The Fun Origin Story Of How Trader Joe's Mocha Pretzels Came To Be

You might have noticed a new item pop up at Trader Joe's – one that's shaped like a knot and coated in coffee candy. Known as the Mocha Latte Pretzels, these crunchy, chocolate-drizzled Trader Joe's snacks are just another one of the grocer's delicious creations. But, they have a different origin story than other items. Unlike the famous frozen Mandarin Orange Chicken or the Jalapeño Limeade, the Mocha Latte Pretzels were created in collaboration with its shoppers.

There are people whose jobs are to test and pick the flavors for new items at Trader Joe's. But, as it pertained to these chocolatey pretzels, it seems that whoever that was, was feeling a bit indecisive. As the story goes, Trader Joe's came up with four different, potential new flavors for their candy-coated pretzels: Mocha Latte, Chocolate Donut, PB&J, and Birthday Cake. However, the decision as to which would make it into the store was left to TJ's fans. In what it deemed as the "Pick Our Next Pretzel Contest," Trader Joe's received thousands of fan votes.

The results were pretty close. But in the end, the Mocha Latte flavor came out on the top with 32% of the vote with Birthday Cake trailing closely in second with 29%. Surprisingly, despite America's love for PB&J's, it came in dead last with only 18% of the vote, leaving Chocolate Donut in the middle of the pretzel flavor ranks with 21%.

Trader Joe's has a protocol for bringing new items into the store, and while the Mocha Latte Pretzels might've been an exception, everything you get from Trader Joe's has to be approved by a panel of some particularly picky taste testers. But it's not some table of upper-level board members; it's actually a diverse setting of TJ's crew members. On episode 28 of Trader Joe's podcast, "Inside Trader Joe's," host Matt Sloan said the crew members "represent a pretty broad cross section within the company from the customer relations perspective to running a store, to overseeing marketing work. And what all of those people have in common is that they're actually customers and they bring with them a customer point of view."

Voting on products is a unique process, with crew members demonstrating their approval by a show of hands after discussing things like packaging, branding, and pricing. But, if there isn't an overwhelming response of approval, the presenters have to go back to the test kitchen. One panelist told podcast hosts that they've gone to the panel three, four, and sometimes even fine times until a product was approved. Sloan then explained that they're looking for upwards of a 70% approval rate. "We want more than a simple majority. We want this to have an overwhelmingly good chance of succeeding." It's no wonder why Trader Joe's is the birthplace of some of our favorite snacks of all time.