Every Trader Joe's Frozen Mochi Flavor, Ranked

There are countless ways to enjoy ice cream — on a cone, in a bowl, on a stick, straight from the pint — though many of these ways require some sort of utensil, be it a straw or a spoon. Mochi ice cream, however, requires no utensils thanks to the sweet dough that surrounds the ice cream itself, making it just as ideal for taking on the go as it is for simply plucking from the freezer and enjoying. Mochi, which originated in Japan, refers to the rice dough on the outside rather than the filling on the inside, as mochi can take on various fillings like red bean paste or even chocolate.

In America, mochi commonly refers to little ice cream balls that are coated in sweet rice dough, resulting in a handheld and well-portioned treat that can come in a variety of flavors. While there are many places to find mochi, one such place is Trader Joe's — in fact, the popular grocery chain has a whole lineup of mochi ice cream flavors, some of them year-round favorites and others seasonal additions. As a mochi and Trader Joe's lover, I decided to put each flavor of the frozen treat to the test to determine which is the best of the best. Since all of Trader Joe's mochi are essentially identical aside from flavor, this ranking ultimately comes down to how good each ice cream flavor tastes and how well it works paired with that sweet, chewy rice dough.

I'm all for fall-adjacent flavors — as in, those flavors that seem geared towards fall but aren't quite as in-your-face as, say, pumpkin or cranberry. Trader Joe's caramel apple-flavored mochi falls right into that fall-adjacent category, and I was interested to see how these little treats would taste. I hoped it would be a similar flavor experience to a caramel apple, caramel apple donuts, or something in that arena.

Unfortunately, when I took a bite of a caramel apple mochi, I found it tasted more like how I'd imagine a candle might taste than an actual dessert. The apple flavor was perfumey and the caramel flavor was sweet — but not really that of actual caramel. I get that you have to take flavored things with a grain of salt, since exact flavors can be pretty hard to replicate, but this flavor just missed the mark altogether. I found myself struggling to even finish one mochi without gagging on it, as the overwhelming flavor truly tasted how a caramel apple candle smells. Considering this flavor was only one of two flavors on this list that I outright disliked, it only makes sense that the seasonal caramel apple would rank last.

Coffee-flavored anything is almost always a win for me, be it straight up coffee itself, espresso-laden tiramisu, or coffee-flavored ice cream. When it comes to the latter treat, there's typically a certain coffee with cream and sugar flavor profile at play, which is exactly what I anticipated with Trader Joe's coffee mochi. And, to be fair, I could see hints of this creamy coffee flavor at play, but both to my surprise and dismay, this coffee mochi is one coffee-flavored dessert that really didn't do it for me.

The biggest issue with Trader Joe's coffee mochi is that it tastes more like black coffee transformed into a dessert, which resulted in an incredibly bizarre and not very appealing burnt coffee taste. The ice cream itself wasn't incredibly creamy, either, so the mochi as a whole just felt a little too icy and a little too lackluster in flavor. I did ultimately find the flavor to be a little more tolerable than the salted caramel mochi, hence why this one ranked above it — but just slightly, because if you're seeking mochi at Trader Joe's, you're best off avoiding both flavors altogether.

There's a place for vanilla ice cream in this world — it's an absolute classic flavor that's neutral enough to be adorned with toppings limited only by imagination, yet is tasty enough to be enjoyed all on its own. I'm far from a vanilla ice cream hater, but when it came to Trader Joe's vanilla mochi flavor, I just really found myself wanting more. Whereas the chewy rice coating on the outside of mochi is typically a huge perk that enhances the snacking experience all around, I found the coating to be a bit cumbersome on the vanilla flavor, like it took away from the flavor more than it added to it.

The biggest issue I have with the vanilla mochi flavor is that it's just too plain and simple to really stand up against the other flavors. If you're a steadfast vanilla ice cream lover, then sure — you'll probably be a fan of this mochi, or at the very least not take fault with it. There's nothing notably wrong with this flavor, but in the future, if I'm faced with the choice of either buying vanilla mochi from Trader Joe's again or just buying vanilla ice cream in a pint, I would go with the plain ice cream without a doubt.

Similar to the vanilla mochi flavor, the chocolate variety sort of fell into a middle-ground area for me — it's certainly not bad, but it's also nothing to write home about. I do think that the chocolate flavor was all-around a little more enticing than the vanilla, as the rice dough on the outside was also chocolate-flavored, making this a truly chocolatey treat through and through.

Trader Joe's is known for having pretty good chocolate ice cream, and while I can't confirm if the ice cream inside the chocolate mochi is the same as the stuff you can find in a pint, I can confirm that it tastes creamy and delicious nonetheless. Combined with the chocolate rice dough on the outside, this ice cream mochi sort of tasted like a Tootsie Roll, which may be a bad thing for some, but to me, it was a good flavor and even brought about a hint of nostalgia. Since both the ice cream and dough had chocolate flavor, I found this mochi to be overall very cohesive and great for those chocolate (or Tootsie Roll) lovers out there. 

It's hard to mess up strawberry ice cream, and fortunately, Trader Joe's strawberry mochi is not the exception. Coming in second place in the ranking, this is a solid option for both strawberry lovers and those who simply want to try mochi but don't know what flavor to go with. While there is plenty of strawberry flavor at play, something that really stood out to me was the sheer creaminess of the ice cream, which is what ultimately solidified this flavor's place in the ranking.

If you've ever enjoyed strawberries on top of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream on top of strawberries, you can imagine the flavor profile that this mochi is going for. I could see some strawberry fanatics feeling that this mochi leans a little too heavily on the creamy side and not enough on the strawberry side, but to me, I found the flavor to be pretty balanced and exceptionally tasty. My only caveat is that sometimes the strawberry flavor veered ever so slightly into an artificial strawberry flavor arena, but it was nothing that was particularly overbearing (and it didn't make me want to rank this mochi flavor lower). Although it's a solid flavor all around, there was just one mochi that was able to edge strawberry out in this ranking. 

Green tea and matcha can be a bit polarizing — some people champion the powdery stuff for its strong, earthy flavor, while others find it to be a little too grassy for their liking. If you happen to fall into the group that loves green tea, then you will definitely love Trader Joe's green tea mochi flavor, just like I did. Creamy, earthy, and sweet-but-not-too-sweet, this flavor checked all of the boxes for me, proving to be the absolute best mochi in Trader Joe's lineup.

Something that I really enjoyed about this mochi flavor, which does taste more like matcha green tea than plain old green tea, is that it struck the perfect balance between creaminess, sweetness, and matcha flavor. The ice cream itself was really tasty, and it had a matcha flavor that was apparent but not so in-your-face that you feel like you just took a bite of grass. I also found this flavor to work really well with the rice dough mochi on the outside, making this a cohesive treat that tasted just as good as it looked. If there's one mochi flavor I'd return to again and again at Trader Joe's, it would be green tea hands down.

When it came to ranking Trader Joe's mochi ice cream, there was really only one factor at play, and that's flavor. Since all of the mochi are so incredibly similar, with ice cream in the middle and sweet rice dough on the outside, there really wasn't much else to compare other than the flavor of each mochi. The exception was the chocolate mochi, which did have a chocolate rice dough on the outside as opposed to a plain sweet one.

That said, there are certain flavor factors that I looked for, other than just how good each mochi tasted overall. I considered how strong the flavor was, how true it was to the flavor it was meant to represent (green tea did a good job, whereas caramel apple did not), and how cohesive I found the flavor to be when paired with the sweet mochi dough. Ultimately, however, my ranking came down to how tasty I found each flavor to be and which one I would be most inclined to repurchase or keep stocked in my freezer.