Wednesday, May 3, 2006

Trader Joe’s Chocolate Covered Banana Chips

I do love banana chips, but I gave up eating them quite a while back when I realized how much fat they had in them. I’m not saying fat is a bad thing, but somehow I figured a piece of chocolate was probably better for me than a banana chip.

Enter the Milk Chocolate Covered Banana Chip.

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They’re not the most appealing looking treat, in fact, if you put these in a bowl and offered them to me, I’d probably decline. They look kind of like deformed chocolate ears. (I’m not sure, for the record, that I’d want to eat candy that looks like perfectly formed chocolate ears either.)

I don’t know what possessed me to buy these, but I am glad I did. It took a few bites to get used to them.

The chips themselves aren’t quite crisp, they have a little oily bite to them, but it goes oh, so well with the mild milk chocolate coating. The banana chip is thin and has that extra banana punch to it, the milk chocolate is super sweet but balanced by the cracker qualities of the chip. The chips also have this strange “cool” feeling on the tongue that just makes me want to keep eating them.

What’s even better was the price. At $1.69 for 10 ounces, it’s not bad at all for a chocolatey treat. Don’t kid yourself that chocolate covered dried fruit is in any way good for you - one serving of this has half your day’s ration of saturated fat ... and um, I’m not sure how many servings is in half the tub, but I think I’m on a restricted diet for the rest of the week to make up for this. After all, candy is a sometimes food.

Name: Milk Chocolate Covered Banana Chips
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Trader Joe's
Place Purchased: Trader Joe's (Silverlake)
Price: $1.69
Size: 10.5 ounces
Calories per ounce: 156
Categories: Chocolate, United States, Trader Joe's, Kosher

POSTED BY Cybele AT 6:09 am Tracker Pixel for Entry    

Comments
  1. The banana chips have always kind of scared me. But I LOVE their dark chocolate covered cherries.  So do the banana chips have that fake banana candy flavor, or just all real banana?  I can’t do fake banana.

    Comment by g on 5/03/06 at 9:51 am #
  2. I havn’t eaten dried fruit in a while because it’s more calorically dense than regular fruit, but when I used to, I loved dried bananas. Have you ever tried them? The ones I used to eat were long and cylindrical (sorta like a piece of licorice rope) and brown because they didn’t add sulphur. They were softer than a lot of dried fruits and perfectly chewy.

    Comment by Samantha on 5/03/06 at 11:25 am #
  3. Cybele's avatar

    g- nope, it’s not fakey tasting at all - the ingredients say the banana chips have “natural banana flavor” added. That don’t taste anything like those Wonka banana Runts.

    Samantha - I know what you mean about dried fruit, especially the really sweet fruits. I’m more of a nut person myself, but dried fruit is the perfect thing to travel with (for me). I did also buy some other dried bananas at Trader Joes that aren’t deep fried or whatever it is they do to banana chips. I haven’t tried them yet.

    Some fruits I prefer dried, others I prefer fresh. Apricots I prefer dried, Mango I prefer fresh.

    Comment by Cybele on 5/03/06 at 11:32 am #
  4. I like the balance of milk chocolate and “crunch” of the banana chips. The only thing worse than eating half a Trader Joes tub is to find them in the bulk bins at “health food stores” like Wild Oats—or Henry’s Marketplace.

    Comment by Hannah on 5/03/06 at 2:09 pm #
  5. I love this blog! It makes me hungry wink

    I’m not a fan of banana chips so I probably won’t like these, but I am often surprised by the quality of TJ’s chocolate, like their pound plus bars or their seashells truffles box.

    Comment by Tanvi on 5/03/06 at 3:57 pm #
  6. What serendipity! I discovered these on Monday and thought about suggesting a review - it must be something in the air! It is quite a surprising taste combination - there’s something about the texture that pulls it together, I think.

    Anyway, since i have a tub here in my desk drawer, I thought I’d let you know that a serving is 1/4 cup - so a tub is 7.5 servings. Oh wait, maybe you didn’t want to know that! :^)

    Comment by Tricia on 5/04/06 at 3:55 am #
  7. So their not real dried bananas in there?  Just banana flavoring?  I have never tried them, but I have had chocolate covered frozen bananas on a stick, and they are delicious!

    Comment by Chocoholic on 5/04/06 at 5:35 am #
  8. Cybele's avatar

    Tanvi - if you like any other chocolate covered goodies, though, Trader Joe’s is the way to go. I’m a huge fan of their dark chocolate covered raisins.

    Tricia - yes, I have trouble with portion control when I have the whole tub open in front of me. I think I’ve eaten 2/3 of the tub so far. Please don’t calcuate the portions for me!

    Chocoholic - they’re real bananas in there, but they’re sweetened and I think deep fried or something. I LOVE chocolate dipped bananas. In the summer that’s pretty much what I eat instead of ice cream (they also sell those at Trader Joe’s).

    Comment by Cybele on 5/04/06 at 6:38 am #
  9. oh joy! i cannot wait for my trip to LA this summer and a pilgrimage to TJ’s! Am going to have to make a list before I go…

    Comment by Pam on 5/05/06 at 9:03 am #
  10. Let me know when they come up with a dark chocolate version…

    Comment by Martin on 1/18/07 at 5:29 am #
  11. I’d like to try these out but have no idea where I could purchase them. I haven’t seen them around so I’m thinking I’d have to get them in the states. Any help??

    Comment by Chocolate on 3/09/09 at 5:22 am #
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