Ok, so we went over Trader Joe’s Chocolate Chunk Cookie. How does their vegan chocolate chip compare?

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies - Trader Joe's

In a few words: it falls short. Their vegan cookies are in white paper bags to differentiate them from their non-vegan counterparts which are in brown paper bags (see previous blog post linked above), possibly to indicate purity… but I’d rather not be a Puritan.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie - Trader Joe's

As you can see in this picture, the 135-calorie non-dairied and non-egged cookie is slightly smaller than the palm of my hand. Also visible in this picture is the grainy texture; it was a bit dry and crumbly, but not hard. The taste was lacking in some ways: no smooth flavor to go down nicely. Bland even. The chocolate chip + some nuts in every bite helped spice up the flavor some. But not enough.

• Taste: 5
• Crust and center moistness: dry, crumbly, soft
• Value: around $4 or so for 11 small-ish cookies, $0.37 / cookie. 7
• Overall: This is one cookie not to have in your cookie jar. 6. Stick to their Trader Joe’s Chocolate Chunk Cookie. But, I reiterate, if you gotta go vegan, do Michelle’s Naturally Vegan Chokolada Chip Cookies.

When my mom requested milk and cookies from her [favorite] daughter, I knew I had to buy her the best one I could find (I was instructed to buy chewy). But I was at Trader Joe’s and I’ve had some cookies from there, but not any that I was crazy about. I took a leap of faith and got these:

And boy did I make a great decision!!

The packages advertises “chewy” and I eagerly bit into one. The very first thing I noticed was that it was crunchier on the outside and chewier on the inside — something I ABSOLUTELY LOVE. I’ve been eating a lot of same-texture-on-outside-and-middle cookies going on; it was really refreshing to remind me how good a crunchy “crust” can complement a chewy inside. Although on the chewy side, it wasn’t as chewy as i was expecting — probably due to how thin this cookie is:

I’m sure that if this were a thicker cookie that it would be tons chewier. Very moist and not too sweet. I put it in the microwave and it didn’t improve the cookie that much, room temperature is fine. There’s nothing too “special” about this cookie, though, in terms of taste; it’s your standard chocolate chip cookie. Which I’m not opposed to eating.

• Taste: 8
• Crust and center moistness: good crust with soft center; 9
• Value: $4.29 for 12 cookies. Great deal!!
• Overall: Would DEFINITELy buy again during a TJ’s run. 9

There are TONS of cookies at Trader Joe’s. Which one(s) should I try next?

So I’ve been feeling very seasonal lately. Went on a huge pumpkin thing last month. This month, it’s cranberries. I love white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, so when I saw these cranberry mac nut cookies with white chocolate chips,

I just had to get them. They were only $2.99 (or was it $3.99?) and they had macadamia nuts, white chocolate chips (a great combo in itself), AND cranberries! AND it came in this unique, festive striped box.

I can’t believe I held off until today to eat them (um, I bought them yesterday..hey now, that is called restraint!). I was thrilled to read that I could eat 3 in 1 serving. Tore open the box and a shiny silver bag happily greeted me:

So yes, there are two barriers to get through to these cookies. They’re on the small side, which I expected since I was able to eat 3 for 140 calories:

They are CRUNCHY! Think crust but the whole way through. A good crunchy. I liked it. It was a break from the smooth, buttery I’ve been having a lot of recently. It goes down in 3-4 quick bites. They are delicious! Crunchy, but not too crumbly, and I couldn’t get over how much flavor the cookie part had alone. I would prefer more nuts / chips in the batter though. Not more cranberries — one annoying factor is how the dried cranberries got stuck in my teeth. They felt really sticky once inside my mouth. When I eat dried cranberries, they’re usually sticky anyway, but I think the combination of cookie that I already have to use my tongue to wipe off your teeth + sticky dried cranberries made these cranberries extra sticky. All in all, good flavor, so-so ratio of toppings to cookie and great crunch.

• Taste: 8
• Crust moistness: crunchy!
• Center moistness: crunchy!
• Value: 8 servings on the box; 24 small cookies for $3-$4. That’s a lot of cookies at a good size for a small price; that’s like 8 larger cookies for at most $4. 10
• Overall: Great taste, crunchy cookie, 2 of my favorite things of all time + 1 of my favorite seasonal things, I’d buy it again, (and here is why the 8 turned into a 7) but not very often as TJs in LA are insanely crowded with no parking ever; 7

Have you tried this cookie? What about any other TJ cookie brand? Tell me your thoughts!