The Trader Joe's Fall Item You Should Avoid Buying

When school has started, there's a snap in the air, leaves are blowing across your feet, and the Pumpkin Spiced Joe-Joe's are whispering to you like secrets from the busy aisles of Trader Joe's, 'tis the season to return to the California-based grocery chain for seasonal favorites like Pumpkin Spice Coffee, Pumpkin Brioche, and Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese. But half the fun of browsing is finding new fall favorites to try at home and to tell your friends about.

However, we all know not every seasonal experiment is a win, and there's nothing more gutting than getting your hopes up only to be disappointed by funky flavors and unfortunate textures. Luckily, Chowhound's Cheyenne Wiseman tackled this emotional roller coaster by taste testing and ranking Trader Joe's 2024 fall lineup. She reviewed 11 of Trader Joe's new fall products, focusing on pre-cooked and nearly ready-to-eat items like All Butter Apple Shortbread Cookies and Savory Squash Pastry Bites.

Preparing the products according to package instructions when necessary, she ranked each item based on taste, texture, and versatility, as well as overall enjoyability and likelihood of purchasing again. As with many Trader Joe's rankings, the winning item, Coffee Panna Cotta, took Wiseman by surprise. And what felt like a sure winner, Pumpkin Loaf, ended up as her biggest loser. As Wiseman describes, the loaf itself was dry as a desert and the topping tasted similar to sand. This is the kind of disaster worth investigating further — better still, a delicious replacement is available.

If you like pronounced pumpkin spice flavor in your pumpkin products, this is not the loaf for you. The TJ's Pumpkin Loaf puts an emphasis on the pumpkin flavor although not, unfortunately, to positive effect. As Cheyenne Wiseman notes, the bread itself was quite dry and, shockingly, even tasted salty and metallic as if there were pockets of baking soda that hadn't been effectively mixed into the batter. To add insult to injury, the crunchy sugar and spice topping could potentially have righted the lack-of-spice ship but instead made the texture taste like a sandy shipwreck. It's possible that future batches will resolve these errors but for now, avoid the Pumpkin Loaf and perhaps stick to prepping one at home instead.

If you're hoping to come home with a dessert that has pumpkin, spice, and everything nice, Wiseman endorses Trader Joe's Pumpkin Spice Mini Sheet Cake instead. It's light and moist and tastes of pumpkin puree, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg (and not, importantly, baking soda). The highlight for Wiseman is the cream cheese frosting, which adds a tart, tangy, vanilla-forward flavor that balances the spice of the cake underneath it.