Progress on Goals: March, April, May, June Trader Joe's purchases

Hi everybody.  As you may remember, one of my goals for this year is to try one new item from Trader Joe's each month.  And I was really good about telling you what those items were in January and February.  You probably were able to ascertain what my March purchase was, since I did mention it a couple of times, but then...nothing.  Sorry folks.  It's not because I haven't accomplished my goal these past couple of months; I just haven't told y'all about it.

Here.  Let me make it up to you.

In March, I bought the Mandarin Chicken.  This is the one item that comes up every time I google, "what should I buy at Trader Joe's," so I knew I had to try it eventually.  The family liked it.  It was sweet and spicy.  Yum.  I definitely recommend serving the sauce on the side so everyone can personalize their own sauce experience, especially if you have picky eaters.

In April, I bought Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups.

There was really never any question of whether or not I would like these--I knew I would.  I mean, dark chocolate and peanut butter is, perhaps, the world's best flavor combination.  I will say that, because of their small size, I feel like the peanut butter to chocolate ratio was a little less than I would like (higher surface area to volume ratio meant more chocolate, less peanut butter), but they were still delicious, and disappeared fairly quickly.  This is the first item that I've purchased this year that I definitely want to get again.

In May, I bought Trader Joe's Coconut Cashews.

This purchase was a little bit more of a risk.  I mean, I like coconut, and I love cashews, but I wasn't sure how I'd feel about having those flavors together.  I loved them.  Loved.  I definitely will be buying these again.  They're sweet, but not overly so, and the coconut flavor really compliments the buttery texture and taste of the cashews.  MC loved these, too, and I'm not sure whether anyone else even got to try them... :-)

In June, I decided to try Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate 73% Cacao Super Dark.

I like other brands of 70-75% cacao chocolate, and at just $2 for a 3.5 ounce bar of organic dark chocolate, the price was right.  I did like it, as I knew I would, but I discovered that I prefer chocolate bars to be thinner than this one was.  With a thinner bar, it's easier to take a bite and let the bite dissolve in my mouth, but I found myself chewing this thicker bar.  As a result, I didn't savor it in quite the same way as I would with a Lindt or Ghirardelli chocolate bar.

What's next for me and Trader Joe's?  Well, I always go with an idea of one or two things that I might want to try, but more often than not, I just wander until something speaks to me.  "Take me home," they say.  I do know that eventually I need to try the cookie butter--I'm thinking that might be more of a late fall item, though.  I've also had my eye on some of the granola and snack bars--they look to be made with quality ingredients, and the price is better than average.  And now that I've tried the coconut cashews and loved them so much, I think I'll be taking another look at the specialty nut selection.

What are your Trader Joe's favorites?