Trader Joe’s Churro Bites

The pros: Trader Joe’s Churro Bites are perfect for those who like things sweet, but not too sweet. These are baked so they will save on calories.

The cons: These won’t win any beauty pageants.

The verdict:  Sometimes I imagine what it must be like to work at Trader Joe’s. Specifically, I’m talking about the corporate aspect of Trader Joe’s. I’d love to know who has that job about hearing about all the fun product that they are researching and developing. I almost imagine it being like shark tank. I’ve even taken the time to imagine what that R&D conversation must have been like:

“We have this great new product, we’ve been working on. It’s got a crisp brown sugary exterior. We flavored it with cinnamon. But you see it’s baked, so it’s decent on calories. There is just one major problem with it.”

“Oh, yeah? What’s the problem?”

“Well, you see brown food other than chocolate and coffee isn’t so attractive. To be honest, well, you see, they kinda look like little turds.”

“That’s ok, they can’t be any worse looking than our Dried Baby Bananas. Maybe the public won’t notice. We will just cleverly name it so that no one will ever know our secret.”

“What shall we call them?”

“Well, they should evoke a feeling of deliciousness, so that most people including that Become Betty lady will end up buying them and discuss them on the internet.”

“Alright, how to “Mini Churros sound?” “We did that already in the freezer aisle. We would hate to confuse our customers.”

“Alrighty then, how about Churro Bites?”

“Sounds good. Let’s release it.”

That is how I imagine this product development to be like. Yes, I’ve inserted myself into their corporate meetings. It’s my imagination after all. Besides, if you would like to come up with your own tale of how this product came to be, feel free to leave me a comment. Would love to hear people’s thoughts.

Anyways, if you are buying these, you are getting a product that is light as a feather, but has a sugar crispiness that makes it feel like you are biting into the sugar crust of a creme brulee. Yes, this is solid brown sugar and cinnamon flavor. Not quite the pate choux base that a real churro would be. But it’s basically a puffed corn coated in that glaze. So, I guess Trader Joe’s shrugged and said close enough. Could you find some chocolate to dip these in? Yes. The exterior of these would hold up quite well. Time will tell if they are planning on bringing back their Fondue for the Valentine’s Day season which would pair well with these. If not, some melted chocolate will work.

These also do not share the familiar ridged shape of a churro either. Those ridges are needed to maximize the amount of cinnamon sugar on regular churros as well as increase the amount of crispy exterior that each real churro would have. Since these are baked, there is more of a glaze present, but the inside is plenty crispy. Churros are traditionally sold as street food. But then again I wouldn’t mind strolling down the street with a bag of these open. So good, easy to share, but you might not want to. For $2.49, it’s not authentic, but they are tasty. As for me, there are more bags of these in my future. These are worth a try.

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

The bag of Trader Joe’s Churro Bites:

The nutritional information:

How Trader Joe’s describes this new product:

Out of the package you get:

Would I buy this again? Yes, I would buy Trader Joe’s Churro Bites again. I have a sweet tooth and this product hit that sweet tooth just right. My bag only lasted about 24 hours from when I first opened it. I’d absolutely love to have another.

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!