Trader Joe's Blueberry Lavender Flavored Almond Beverage

The pros: Trader Joe's Blueberry Lavender Flavored Almond Beverage is a new seasonal gluten-free, vegan, dairy free, kosher, shelf stable almond beverage flavor that has nuances of both blueberry and lavender that are very subtle.

The cons:  There is a direct correlation between how much blueberry flavor you are expecting and how happy you will likely be with this product.

The verdict:  Finally, some new items on the end cap that says "New Items." In fact, not only did Trader Joe's Blueberry Lavender Flavored Almond Beverage land this week. So did Trader Joe's Matcha Almond Beverage. I polled my followers on Instagram to see which review they wanted to see first. The people spoke and I listened.

It wasn't until recently that I sat down and wrote a side by side review of all four frozen blueberry options at Trader Joe's. After opening all four bags, photographing them, and cleaning up the subsequent mess, my hands (and the paper I wrote on) were sufficiently smurf-esque in color.

A few hand washings later, I was restored to my natural hue. The power of blueberries to discolor anything they touch is quite impressive. So when I picked this new item up from Trader Joe's, I chilled it, and poured it into a glass. It did not quite meet expectations of a blueberry product. Let's start with a picture to show you what I mean:

Nope.  Don't adjust your screen. I figured I would be photographing something of a deep purple hue. Nope.  This is pretty much the same color as any other almond beverage.

I thought to myself, "Woah. Missed opportunity on this one." You see, blueberries and other fresh fruit have antioxidants and other wonderful things that is found in fruit. They would boost the nutritional facts on just about anything they touch. It would certainly be picked up on in the nutritional facts, but nope. Nothing.

When I recently tried Trader Joe's Chocolate Whole Milk, it was clear as day that it both chocolate and thick rich whole milk. Even the seasonal Chocolate Peppermint Almond Beverage does not hide in flavor or color. This is a matter of playing with words on the package. This is flavored as blueberry and lavender.

If you drink this product, your satisfaction will depend solely on how strongly you are expecting it to taste like blueberries. What I expected and what I got were very different. I wanted that same wow punch of flavor.

This is subtle. The flavor is there and it's good as a very lightly flavored almond beverage. It's all flavoring here, but no actual fruit.

When I first bought this, I was originally more concerned with this tasting like a dryer sheet because of the lavender. It's there. There is a floral taste there, but nothing that overwhelms the palate. The blueberry was almost equally subtle.

If you go into this expecting a berry blast, you might be disappointed. I think it is easy enough to throw this into a smoothie to adjust the level of fruit taste. It's a nice break from plain almond beverages. But at the same time, I think they could have easily hit this out of the park by amping up the flavors here even more.

For $1.99 this is shelf stable, inexpensive, and has a very long shelf life. Like most flavored almond beverages, they seem to be seasonal. So if you try it and love it, you'll want to pick up a few. Whether or not you end up liking this is all going to come down to your expectations. I did not think I tasted bad at all. I just think they could have really pushed a lot harder on the flavor profile here.

Here is the visual run down of what you get if you buy this product:

The box of Trader Joe's Blueberry Lavender Flavored Almond Beverage:

The nutritional information:

The ingredients:

How Trader Joe's describes this:

Out of the package you get:

Would I buy this again? For me this is a no. I think I was looking for a flavor as assertive as the chocolate peppermint beverage. But, I also know for many out there this is going to be a yes. If this product checks off a lot of the boxes for you: soy free, dairy free, vegan, kosher, gluten-free or a number of others Trader Joe's Blueberry Lavender Flavored Almond Beverage is a welcome break from plain almond beverage.

Want to see more items I've reviewed from Trader Joe's? Click on Thoughts & Reviews of Trader Joe’s for a searchable list.

Did you try it? Let me know what you think in the comments section!

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