Have you noticed the overwhelming amount of pumpkin spice products in Trader Joe’s? Once fall hits, every shelf and freezer is filled to the brim with anything that can be pumpkin-ified.
The Scribe team has tasted and ranked all of the Trader Joe’s pumpkin spice products from S tier to F tier to determine which are worthy of your money!
The F tier contains the Gluten Free Pumpkin Spiced Bagels. Unfortunately, these bagels were not a hit for the Scribe. The texture is described as spongy and grainy. Despite being a pumpkin-spiced item, there were no notes of pumpkin whatsoever.
Paired with the bagels was the Pumpkin Cream Cheese Spread, landing a spot in D tier. Although the cream cheese wasn’t as terrible as the bagels, it wasn’t the best either. The taste was bitter and fermented, like wine.
Alongside the cream cheese are the Pumpkin Flan and the Pumpkin Pie Spice Bark. The flan ended in this tier after the majority voted for D tier; however, there was one outlier. Jack Kramer, a reporter for The Scribe, had a strong connection with the flan. “They don’t understand the beauty of flan,” he says.
Reaching an agreement on the ranking of the Pumpkin Pie Spiced Bark was no difficult feat for the team after noticing the intense sweetness. Although there were some salty components such as pretzels, the chocolate and sugar overpowered it. However, the bark did have a strong pumpkin flavor that was just as powerful as its sweetness.
The C tier contains the Pumpkin Streusel Muffins and the Pumpkin & Spice Brioche Style Liege Waffles. The muffins were extremely soft, almost like a cloud, with a sugary streusel topping. The taste was alright, but there wasn’t much pumpkin flavor either.
The waffles were ranked the same as well. The waffles were sweet, but had no traces of pumpkin spice. The texture was disappointingly dry and crumbly.
The Pumpkin Biscottis are nestled between B and C tier. The Scribe agreed that we were not able to taste the full experience of a biscotti since there was no hot tea to enjoy it with, as recommended. By itself, the biscotti was hard, crunchy, and dry with a subtle pumpkin taste and a more present ginger flavor.
Moving forward, we have the B tier, which contains the Pumpkin Brioche Twist, Pumpkin Blondie Brownies, and Pumpkin Danish Kringle. Although the brioche didn’t have a strong pumpkin taste, the bread itself was soft and buttery with a hint of cinnamon.
The first item that we ranked was the pumpkin blondies. Compared to the brioche, it was the dominant pumpkin flavor that we noticed. It was smooth and mushy in the middle; however, the crust could’ve been more crispy.
The final item in B tier is the conflicting Kringle. Many members gave their takes on what it tasted like. Ana Lu De Mello Ditty stated that it tasted like if a “big donut and a pumpkin pie had a baby.”
Another opinion about the Kringle was from the recurring Kramer. “It tastes like Dia de los Muertos,” he says.
Overall, the texture was described as mushy and bready while the taste was sweet. Almost too sweet to the point that it was a tad bitter.
The second-best, A tier, holds three strong competitors: Pumpkin Spiced Pumpkin Seeds, Petite Pumpkin Spiced Cookies, and Pumpkin Loaf. The pumpkin seeds ranked higher than the crew expected it to. It was sweet, crunchy, and “most edible,” stated Ana Lu. Everyone agreed that this item would be tried again.
“It tastes so good,” says Eric Truong. The cookies needed no advanced vocabulary for the crew to agree that these pumpkin spiced cookies were A tier. Their appearance was reminiscent of animal crackers.
Next-to-last, the known pumpkin loaf. An item that we decided was the pumpkin item. Although it had a strong pumpkin spice flavor with a delicious sugary topping, the bread itself was quite dry. This caused the item to end up in A tier instead of reaching S tier.
And finally, the one and only S tier item…the winner of the Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Spice Review…the Pumpkin Spiced Mini Sheet Cake! It was moist with a cream cheese frosting that easily made us crave more. The cake was a clear winner in many members of the Scribes eyes and thus was deemed the winner of our hearts.