The Best New Items At Trader Joe's In 2025 (So Far), According To Customers

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Key to the popularity of Trader Joe's stores is a deft balance between some typical grocery store fare — meat, fruit, veggies, bread — and plenty of what might best be described as little treats. Firmly in the latter category, the best food at Trader Joe's in 2023, according to the store's Customer Choice Awards, was its frozen Mandarin Orange Chicken. Accordingly, almost all of the most exciting new products Trader Joe's releases in a given year fall within that little treat territory. Those are, nevertheless, supplemented by some simpler items like new kinds of tinned anchovies, for instance.

Determining the best new items at Trader Joe's that debuted in stores between January and July of 2025 meant combing through online posts about new Trader Joe's products and isolating the items with the highest volume of positive customer feedback. This list is mostly premade dishes or desserts, but a few Trader Joe's twists on simple pantry or fridge items made the cut too. With that in mind, each of the following is one of the best new items released through the first seven-or-so months of 2025 by Trader Joe's.

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Excess is a characteristic that defines some of the best Trader Joe's items — take the cheap, versatile Trader Joe's Everything But the Bagel seasoning, for example. Philosophically similar is a new cookie product the grocery store chain released in July of 2025 called All the Things Cookies.

That name, of course, is hardly descriptive, simply indicating that these cookies are made with a lot of different ingredients. A closer look at its label reveals that each All the Things Cookie includes corn flakes, pretzels, marshmallows, semisweet chocolate chips, and crispy rice. The base holding all of that together is a butter-heavy cookie dough. While a cookie defined by its excess could easily end up with a little too much going on, these are all ingredients intended to strategically complement one another. Among numerous comments praising the product in a Reddit thread about their arrival at Trader Joe's, one user posted a succinct review. "Got them off your suggestion and 10/10," they wrote. "I love a crispy cookie mmmmmm."

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Customers had a lot of good things to say about the Trader Joe's Strawberry and Rhubarb Hand Pies when they debuted on store shelves around July of 2022. Just about three years later, Trader Joe's began stocking what can pretty much be considered a sequel to that earlier product. The Strawberry and Rhubarb Hand Pies came two to a pack and netted 8.47 ounces, whereas the store's new Teeny Tiny Strawberry Rhubarb Pies — which debuted in May 2025 — come in four-packs that weigh 9.17 ounces. So, each pie is smaller, but you get more pie overall.

Discussions online are overwhelmingly positive regarding the Teeny Tiny Strawberry Rhubarb Pies. In one Reddit thread, a user shared that they found the pies made for an outstanding dessert, driven largely by the distinct flavor of rhubarb. "I don't really like sweets, but these are one of the best things I've ever eaten," they wrote. "They're very tart, maybe even a bit salty in the crust? I could see how non-rhubarb fans might not like them, but I think they're perfect."

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Around January of 2022, Costco shoppers were enthusiastic about a new sort of Japanese waffle cake treat called taiyaki that had just become available at Costco warehouses, courtesy of the Korean Suji's brand. In Japan, taiyaki is typically a street food often served at festival booths, consisting of waffle batter in a fish mold surrounding a filling. Red bean is the filling most commonly found in taiyaki made in Japan, but domestically, where red bean is considered more of an acquired taste, custard is standard. Those without a Costco membership curious about taiyaki can now find frozen bags of Japanese Mini Taiyaki at Trader Joe's stores.

According to Trader Joe's, its Mini Taiyaki are manufactured in Japan, so the "Japanese" label on each bag is more than just an indicator of where the treat was invented. In each bag are eight miniature taiyaki. This Reddit user is one of many to praise the product: "I ate two of these with my morning coffee. I *loved* them! So light and crispy — and gently (i.e., not excessively) sweet. Thank you, TJ's!"

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Mini Sheet Cakes have become one of the signature offerings at Trader Joe's stores in recent years. Flavors range from a relatively standard Dark Chocolate Ganache to a seasonal Pumpkin Spice. Joining its lineup around March of 2025 was the simply titled Yellow Mini Sheet Cake, topped with a chocolate buttercream frosting. The intent behind the Yellow Mini Sheet Cake, however, was not just to supplement the existing range of sheet cake flavors but to allow gluten-free customers to join in on the fun.

Trader Joe's claims to have spent months perfecting a gluten-free sheet cake recipe before debuting the Yellow Mini Sheet Cake, and that attention to quality seems to have paid off. Online, those who have tried the product — some of whom adhere to a gluten-free diet, some of whom do not — are practically all enthusiastic about it. One Reddit user said they ended up purchasing the Yellow Mini Sheet Cake after a sample impressed them. "It's so good! They were doing samples at my store last week," they wrote. "I thought the vanilla and chocolate cakes were amazing, this one is even better."

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No trip to Trader Joe's is complete without at least thinking about its multitude of creative desserts. Rounding out the selection of desserts among its best new items through the end of July of 2025 is a gelato product of sorts, called Pistachio & Fior di Latte Gelato Style Frozen Dessert in full. Typically, "frozen dessert" is a bad sign, indicating in this case that its ingredients do not meet the threshold to qualify as actual gelato. Nevertheless, appreciation of the Pistachio and Fior di Latte Frozen Dessert online is pretty universal.

The way each package is arranged, the pistachio and fior di latte flavors are separated, each taking up two of four quadrants in a sort of square shape. That said, Trader Joe's fully intends for customers to mix the two flavors if they are so inclined. On Reddit, many of those who tried the product reported back that they thoroughly enjoyed the so-called Gelato Style Frozen Dessert. "I'm literally eating it for the first time right now," wrote one user. " It's soooooooooo good."

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Grocery store pizzas are mostly found in the freezer aisle, but refrigerated take-and-bake pizzas are perhaps an underrated alternative. A take-and-bake pizza, for example, ranks among the absolute best new Costco finds in the summer of 2025. While not pizza per se, calzones are certainly a pizza shop staple, and Trader Joe's debuted a Meatball Calzone around March of 2025 that offers many of the same advantages of a take-and-bake pizza. In short, it's about as close as a grocery store item can approximate restaurant quality, requiring more work than a frozen version might, but justifying that work with a superior taste.

The Trader Joe's Meatball Calzone consists of amply seasoned meatballs, mozzarella cheese, and tomato sauce within a thick dough. It can be prepared in the oven, air fryer, or even the microwave. That said, some of those who posted about the product online recommended an air fryer over a microwave. With proper preparation, plenty of those commenters thoroughly enjoyed their Meatball Calzone. That includes one reviewer on X, who tweeted: "I found god while eating half a meatball calzone from Trader Joe's."

Desserts may well be the foremost temptation during a routine trip to Trader Joe's, but there are plenty of salty snacks silently calling out to innocent shoppers too. Leading the charge among 2025's salty snacks, as delicious as they are a questionable dietary choice, are Garlic Butter Irish Potato Chips. Their debut followed the release of Cashel Blue Cheese Irish Potato Chips bags near the end of 2024. A warm reception to the blue cheese chips is most likely a big part of what inspired Trader Joe's to debut this new flavor.

Trader Joe's began stocking its Garlic Butter Irish Potato Chips around April of 2025, and customers started buying multiple bags as soon as they hit store shelves. Many new items end up offered for a limited time, and those who bought multiple bags found their behavior justified when the Garlic Butter Irish Potato Chips left stores soon after their debut. "Literally got my first bag an hour ago," wrote one Reddit user. "It's almost empty. I'm so glad I bought two!!"

One strength of Trader Joe's is its willingness to stock items that just aren't all that common elsewhere. Among Trader Joe's hidden gems that often go overlooked, for example, is a Danish Kringle — something that isn't easy to find outside of explicitly European specialty stores. In January 2025, Trader Joe's started selling Artichoke Bottoms, smartly isolating the part of the artichoke that abuts the heart and makes for an equally tasty snack. Despite their practicality, there's a distinct lack of artichoke bottoms on most store shelves beside plentiful selections of artichoke hearts.

According to the Trader Joe's description of the product, its Artichoke Bottoms can be used in virtually all the same contexts as artichoke hearts. Commenters online are enthusiastic about both the work of peeling an artichoke this prepackaged product eliminates, and the fact that the Artichoke Bottoms make available a specific part of the artichoke not often found in isolation. "Just had these tonight and they are so meaty and good," wrote one Reddit user. "An incredible value considering all these artichokes fresh would be $10-plus and you'd still have to trim them."

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Trader Joe's knows how to make a good dip. When it debuted in stores around the start of 2021, for example, a Trader Joe's vegan tzatziki dip turned some heads. Of course, tzatziki is most well-known as a Greek dish. Enjoyed in many countries just across the Mediterranean is labneh, sometimes literally referred to as strained yogurt. In May of 2025, Trader Joe's released a Roasted Tomato Labneh Dip, consisting of seasoned labneh topped with a thin layer of seasoned, roasted tomatoes.

Online, commenters have shared a wide variety of contexts in which they have enjoyed their Roasted Tomato Labneh Dip, including on pasta as well as paired with the Trader Joe's-brand Middle Eastern Style Kebabs. Some Reddit commenters even shared that it reminds them of labneh they've enjoyed courtesy of current or past family members. "Just had it with TJ's pita chips. It's really good," wrote one user. "My ex-husband is Turkish-Persian so I was excited for this."

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A Trader Joe's dinner could be something made from scratch with raw ingredients, or it could be an extravagant frozen entree simply heated up at home. Between those two options is a package of pasta paired with a premade pasta sauce. Trader Joe's offers ample selections of each of these types of products. Bolstering its pasta sauce lineup in 2025 was the release of an item called Caro Sugo Italian Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce around March.

The ingredients in each jar of Caro Sugo — Italian for "dear sauce" — are simple, consisting of basically just tomatoes, olive oil, onion, salt, garlic, basil, and oregano. That simplicity, it turns out, is to the item's benefit, based on the multitude of customers who have praised its flavor. "I agree it's very good," wrote one Reddit user. "Real basil, real garlic chunks, velvety tomato sauce with good olive oil. I think the quality of ingredients justify the price."

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Sometimes for better and sometimes for worse, the selection of items at Trader Joe's is more curated than it is expansive. That means unique items like Artichoke Bottoms will pop up with some regularity, but such a philosophy also leads to a lack of certain grocery store staples in the chain's inventory. One common ingredient missing from Trader Joe's stores prior to its May 2025 debut was silken tofu. Not only is it now available on store shelves, but the version Trader Joe's ultimately introduced is also organic.

For what it's worth, there's not necessarily anything unique about the new Trader Joe's Organic Silken Tofu, other than maybe the fact that it's organic. But what has so many customers excited is the fact that the chain has remedied a conspicuous deficiency. "I was so happy when I saw this at the store today!" wrote a Reddit user. "I always hated having to make a second stop at a grocery store when I needed silken tofu."

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Lentils are hardly new to Trader Joe's. Products using lentils as a featured ingredient range from premade Indian curries to canned soups. Nevertheless, when Trader Joe's introduced canned lentils — with a minimalist label simply reading "Lentils" — in February of 2025, it marked a significant addition to the chain's inventory. Despite so many prior lentil-based items, a straight up can of cooked lentils was previously unavailable at Trader Joe's stores. Sweetening the deal is the item's 99-cent price point.

Types of recipes utilizing these canned lentils — that the official Trader Joe's product description recommends — include salads, soups, and stews. Numerous commenters online were excited about the addition of lentils at Trader Joe's stores, sharing even more ideas for how to use them in the kitchen. "I discovered these last week at my Trader Joe's and last night I made a harissa lentil and mushroom shepherd's pie," wrote one Reddit user. "So good and so convenient to make!"

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The range of little treats available at a typical Trader Joe's store extends beyond just its frozen entrees, salty snacks, and creative desserts. Rounding out the selection of indulgent Trader Joe's products are its drinks. New to the beverage aisle as of July 2025 is a four-pack of Sparkling Orange Flavored Espresso Tonic cans. Each can is 8.45 ounces — so small-ish, but still sippable — and, as its name suggests, contains orange juice-flavored tonic water mixed with espresso.

Trader Joe's recommends serving its Orange Flavored Espresso Tonic on ice, and possibly even adding lemon, orange zest, rosemary, or mint as a garnish. In essence, it's a summery drink, released, appropriately, in the midst of the summer. Among the drink's many fans online is this Reddit user: "It's honestly kinda phenomenal. Very sweet orangey coffee chocolate vibe. Almost reminds me of those chocolate oranges that are super nostalgic. It's quite nice. Very sweet though."

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Finding the best new items at Trader Joe's that debuted in stores in 2025 so far, meant examining reviews about the store's newest products and determining the items with the most positive consumer feedback. Meeting those criteria was a twofold process. First, discussion had to be ample, disqualifying items that garnered just a handful of reactions. Then, those discussions had to be comprised of predominately positive opinions.