Trader Joe’s Customers Crown Their Favorite Items

Navigating the aisles of Trader Joe’s offers plenty of options. Do you pick up the Jerk Style Plantain Chips or the Elote Corn Chip Dippers? Luckily, customers weighed in on the 15th Annual Customer Choice Awards to help you find their favorites.

Coming in first place overall in the snack category was the Chili & Lime Flavored Rolled Corn Tortilla Chips. Unfortunately it’s not one of those snacks you can secretly binge on as it leaves a trail of telltale bright pinkish-red dust on your fingers. Pro-tip: sour cream makes for a good dip.

If you're like me and forget to eat lunch when you're in the throes of work, stock up on customers' first pick in the lunch and dinner category: the Butter Chicken with Basmati Rice. The frozen meal is ready in minutes and the creamy, tomato sauce with tender morsels of chicken always hits the spot. The Sri Lankan in me wants achaar with everything, and Trader Joe’s recently introduced an Indian Style Garlic Achaar sauce that should always be in your refrigerator. For vegetarians, the frozen Vegetable Fried Rice meal came in as a runner-up.

The recent spate of rainy weather we’ve been having has me wanting to curl up on the couch with warm snacks and customers came through.

The Creamy Spinach and Artichoke Dip took first prize in the appetizers category — I usually pair it with tortilla chips. If I'm feeling adventurous, I'll pair it with the elote dippers. Runners up in the appetizers’ category were the Mac and Cheese Bites, Parmesan Pastry Pups, Greek Spanakopita and Vegetable Bird's Nests with Soy Dipping Sauce. All great options if you are hosting a group of friends over or if you know you want to do appetizers for dinner (highly recommend!).

This one is for the parents: Starting work at 7 a.m. means I am usually packing breakfast while trying to quickly become caffeinated. Other than eggs or oatmeal, I'm usually at a loss for what to make. Readers picked the frozen Hashbrowns for top billing in the breakfast category: heat and eat sounds perfect to me.

Other worthy contenders include the Chocolate Croissants (toddler and parent approved, tried and tested), Almond Croissants, the limited time Double Chocolate Croissants (umm, adding to cart!) and Chicken Sausage Breakfast Patties.

In the drinks category, this is where I would veer from customers. While they picked the Apple Cider for the number one spot, the runner-up French Market Sparkling Lemonade is my go-to.

Are charcuterie boards on their way out? I think not. Goat cheese was the number one cheese of choice and my favorite way to have it is paired with Trader Joe’s Fig & Olive Crisps. Also, do not sleep on the Blueberry Vanilla Chevre — great on a char-treat-erie board.

Sublime Ice Cream Sandwiches took first spot in the sweet treat category and yes, sublime is in the name because it is. Don’t come at me but I do not like ice cream sandwiched between chocolate chip cookies and then rolled in chocolate chips — it makes the brain freeze bearable. Even though I don’t like ice cream, the best part of a cone is the chocolate-y bit at the end and turns out other customers agree with me because Hold the Cone! in chocolate and chocolate chip were among the runners up.

So who thinks the LAist staff needs to make taste-testing Trader Joe’s foods a thing?