The Most Exciting New Groceries Hitting Shelves This January

One of the best parts of grocery shopping is discovering new stuff, but let’s be honest — an impromptu taste test in Aisle 4 is a good way to get banned from your local market for life. Let me be your guide: Instead of wasting any time buying goodies that won’t make it into your regular rotation, I’m doing a taste test of the most exciting new groceries this month.

I tried 55 brand-new products that just hit shelves this January to find the ones worth putting in your cart. (And, yes, I’m very full — thanks for asking.)

You’ve heard that Dark Chocolate Oreos were coming. They’re here now! So, let’s discuss. If I did a side-by-side blind taste test, I might not be able to tell the difference. Not that this a bad thing! Oreos are great — we all know this. The cream in these is just a little smoother and slightly chocolate-y. The only way to truly appreciate this cookie? Take it apart, scrape out the filling with your teeth, then finish the rest of the cookie. If you’re already the kind of person who does this normally, you’re way ahead of the game. (I ate about 20 to make sure I found the perfect method.)

This is not your grandma’s digestive wellness cereal. Nope, this is Happy Inside, a new cereal line that’s packed with prebiotics, probiotics, and fiber. First of all, can we talk about how cute this packaging is? An adorable smiling man with a window into his happy gut — I’m swooning over here. The cereal itself is a super-tasty, not-too-sweet mix of whole-grain barley with freeze-dried strawberries and probiotic yogurt bits on a mission. If we had a window into my gut, I imagine it’d be giving this a big thumbs up.

I’m very much addicted to caffeine — so much so that I drink black coffee just so I can fit MORE coffee into each cup without non-caffeinated milky-things taking up precious room. So I tend to be skeptical of bottled coffee drinks with a lot of other stuff in it: Why exactly are you here, and can you please make room for the coffee on your way out? Thank you! But I’m happy to report that this Nescafe drink has a full eight ounces of straight-up coffee, which kept me happily buzzed through my normal caffeine crash time. The other three ounces are a creamy, plant-based blend of oats, almond butter, and banana with a whopping 15 grams of protein. Black coffee, you might be taking a back seat for a little while.

Before this, I had never really tried jackfruit, the plant-based meat alternative with a hearty texture that’s been taking over the veg space for a couple of years now. The results: I loved these frozen Jackfruit Cakes, Trader Joe’s take on vegan crab cakes. Before all the Marylanders try to school me in good crab cakes versus bad crab cakes, let me preface this by saying these don’t taste like seafood. At all. But that’s not really the point here, and right out of the oven with a squeeze of lemon juice, the crispy-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside texture was super satisfying. Even my carnivore boyfriend was sold.

Read more: Trader Joe’s Crabless Crab Cakes Are Actually … Not Bad

The first few bites of this protein bar kind of tasted like a big, soft candy bar – which is usually a big red flag when it comes to “health” snacks. But when I peeked at the nutrition label, I was pleasantly surprised that it only had 10 grams of sugar (for comparison, many Clif Bar flavors have double that). Out of this new line, the lemon flavor was my favorite, mostly because I hadn’t really tried anything like it before. But if you’re someone who would truly rather be eating candy right now, you’ll probably enjoy the Choc. Mint or the Cookie flavors even more.

Between two people, these disappeared FAST. If you thought the spicy jalapeño flavor would’ve slowed us down, you thought wrong, because 30 minutes into The Bachelor, this 10-ounce bag was empty. Compared to its classic Cheez-It predecessor, these crackers from the new Snap’d line are twice as large, super airy, and leave behind way more of that cheese-powder-on-your-fingers residue that I happen to love. If you’re not into spicy stuff, I can confirm that the Double Cheese flavor is also delicious. I can see myself buying these for many Bachelor watch parties to come.

As soon as I tried this, I immediately felt the urge to start planning a Galentine’s Day party — just as an excuse to hand these out as favors. Paired with a nice dark chocolate, the rosé wine flavor was light and delicate, but it was definitely there, as opposed to some other “rosé-flavored” candies that are really just strawberry-ish. If you’re not a raspberry-rosé kinda gal, maybe you’re a vanilla-bourbon one? Dove just released that flavor, too, so you’re in luck.

Have you tried anything new and yummy lately? Tell us about it in the comments below!