Trader Joe's Carnitas with Salsa Verde Burrito

The pros:  Trader Joe's Carnitas with Salsa Verde Burrito is one of the more recent additions to an otherwise lackluster section of Trader Joe's.

The cons:  Calorie count. I'm not sure why one burrito is considered two servings. I'm pretty sure this meant as a meal for one.

The verdict:  I've tried just about every Trader Joe's wrap there is. The only two that stood out as being good were:  Trader Joe's Black Bean and Jack Cheese Burrito and Trader Joe's Cubano Wrap. Everything else was disappointing and nothing else I would even remotely considering repurchasing. Even worse, many of them contained a lot of calories without great flavor. Same can be said about many of the other refrigerated options. That changed when Trader Joe's introduced their Enchiladas Rojo and Chicken Enchiladas Verde. This burrito and Trader Joe's Pollo Asada Burrito seek to improve the wraps in the way the Enchiladas have elevated the other refrigerated items.

Trader Joe's Carnitas with Salsa Verde seem to have a lot of the same elements of the Black Bean and Cheese burrito. But this adds several elements. This has pork, a salsa verde, cilantro lime rice, and a pepperjack cheese. However, in terms of a perfect bite of a burrito isn't present here. Ingredients in a burrito should be distributed in a vertical way, not horizontally allowing for bites of just one ingredient.

One of the items I enjoyed but was only present in a few bites was the salsa verde. It added a nice acidity and tang, but this again should have been distributed better. I also wished there was more pork. When my bite had pork, it was good. It had a nice spice to it. Most of my bites sadly seemed to be mostly black beans. Now, this item was supposed to have pepperjack cheese, but once it was heated but there was only the slightest bite of spice. The rice had good flavor and wasn't overwhelming on the palate with cilantro.

The burrito was much better warm than cold. Yes, I took bites both ways. I'm also not sure why they think this is two servings when every other wrap is one. Perhaps you'll hope you are only consuming 270 calories in the whole thing, when in fact you are getting 540 calories. While the wrap had shortcomings, like having the ingredients lined up like a pack of Life Savers. With so much of the items concentrated in certain parts it did take away from the experienceFor all those short comings, for a quick lunch or dinner, I'd buy it again. For $3.99, this wasn't a bad lunch.

My recent lunch:

The nutritional information:

How to prepare:

After being heated up and cut in half you get:

Would I buy this again? Trader Joe's Carnitas with Salsa Verde Burrito is a yes from me. This is a nice addition to an other wise not great selection of grab and go wraps. This won't stop me from ordering from my local Mexican restaurant though. This is just a good grab and go item.

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!