6 Desserts To Buy At Trader Joe's And 6 To Avoid

Even though I've done enough shopping at Trader Joe's to have a running list of go-to desserts that are reliably excellent, it's hard not to also try something new that catches my eye. The popular grocery store offers everything from standard desserts, like coffee cake and chocolate chip cookies, to lots of niche items I can't find anywhere else, such as salted maple ice cream. 

More often than not, I enjoy my purchases and may even end up discovering a new staple here and there. On the flip side, there are plenty of products I bought on a whim while cruising the aisles that I know I'll never get again. Here are some of the tastiest dessert items that I would recommend you pick up on your next trip to Trader Joe's, and some others that I would recommend leaving on the shelf. This list should save you tons of time in trial and error and lead you straight to best TJ's has to offer.

If you've walked by the Trader Joe's baked goods section and felt bemused by the pricey, large white package that has its contents sealed away from prying eyes, you're not alone. But if you've left the store every time without giving in to your curiosity, you may be sorely missing out on one of Trader Joe's best desserts.

These kringles are rings of pastry with an impressive circumference; they have various fillings nestled between layers of flaky dough and a glaze on top. The flavors are dictated by the season; you can find raspberry in spring, pumpkin caramel in fall, and almond at Christmas, among others. This is great news because it gives you another excuse to just keep trying the kringles and find out which one you prefer.

The kringles are relatively flat and squat, but even a thin slice packs a punch. The icing and filling are always sweet and indulgent, and the pastry is buttery and soft. I've enjoyed kringles at room temperature, chilled and firm from the fridge, warm and gooey from the microwave, and buttery and flaky thanks to the oven or air fryer. It's great every time. A slice goes well with a cup of coffee — either after a meal or for brunch.

These oat chocolate bars are one of the products that you should avoid adding to your cart. The thing that distinguishes these bars from others is that they're made with dairy-free oat milk instead of the typical cow's milk.

Alternative milks are used to replace dairy milk frequently nowadays. I, for one, used to only drink cow's milk, now I almost exclusively drink almond or oat milk – just because I prefer the taste. Needless to say, I have no qualms with non-dairy substitutions. In this case, however, the oat milk just didn't work as well as I wanted it to. The chocolate tastes vaguely waxy rather than creamy, which indicates that the oat milk was not a perfect swap for a regular milk. 

Plus, I could absolutely taste the oats in the oat milk, and it overpowered even the nearly-unstoppable taste of chocolate. I thought it tasted more like oatmeal chocolate than oat milk chocolate. While the idea behind this chocolate bar wasn't entirely bad, I can imagine that other brands and stores have just executed a better product.

Like so many Trader Joe's products, many of its ice creams only make appearances at certain times of the year. I've tried candy cane Joe-Joe's ice cream around the holidays (which is excellent), but chose to leave the banana pudding ice cream in the freezer during the summer months because it's just not my thing. But I've definitely tried, and highly recommend, the salted maple ice cream come fall. If you enjoy real maple syrup on pancakes, you'll love this ice cream. 

The ice cream base is lush and decadent, and it certainly has a high-quality mouthfeel. The best part is that salted maple streak throughout the pint; the ribbon leaves a sticky and sweet trail in its wake. It tastes distinctly of maple syrup — and not the fake stuff. In my opinion, it's an absolute must-try at Trader Joe's during the autumn months, and I would argue that it tastes almost more seasonal than anything with pumpkin spice. The idea of putting a scoop of this ice cream on waffles for a breakfast-for-dinner situation or a dessert is something that I could really get behind.

Good tiramisu is a thing of beauty — and it can almost be considered art. Tiramisu is a construction project that uses several key building blocks: ladyfinger cookies (which are sponge cookies piped into long "fingers" and soaked in coffee — and sometimes liquor), fluffy mascarpone cream, and cocoa. The dessert should be elegant, yet indulgent. Trader Joe's tiramisu torte has the right idea (because tiramisu is always the right idea), but the execution is all wrong.

First of all, it has some structural issues. It basically removes a key building block, those ladyfingers, and instead just balances that mascarpone cream on top of a thin, cookie-like foundation. Since the torte comes frozen, you have to be careful that it doesn't thaw out entirely and melt into oblivion. The cream tastes okay, but it's nowhere near as complex and airy as I would have liked it to be. It's thick and a bit too sweet. The trademark tiramisu flavor is there — coffee, chocolate, and mascarpone — but it's missing the heart. I'd much prefer to make it myself, ladyfingers and all, so I could have a far more delicious dessert.

Trader Joe's is all about peanut butter. If you're looking for it, you'll find it. From peanut butter-filled pretzels to peanut butter cookies, there's something for everyone. But nothing can beat the classic chocolate peanut butter cups — except for maybe a slight twist on the classic that swaps out milk for dark chocolate.

These dark chocolate peanut butter cups have a little extra pizzazz that Reese's could never dream of. The dark chocolate coating is smooth, but it has a delightful snap to it and a far richer flavor than milk chocolate. The filling is extremely creamy, far creamier than the standard peanut butter cup. It tastes elevated, and almost more like a dessert than a candy. The Trader Joe's cups are much more satisfying than other alternatives that I've tried. Trader Joe's also has milk chocolate peanut butter cups, which I've also tried and would also recommend, if milk chocolate is more your thing. 

Look, I'm going to level with you all: I'm really not a candy person. If you ask me to choose between candy and chocolate, I'll choose chocolate every time. M&Ms or Skittles? Too easy. It's always going to be the chocolate. And I have another confession: I don't enjoy Sour Patch Kids. All of this to say, the peas and carrots sour gummy candies from Trader Joe's really don't stand much of a chance in this list. 

If I do go for candy, I like it to be squishy and fruity. These are a little hard and chewy. Also, if I do go for sour candy, I like it to be really sour. Go big or go home — and commit to the bit. These are barely sour at all. Naturally, I didn't really see the point of these, then. They weren't exactly satisfying, fun, or inventive, besides the fact that they are shaped and colored like vegetables. That part was highly entertaining, I'll admit. But I think that taste is usually just as important as the appearance, so they don't get a free pass on looks alone. 

Babka is an enriched, brioche-like bread. The eggs and sugar give the dough a soft texture that can be twisted around a filling. It's almost like a cinnamon bun in bread form. The most common kind of babka is made with a cinnamon filling, but you will also see chocolatey interiors like this one. I didn't have high expectations for the chocolate Brooklyn babka from Trader Joe's; I expected it to be dry, dull, or taste highly-processed. It was none of those things.

This bread, which moonlights as a cake, is divine. It's bursting with rich, real chocolate flavor, melty mini chips, sugar, and a hint of cinnamon. It's definitely sweet, but not so sweet that you couldn't have it buttered at breakfast. Also, I found that it tasted bakery-fresh. Try it if you're someone who thinks all baked goods are better with chocolate, or if you're just a dessert person. 

If, however, you think you'd like to also try babka with a spiced filling and lean into that cinnamon-bun comparison, it might be time for a fun baking project. Making your own traditional cinnamon babka is a little more involved, but nothing beats homemade — though this Trader Joe's product does give it a run for its money. 

This entry might surprise you. It surprised me when I bought and tried the cake, since I'd heard only good things about it. Nevertheless, it ended up on my own personal "will not buy again" list.

I have a sweet tooth, and will almost always roll my eyes when someone says that something is "too sweet." Why are you eating dessert, then? But this was ... too sweet. It's a plain, white cake without many defining characteristics. It's not dry, which is usually the issue, but it wasn't super moist, either. The issue is the frosting. The layer of chantilly cream icing is almost as thick as the layer of cake itself, which meant that I actually ended up scraping some off. With even a regular frosting, that would be disappointing, but this is a very, very sweet frosting. A double-thick layer of double-sweet frosting? It's for far braver souls than me.

What's your favorite kind of cookie? I bet that's a really hard question — or the answer is chocolate chip. But personally, I stand by the humble shortbread cookie as the greatest of all time. It's sophisticated, yet simple, and is a wonderful little bite whipped up with little besides flour, butter, and sugar. Shortbread cookies are the ones I most often make in my own kitchen, in a multitude of flavors, and always with great success. When I don't want to take the time to make them myself, however, there are a few store brands that I can trust to offer something nearly as good. Trader Joe's is one of them.

These cookies are, dare I say, demure. Two buttery, dense biscuits are stuck together with a layer of jelly-like raspberry filling to create the perfect little snack or dessert. Shortbread can sometimes be coarse and overly crumbly, even sandy, but not these. Trader Joe's shortbread cookies positively melt in your mouth. I know there are tons of flashier, more exciting products at Trader Joe's — but do not sleep on the shortbread.

As I've mentioned, Trader Joe's loves its seasonal products. Around late November, stores shelves, fridges, and freezers will gradually fill with all things peppermint, truffle, and gingerbread. And I love it. It doesn't take much convincing to get me to try the latest festive find, so when I found these iced gingerbread squares, I was looking forward to tasting them.

These bars are found in the frozen section, in a very small, pale blue box that promises something out of Disney's "Frozen." Like the tiramisu, you're supposed to gently thaw them before eating them. Even after they were thawed, though, they tasted sort of hard and brick-like. The crisp seal of icing didn't help, either. Both the gingerbread and the icing had an underwhelming flavor, far from the almost-peppery spice I look for in a nice, warming gingerbread. It, sadly, wasn't very festive. The bars were dense, somber, plain little things. I would not buy them again unless every other holiday gingerbread item was wiped off the face of the earth.

"Brookie" is the portmanteau for two beloved desserts combined into one: brownies and cookies. If Trader Joe's candy left it at that, this dessert would have been more than enough. But no, it has to be extra. These clusters add a layer of sticky, gooey caramel, chocolate drizzle, and a sprinkle of sea salt. It's everything good about so many desserts all at once, and I loved it. 

Crispy, crunchy cookie pieces are the backbone of these clusters, but the brownie chunks (that taste like they're all edge pieces) fight for dominance. There's plenty of chocolate in every bite, but the salt helps keeps things balanced. One note — don't leave these for too long in a warm car like I did, because the clusters all melt together to form one giant mega-cluster. But, you know, now that I think about it, I enjoyed eating that, too. There's just no "too much of a good thing" with this clever treat. 

It's pretty obvious that Joe-Joe's the Trader Joe's version of Oreos. The store has classic black and white cookies, sometimes peanut butter ones, and even key lime versions, too. These pumpkin cookies are a spin on golden Oreos and feature a light, graham cracker-like biscuit and a smudge of orange-colored icing in the middle.

Now, I can't exactly say that there's false advertising involved here. It says "pumpkin-flavored" Joe-Joe's, not "pumpkin spice." And there's a difference, clearly, because I was really missing that spice. Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and the rest of the crew are what make so many pumpkin-y foods taste so good — since pumpkin, by itself, doesn't have much going for it. Without the spices, the cookies just taste like golden Oreo cookies with a sweet, potentially-vanilla filling that tastes vaguely fall-inspired. These would be so much better with some kick to them, since pumpkin spice does wonders for desserts. So unless you are completely opposed to flavor, I'd skip these Joe-Joe's.

I assembled this list of items thanks to an immense amount of experience shopping at Trader Joe's. Although I didn't frequent the store often up until recently, now that I live somewhere with a TJ's close by, it's pretty hard to resist. I'm always one for a good gimmick and even more so for a seasonal find. So, I've tried lots of recurring, limited, and permanent products — enough to have a solid grasp on what's good and what is not.

In order to sort through Trader Joe's dessert offerings, I went back through past purchases and singled out the products that I've returned to or particularly enjoyed — considering factors like taste, texture, freshness — and added those to the "buy" pile. Then, I went back and identified the ones I've never re-purchased (and ever will) and placed those in the "avoid" pile. It was slightly more difficult than I thought it would be, because I tried to be fairly objective and not give in to my biases.