Tag Archives: strawberry

Mochi ice cream is really becoming popular these days, but I remember in my college years buying them only in Asian food markets. But when I went whole hog vegan my options pretty much vanished. Now they are on trend and Trader Joe’s REALLY stepped up their game. They have been making some mochi over the years, but now they have a whooping 5 different vegan mochi to choose from when I was last there. I think this is the largest selection I’ve seen to date. I felt that everyone needed to know which was the best, so I reviewed these mochi from worst to best (but like they were all really good)

And a quick note about eating! Everyone says to not let the mochi thaw, it is good to go right out of the freezer. I beg to differ. Just take them out and let them sit for at least 2-5 minutes. Not much time is needed. But shoving it right into your face right away is a bad idea. It is too cold to really taste the flavors.

Buono Green Tea Mochi Ice Dessert

This isn’t a Trader Joe brand of mochi ice cream, though I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the company producing the Trader Joe mochi. Although I LOVE green tea, so I was a little surprised when I decided to bump this down to my least favorite flavor. I think the green tea is a little too grassy, and overall unimpressive. Texture was alright, but the overall green tea flavor way bleh. I mean, if this was the only mochi ice cream I would still buy it again, but when I bought the second box for this review it felt boring.

Mango Mini Mochi

Awhile ago Trader Joe’s had a mango mochi product, but it was big and had a sugary mango core. This one I was pretty excited to eat because of previous one. These little soft jewels are awesome, but clearly are mango sorbet, not mango ice cream. It was a little ice-y as a result, but I am happily eating them. Plus I really like the small bite size that I can grab and eat when I feel like a need a tiny snack.

Buono Strawberry Mochi Ice Dessert

Honestly speaking, I really like this strawberry mochi. I think they even added a little dye to the mochi wrapper to make it a little pink. So cute. But the strawberry is a little artificial tasting, and I can imagine totally putting some people off. The texture is just right and it makes me wish they carried the other flavors by this brand (mostly the black sesame)

Thai Tea Mini Mochi

I bought these Thai Tea Mini Mochi over the mango ones initially. I mostly was excited to get a flavor that wasn’t as common in vegan desserts. As with the mango ones, I love the ratio of wrapper to ice cream, and how they are quick little bits. The ice cream is yummy and creamy. At first I wasn’t a big fan, but they grew on me. Now I like them better than the green tea (which wasn’t the case at first)

Coffee Mochi

As you can tell from the group mochi shots, these are the biggest of the batch. They are also my favorite. This deluxe mochi has been on the market since 2017, and feature a coffee ice cream with a chocolate-y coffee liquid core. Mochi ice cream purists will probably hate it. Even I first didn’t like it, but this year it has become my absolute favorite. I gobbled this box first after making this review. But since they are biggest than the other kinds, you get only 6 pieces (rather than 8 for strawberry/green tea, 15 for the minis) So if you are short on cash, you might want to splurge on the others first.

So what about you? Any vegan mochi ice cream that you love? Which Trader Joe flavor is your favorite?


I had already posted a recipe for a pre-made smoothie mix, but I was thinking lately about how expensive protein powders are. I had some on mornings when my husband was able to make my shake before me. It was easy to take a nice mix like Vega and blend it up quickly, but the price tag was too much and I wanted to try to make a protein powder that could just be blended on it’s own without too many other ingredients.

I had a brilliant idea of using freeze dried fruit to add flavor to chalky protein powders and I have to say it works pretty well! I remember the days when you could only get the stuff like freeze dried iced cream from the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, but now all sorts of freeze dried things are popular snacks. I got mine from Trader Joe’s for a pretty reasonable price and it is easy to just dump the bag in the food processor to make the mix.

Oh… but wait…. take out that silica gel packet first!

I didn’t and my god did I cry. Sure I am a little sleep deprived, but I was pretty pissed. I used two packages of freeze dried strawberries, two cups of protein powder, and made a smoothie. And it tasted awesome. So I started to pour the powder in a container and noticed a shredded up packet. I had to throw out my smoothie, and all the powder mix. AWFUL!

Well, it gave me motivation to test out a few things a little more. I tried the freeze dried blueberries, which were so-so. The freeze dried mangos were awesome! I tried mixing with just water, just plant milk,  or plant milk and ice. I have to say the homemade mix does pretty well with just milk, though I still suggest at least blending with a banana or avocado with ice to make it creamier. 

One thing to keep in mind is that since I am not using flavoring agents like most smoothie mixes would use, you need more mix per smoothie. It might feel a little weird at first getting a measuring cup to make a smoothie, but it won’t taste too thick.

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Anyone know where to get purple tomatillos? My CSA has them, and they are probably my favorite thing. But truthfully, outside of my CSA, I’ve never seen them for sale. I guess maybe at some diverse farmer markets? This recipe can be made with normal green tomatillos, but it won’t be as sweet, and a little more tart. You also won’t get such a lush purple color. But don’t worry, you can even see with my crisp that some mostly green tomatillos snuck in.

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Is this really a weird flavor combination? I am not sure. I actually got the idea from my CSA, as they have a big book of recipes according to the vegetable at hand. It happened to be opened to tomatillos one day and I saw the suggestion- strawberry-tomatillo crisp. I thought adding other berries to the mix would be perfect! A quick google search shows a few other recipes for tomatillo crisp, but it really isn’t as common as strawberry rhubarb pie.

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I think my husband was blown away by the flavor. The berries don’t over power the tomatillos but most people aren’t use to the flavor of cooked tomatillos. So the end result is something really unique. Guests will be scratching their heads about what flavor combination is going on.

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Sadly the purple tomatillos are reaching their end at my CSA so I won’t be making another batch of this. I can say that I will definitely be making this again next year!

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