Pumpkin season may be taking over Trader Joe’s, but some of the most interesting new foods have nothing to do with pumpkin spice. From a $2.99 popcorn people keep comparing to honey mustard pretzels to a new apple pie ice cream already sending shoppers back for another pint, these are the newer finds getting attention right now.
Prices and availability can vary by store.
1. Granola Butter
Price: $5.49 for 12 oz
This might be one of Trader Joe’s most interesting new spreads in a while. Granola Butter is made with rolled oats, maple syrup, brown sugar and oils instead of nuts, giving it a sweet flavor shoppers often compare to graham crackers.
The texture is a little grainier than peanut butter, but that hasn’t stopped people from spooning it onto toast, apples, bananas and yogurt. The nut-free angle is another big reason this one is getting noticed.
2. Honey Mustard Popcorn
Price: $2.99
Honey mustard on popcorn sounds a little strange until you start reading the reactions.
Trader Joe’s pops it in avocado oil and adds a sweet, tangy mustard seasoning. Shoppers have compared the flavor to honey mustard pretzel pieces, and several recent reactions have basically boiled down to the same warning: the bag disappears quickly.
If you like snacks with a sweet-and-salty kick rather than straight heat, this is an easy one to understand.
3. Apple Pie À La Mode Ice Cream
Price: $3.99 per pint
Here is your fall dessert without another scoop of pumpkin.
The vanilla ice cream has pieces of cooked apple, bits of pie crust and an apple swirl flavored with cinnamon and nutmeg. The crust and actual apple pieces are what make this feel more like apple pie than just cinnamon ice cream.
Recent shopper discussions have been especially enthusiastic, although a few people find it on the sweeter side. Trader Joe’s says it will be around through the holiday season while supplies last.
4. Kanom Dok Mai Chewy Thai Coconut Cakes
Price: $3.79 for 9
These little purple flower-shaped cakes are one of the more unusual freezer arrivals.
Inspired by Thai kanom dok mai, they’re made with coconut milk, tapioca starch, purple sweet potato and ube. Heat them and the outside picks up a slight crispness while the middle stays soft, springy and very chewy.
They aren’t aggressively sweet, either. Texture is really the star here, and that seems to be exactly why curious shoppers keep talking about them.
Sneak peek: The next few finds move away from dessert completely, including a $2.99 fruit freezer shortcut and one of Trader Joe’s newest family-size dinners.
5. Cubes of Just Seedless Passion Fruit Purée
Price: $2.99 for 15 cubes
This late-summer launch is wonderfully simple: seedless passion fruit purée frozen into individual cubes with no added sugar.
Drop a cube into smoothies, sparkling water, iced tea, cocktails or mocktails. Thaw a few and you have an easy topping for yogurt or vanilla ice cream.
The portioned format is what makes this one so useful. Instead of buying fresh passion fruit for one recipe, you pull out exactly what you need and leave the rest frozen.
6. Chicken Florentine Lasagna
Price: $7.49 for 32 oz
This isn’t another red-sauce lasagna.
Trader Joe’s layers pasta with ground chicken, spinach, Parmesan, Romano and a creamy white sauce seasoned with garlic, black pepper and nutmeg.
At two pounds, it is also one of the more substantial recent frozen arrivals. Shopper feedback isn’t completely uniform—some prefer the regular meat lasagna—but there are already repeat-buy comments from people who like the creamy Florentine-style filling.
7. Sweet Chili Black-Eyed Pea Tempeh Chips
Price: $3.49 for 3 oz
These sound like the sort of Trader Joe’s product you buy purely because you need to know what they taste like.
Instead of potatoes or corn, the chips start with fermented black-eyed peas and get a sweet chili seasoning with garlic and a little heat.
The result is crunchier and heartier than a standard chip, with a slightly earthy flavor underneath the seasoning. Recent reviews have been surprisingly favorable for something this unconventional.
8. Nacho Cheese Flavored Rolled Corn Tortilla Chips
Price: $2.99 for 9 oz
Trader Joe’s took its familiar rolled tortilla-chip format and gave it a nacho cheese makeover.
And shoppers cannot seem to agree about them.
Some like the cheesy seasoning and slightly easier crunch. Others have complained about a bitter aftertaste or say they still prefer the Chili & Lime version.
That disagreement is actually what makes these worth mentioning. They’re one of those new products you’ll probably want to taste once and decide for yourself.
Still ahead: One new cookie is producing wildly different opinions, while a big tub of mascarpone-and-berry gelato may be the quieter sleeper of the group.
9. Cherry Pie Flavored Cookies
Price: $4.49
If there is one product on this list most likely to start an argument, it might be these cookies.
They’re made with dried Bing cherries, white chocolate chips and crunchy cherry-pie-flavored pieces in a buttery cookie.
Fans love the strong cherry flavor. Critics say they’re too crumbly or that the cherry-almond notes can come across a little artificial.
In other words, “buzzing” definitely applies here. “Universally loved” does not.
10. Italian Mascarpone & Mixed Berries Gelato Style Frozen Dessert
Price: $4.99
This one deserves more attention than it seems to be getting.
The large tub is split between creamy mascarpone-flavored gelato and tart mixed-berry gelato, so you can scoop either side separately or drag your spoon through both.
That creamy-tart contrast is the whole appeal. Recent shoppers have especially called out the smooth texture and berry flavor, and at nearly 29 fluid ounces, it is considerably larger than the typical little premium ice cream pint.
11. Pasta Primavera
Price: $4.49 for 16 oz
Trader Joe’s newest freezer pasta keeps things surprisingly simple.
It combines twisted strozzapreti egg pasta with zucchini, bell peppers and broccoli in a light butter-and-cheese sauce with garlic and black pepper.
The sauce doesn’t drown everything, which shoppers seem to either appreciate or immediately fix with extra Parmesan. Either way, it works as an inexpensive freezer dinner that is easy to dress up with cheese, chicken or a squeeze of lemon.
12. Tater Bites with Cheese and Chives
Price: $3.49 for 2
Think potato bite meets egg bite.
These refrigerated bites combine potatoes with eggs, cottage cheese, Cheddar, Parmesan, Monterey Jack and chives. One package contains two bites and delivers 16 grams of protein.
The texture is softer and more pillowy than a hash brown, so don’t expect a crispy tot. They’re better viewed as a quick breakfast you can heat and eat when making eggs from scratch sounds like too much work.
The Bottom Line
Trader Joe’s may be deep into pumpkin season, but that’s clearly not the only part of the store worth watching.
Granola Butter, Honey Mustard Popcorn and Apple Pie À La Mode Ice Cream appear to have some of the strongest early enthusiasm, while products like the Cherry Pie Cookies and Nacho Cheese Rolled Chips are getting plenty of attention for a different reason: shoppers can’t agree on them.
And sometimes those are the Trader Joe’s products that are the most fun to try.
