The Most Ridiculously Fall-Themed Items in Trader Joe’s October Fearless Flyer
Fall, more than any other season, seems to have the most iconic foods. The pumpkins! The apples! The caramel! You get the point. And if any grocer leans into this the most, it’s Trader Joe’s.
Year after year, the chain brings back and adds new festive foods to get us all in the mood for sweaters and hay rides. Honestly, it’s kind of working! We took a stroll through the store to find the most over-the-top fall-themed items and now all we want to do is cozy up with a mug of hot apple cider.
Take a look.
1. Candy Corn Popcorn, $2 for five ounces
Love it or hate it, you know that candy corn is quintessentially fall. This festive popcorn tastes like Cracker Jacks, only way sweeter. On paper, this idea is pretty out there. Ditto for it in reality.
2. Apple Cider Donuts, $4 for 15.9 ounces
Apple cider donuts are not really over-the-top, but they are classic and a very-necessary fall staple, so we had to include. These are made for Trader Joe’s in partnership with a family-owned bakery based in Western Massachusetts and with real apple cider.
3. Salted Caramel Hot Cocoa, $4 for 10 ounces
“The final result — when mixed with hot water or milk — is the warm, liquid manifestation of our ever-popular Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels,” promises Trader Joe’s. What’s not to like?
4. Carrot Cake Spread, $3 for 10 ounces
Carrot cake … as a spread? For those mornings when you want dessert but decide you should not have dessert in the mornings. This stuff is a mix between a jam and a butter and tastes like sweet carrots, warm spices, raisins, with accents of molasses and vanilla. Smear it on your breakfast scones or muffins, mix some into Greek yogurt, or make a sandwich with it and some cream cheese.
5. Pumpkin Tortilla Chips, $2 for seven ounces
Tired of regular ol’ tortilla chips? These are made with real pumpkin purée and pumpkin seeds. They’re extra crunchy, sweet, and sturdy enough to stand up to whatever dip you’ve got on hand (TJ’s suggests their Fall Harvest Salsa, Pumpkin Cream Cheese, or Pumpkin Greek Yogurt).
6. Pumpkin Spiced Pumpkin Seeds, $3 for eight ounces
Back for a fourth season, let’s go ahead and call this the Most Meta Snack to Ever Exist. Pumpkin seeds! That taste like pumpkin spice! To make them, the seeds are roasted and then glazed with butter-sugar toffee and seasoned with traditional pumpkin pie spices (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice).
7. Pumpkin Cream Cheese Spread, $2 for eight ounces
Around seasonally since 2010, Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Cream Cheese has a fanatical following. Shoppers love to put this stuff on bagels, English muffins, toast, apple slices, cookies, pumpkin bread, and more.
8. Pumpkin Rolls with Pumpkin Spice Icing, $4 for five rolls
Imagine cinnamon rolls. Now imagine them with pumpkin pie. And that’s these rolls. Back again, these rolls are made by the same supplier that makes the cinnamon rolls for Trader Joe’s — only they’re way more pumpkin-y. They even have a pumpkin spice icing situation.
9. Apple Caramel Whole Milk Greek Yogurt, $1 for 5.3 ounces
Another returning favorite, this Greek yogurt is thick and creamy. It tastes like dessert and still manages to have 11 grams of protein per serving. Eat it right out of the cup or as a fruit dip for apple slices.
10. Autumnal Harvest Pasta Sauce and Zucchette Pasta, $3.50 for 25 ounces, and $2 for 14 ounces, respectively
“They just work so well together, we can’t seem to split them apart,” says Trader Joe’s. And they really shouldn’t: The sauce is tomato-based with extras like pumpkin, butternut squash, carrots, and a touch of cream. While the pumpkin-shaped pasta (it gets its orange color from paprika) creates little pockets practically designed to scoop up the sauce. The two together = perfection a bowl.
11. Pumpkin Ginger Hold the Cone!, $3 for eight
It’s technically sweater weather, but maybe you still want to keep eating ice cream? The cones are ginger-flavored, the ice cream is pumpkin (with ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves), and the ice cream is covered with a sweet coating of sugar, coconut oil, and vanilla.