Tag Archives: trader joe’s

Trader Joe’s Mochi Ice Cream Show Down

May 23, 2019

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?

Posted by Jennifer in Food Review, Reviews Tags: coffee, green tea, mango, mochi, mochi ice cream, strawberry, thai tea, trader joe's

6 comments

Vegan Mofo 2016 Day 23: Pre-Thanksgiving

November 23, 2016

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I am finally feeling like I am starting to get my shit together. Sort of. I’ve been actually doing pretty well with Vegan MOFO, and one prompt Alexa was going to write up something but sadly she has been having computer problems. But even still, so far we got a post up everyday, except for one. Last year we missed 3 posts, so maybe this year we will only miss 1 (maybe 2.) Last night I was starting to wonder if my water broke (despite what you see on TV, it isn’t a huge splash) but by the next morning it was very clear it didn’t. At first I was freaking out that nothing was ready. So this weekend I might focus on making phone calls and getting things in order.

Well, I didn’t go into labor, which is good. I still have three weekends to get the nursery totally settled in (so close guys!) and I will be spending family bonding time before the big day.

I think I’ve mentioned in every single Thanksgiving Day themed post, that I don’t like the holiday. Frankly I don’t like the food much. Cranberry sauce? Why are we eating plain jam? Mashed Potatoes? What is this baby food? Pies? Meh, give me cake. I mean it is all find an dandy but I think it marks the beginning of the a marathon of holiday foods that all taste the same. Lots of thyme, rosemary, umami, and root veggies. Meh. I think that is why family does Mexican Christmas Eve. But my husband LOVES the food and holiday. So that means I feed into his love of mashed potatoes and pie even though I would rather not.

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And even more luckily for him, his office has an office Thanksgiving lunch. He use to eat whatever they had before he went vegan. But this is the third celebration since he decided to go vegan. So we started a “pre-thanksgiving” tradition. Every year, before his office party we make a frozen “faux turkey” roast with one or two vegetable sides. We’ve tried tofurky, but so far my favorite has been the Gardein/Trader Joe’s holiday roast. Plus, the Trader Joe’s “brand” is cheaper, though it is really just Gardein with Trader Joe smacked on the outside. I’m cool with that.

This year we kept it pretty simple, we took some vegetables from our CSA and followed the instructions for a big roast. This gave us MUCH more veggies than we first anticipated. So we had some roasted turnips, parsnips, carrots, and celery (not from our CSA.) We then made a side of But I Could Never Go Vegan‘s sweet potato and brussel sprouts dish. The sprouts were from out CSA, which didn’t do too hot this year. Our stalk was more greens than sprouts, so we saved all of those and will probably do a little side with them another day.

This year Jon found out one of his co-workers is actually vegan (we thought he was just vegetarian.) So next year if they are both still working there, I will probably be making a bigger spread to bring in and share with his co-workers. Apparently other people at the office were commenting on how good the food looked.

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Usually we get by for the rest of the week not cooking anything, which is totally okay with me. Leftovers all week leading up to the big cooking holiday? Okay! Actually I do cook, just usually things we aren’t going to eat. Like I cooked a whole pound of chickpeas (to make two chickpea tarts, one for thanksgiving, one for post baby), bake an apple pie, bake a pumpkin pie, you know, prep work.

If anyone wants to know, I’ve made a few other Thanksgiving posts- you can check them out if you so please:

Our Thanksgiving 2015 Plan
Our Thanksgiving Dinner 2014
Recipe for Vegan Green Bean Casserole
How to Serve a Vegan Guest for Your Holiday Dinner
Tofurky or Not Tofurky? That is the Question.