I'm not sure why Trader Joe's deems ube a summer flavor, but recently we have seen the return of various Ube products: The ice cream and the mochi pancake mix. Now, Trader Joe's is adding tea cookies to its lineup.
So here are cookies that should be the star of Instagram.
Except they aren't.
The taste
These cookies are barely purple and that's a bummer when you think about how brightly-hued this tuber should make these.
There are even purple yams in this which should make the colors pop. Behind the scenes, I've been working on a few copycat recipes again and ube is on my list.
I've got to tell you that I spilled a bit of ube extract and the end result was my hands looked like I was turning into Barney or Grimace. My fingers were purple for days.
So when I pulled out one of the two bags of cookies from this box, I was shocked by what a faint hue of lilac they were.
To compound things, these are so coated in powdered sugar it almost ends up tasting like frosting. Since the cookies are so small the powdered sugar ends up overwhelming the taste. And these have only the faintest hint of ube in them.
If I was blindfolded I would have thought they were vanilla. But ube flavor is more reminiscent of what vanilla and pistachio taste like together.
So if you want really good tea cookies, then reach for the seasonal Key Lime Tea Cookies. Those are absolutely divine.
These ube tea cookies? They aren't bad, but they also didn't knock it out of the park. Trust me, the box will disappear in my household.
The packaging
This box contains 2 separate plastic bags with cookies in them. This could have easily have been combined into a single bag.
Overall
For $2.99 these are good, but I'd rather reach for the other ube products that have a better ube flavor. Maybe if the cookies were larger like the key lime cookies and had less powdered sugar I would have found them more enjoyable.
Would I buy this again? While Trader Joe's Ube Tea Cookies were good there are so many new cookies to try they didn't knock it out of the park for me.
Did you try it? Let me know what you think in the comments section!
The visual rundown of this product
The box of Trader Joe's Ube Tea Cookies:
The nutritional information and ingredient list
How to prepare:
Out of the package you get:
After taking a bite out of the cookie to show the inside:
Want to see more items I've reviewed from Trader Joe's? Click on Thoughts & Reviews of Trader Joe’s for a searchable list.
The Bottom Line
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Trader Joe's Ube Tea Cookies
Product Name: Trader Joe's Ube Tea Cookies
Product Description: Trader Joe's Ube Tea Cookies is part of a seasonal collection of ube flavored products.
Price: $2.99
Summary
Trader Joe's Ube Tea Cookies are new and add to a growing lineup of seasonal Ube products
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Taste
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Value
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Worthy of Repurchasing
Pros
- These taste fine albeit muted in flavor
- Box contains two bags of cookies.
- Easy to share
Cons
- Seasonal
- The Key lime is better cookies overall
- Not much in the way of ube flavor.
I really like them but they are completely, totally almond shortbread... which I love. In Texas these are 3.99 for a 10oz box with 1 bag of cookies in the box. I bought 3 boxes, hoping they were awesome. I'll eat them because they are pretty tasty almond cookies, but they are NOT ube flavor.
Thanks for sharing Laura!
Ironically they haven't sold fresh ube. Should sell into the freezer section
Or at least ube extract. That I've had to get off of Amazon. Thanks as always for stopping by!
Make sure you read the ingredients on your ube extract- not natural artificial color and usually some propylene glycol.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the review. Haven’t seen these in my TJs yet. The powder sugar seems wrong. The sweet potato cookies at my local Asian grocery taste like slightly sweet crackers. I just bought TJ ube pancake mix and looking forward to trying that.
Thanks for sharing Mel!