouldn’t hurt, either).
 

If you’re a Trader Joe’s chili onion crunch fanatic, you have to try the new Crunchy Chili Onion Peanuts. The nuttiness of peanuts as a base matches perfectly with subtly sweet dried onion and the mellow heat of chili flakes. The heat is pretty mild but builds over time. You can toss these in a salad, stir fry, or eat them by the handful for a satisfying and salty snack.
 

Pleasantly flaky and well-seasoned, these Jamaican patties are perfect to stock in your freezer for a quick snack. You can microwave them or heat them up in an air fryer; the turmeric-tinged dough browns nicely while the ground beef filling contains the robust flavors of garlic, onion, fenugreek, and curry powder.
 

For fans of Trader Joe’s Crunchy Chili Onion oil—the grocery store’s riff on chili crisp—this new version will be alluring. The same satisfying and slick crunch is present, but the flavor is much more tart thanks to citric acid with a mild heat from the jalapeños. This oil would work well with scrambled eggs or atop shrimp and fish tacos, providing texture and a savory, sour bite.
 

Trader Joe’s continues to expand both its cacio e pepe and gnocchi offerings with a new cacio e pepe gnocchi. Preparation is as easy as defrosting in a pan; the gnocchi plumps up as the sauce bubbles. It’s a relatively simple and easy dinner dish; add chicken meatballs and basil to spruce it up a bit.
 

If you love bold flavors—which you must if you’re an olive fan—then you’ll enjoy these garlic and jalapeño stuffed olives. They are salty and spicy, briny and sharp, and ideal for a charcuterie board spread or in a martini.
 

The new chicken meatballs are already cooked and seasoned with rosemary, basil, garlic, and oregano. All you need is to heat them through and serve them as a snack, tossed in a pasta, or boiled in a soup.
 

These hand pies are the perfect way to close out summer. The crust is buttery and satisfyingly salty, a welcomed foil to the jammy sweet-tart filling. The sharp flavor of rhubarb is definitely more present than ripe strawberries, but I enjoy that this pie isn’t cloying. If you’re worried this pie isn’t sweet enough, the presence of demerara sugar sprinkled on top rounds out all the flavors nicely.
 

This is a perplexing new item because it’s hard to decipher what you’re actually tasting. There is a fruitiness there, but it’s not quite so tangy like fresh pineapple. Upon first bite, this just tastes like a more tropical kettle corn. But handful after handful, the heat increases. Trader Joe’s fans have been likening this to a spicy version of Trix or Fruit Loops and I think that’s a pretty accurate description.
 

The coffee selection at Trader Joe’s is well-loved and the new Select Harvest Curated Coffee is an incredible addition to the line-up. Made with a 50/50 blend of medium roast El Salvadorian and light roast Nicaraguan beans, this coffee strikes a balance that is ideal for a morning cup of coffee. Notes of honey, caramel, and chocolate intermingle with orange and jasmine for a floral and full-bodied flavor.
 

At home boba kits are all the rage now. You can find versions of the tapioca drink at Costco, online, and now at Trader Joe’s. This kit comes with four pouches of brown sugar syrup boba and includes four paper straws large enough to drink the pearls. The texture is pretty spot on, maybe a little bit softer than freshly prepared boba, while the brown sugar syrup is very sweet. Mellow the boba out with black tea, milk, or a combination of the two.

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