Progress on 2017 Goals: January's Trader Joe's Purchase

As I explained in my post "Resolved," one of my 2017 goals is to try something new from Trader Joe's each month.

My husband asked me what kind of store Trader Joe's is.  He thought it was a camping/outdoor store, and I must say, it does sort of sound that way.  Like if you squint at it.  He was confused by my goal to "try something new" from TJ's each month.  Like how many new camping supplies could there be for me to try?  And how much was this all going to cost?  I went back to look, and sure enough, nowhere in my goal or its explanation did I mention food.

So for all you unfortunate souls out there who have never heard of and/or been to Trader Joe's, it's a small, upscale grocery store with low prices and lots of store brand products, similar to Aldi.  They're even owned by the same company.  TJ's has also been described as Whole Foods at half the price.

Trader Joe's.  It's a foodie playground.  I don't consider myself to be a foodie, but I do like food.  And I think about food a lot.  And I know a lot about food and nutrition.  And there is just so much good food to be found at Trader Joe's.

I knew I would have a hard time choosing just one item to purchase, which is why I brought along reinforcements.  AKD also loves food and thinks about food a lot, so I thought for sure he'd be willing to decide for me.  Nope.  He steadfastly refused to decide what I should purchase.  Boo.

I was walking around with chocolate mint tea in my hand for a little while, but as much as I would like to like tea, I don't (although if I was ever going to like tea, chocolate mint would be the place to start), so eventually I put it back.  Then the dark chocolate roasted pistachio toffee caught my eye.  Or, I should say the dark chocolate roasted pistachio toffee caught my eye.  I like pistachios, and I love dark chocolate.  I don't love toffee, but it's also not my least favorite food, so I grabbed it and made my way to the registers.

{Source}

Y'all!  I was so disappointed!  I was expecting a melt-in-my-mouth chocolate candy, with just a little bit of crunch from the pistachios and the toffee, but the toffee layer was too thick to even comfortably bite through, and the toffee flavor overpowered the chocolate and nuts.  I should have realized that the "dark chocolate" and the "roasted pistachio" were adjectives modifying the "toffee" noun, and as such, the toffee would be the most prominent flavor and ingredient, but I didn't see it because I didn't want to see it.  The product I wanted, and thought I was buying, would have been called roasted pistachio toffee dark chocolate.  

Is it wrong of me to be looking forward to eating the little bits of chocolate and pistachios that have fallen off the candy into the bottom of the package once the toffee is finally gone?  That's right.  We've had this stuff in our house since January 20, and there's still some left.

Let me just let that sink in.

Truthfully, I'm a little disheartened, and I'm feeling uncertain about completing my goal.  After much deliberation, out of all the fun things inside TJ's, I chose a dud.  What's to stop me from choosing another dud?  

Help a girl out, friends.  I'm headed to TJ's next week, and I'm not sure my goal can survive another TJ's fail.  What are your Trader Joe's favorites?