Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Trader Joe’s Mini Peanut Butter Cups

Every great candy has variations in size. Of course shrinking or enlarging a candy doesn’t necessarily make it better, in fact, it usually makes it different. Same components, just different ratios.

imageTrader Joe’s has gone and mucked around with their Peanut Butter Cups. These are made by the same manufacturer but are wee-tiny. Seriously, you can hardly call them cups. They look like knobs. Little peanut butter and milk chocolate knobs.

The little knobs don’t have flat tops, so they don’t sit quite right, they roll over easily. The easiset way to line them up is to have the top of the cup facing down ... which makes them more knob-like.

image

The ratio on these definitely leans towards chocolate over peanut butter. The chocolate is cool and sweet and slightly grainy, but matched well with the dash salty peanut butter.

It’s quite easy to just grab a handful of these out of the tub. And of course being chocolate they start to melt in your hand and you have to pop them in your mouth ... then you’ve got an empty hand and need to repeat. So the tub can go quickly. I know it’s tempting to want peanut butter cups with out the little fluted paper cup so that you can shovel them into your maw faster, but really no one needs anything to improve the efficiency of gobbling Trader Joe’s candy.

In the end I kept eating them because I wanted more peanut butter. I think I’ll stick to my Reese’s miniatures.

Note: Yes, I’ve been eating a lot of peanut-heavy candies lately, I credit it to the change in the weather. Some people think fall is all about spice, I think it’s all about nuts.

Related Candies

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  3. Trader Joe’s Espresso Chocolate
  4. Disneyland for Candy Bloggers
  5. Maud Borup Potato Chips
  6. Trader Joe’s Chocolate Covered Banana Chips
Name: Mini Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
    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: $2.99
Size: 12 ounces
Calories per ounce: 158
Categories: Chocolate, Peanuts, United States, Trader Joe's, Kosher

POSTED BY Cybele AT 6:10 am Tracker Pixel for Entry    

Comments
  1. I just bought those recently. I agree, there’s just not enough peanut butter! They might be fun to bake with, though. And they are far superior to Hershey’s Reese’s baking pieces. But nothing tops Reese’s miniatures for that choco-pb fix.

    Comment by Kate on 10/10/06 at 7:41 am #
  2. Fall is definitely nuts. wink

    Comment by Carly on 10/10/06 at 8:12 am #
  3. Oh, I got a tub of these and they disappeared in only a few days.  My next plan is to make peanut butter cookies with these.

    Comment by eliza on 10/10/06 at 8:23 am #
  4. Falling nuts.  These sure are small.  I would eat the whole thing in one sitting.

    Comment by claudia on 10/10/06 at 2:34 pm #
  5. Hm…those might do well in chocolate chip cookies. Maybe a trip to TJ’s is in order tonight…

    We recently made some chocolate chip cookies with Hershey Kissables. They turned out great.

    Comment by Bruce on 10/10/06 at 4:14 pm #
  6. It’s hard to beat the original Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.  There have been many imitators, but it’s hard to be the originator.

    Comment by Marvo on 10/10/06 at 9:39 pm #
  7. I’m so envious of the plentiful peanutbutter chocolates in the US. You can keep your cinnamon flavoured lollies but I want the peanutbutter ones!

    Comment by leigh on 10/10/06 at 10:13 pm #
  8. Have you tried the Safeway Select Peanut Butter cups? I think they are even better than Reese’s.

    Comment by Tripp on 10/11/06 at 5:07 am #
  9. My sister just sent me a tub and I cant stop eating them.  I dont feel as guilty about eating them since they are so tiny!

    Comment by Lynn on 10/11/06 at 5:14 am #
  10. Those are too cute to eat!

    Comment by Samantha on 10/11/06 at 5:38 am #
  11. Yes, please someone let me know if they work well as a chocolate chip substitute in cookies. That was the first thing I thought of when I read this posting!

    Comment by Pandax on 10/11/06 at 11:06 am #
  12. Cybele's avatar

    Kate - I’ve never tried the PB baking pieces, I always figured they were just PB flavored white chocolate.

    Carly - good to know I’m not the only one!

    claudia - they definitely figured out how to make them addictive.

    marvo - I’ve had some excellent high end stuff, and though it’s good, I’d have to say that it’s just different, not better.

    eliza, Bruce & Pandax - I just gave the rest of the tub to a co-worker. (I haven’t make cookies in years.) Someone should be able to ring in with some real-world experience.

    leigh - hey, you have hazelnuts a-go-go, there, don’t you?

    Samantha - we were just talking about stringing them up to make a lovely meltable bracelet. Yum.

    Comment by Cybele on 10/11/06 at 3:02 pm #
  13. Heh. We were just a TJ’s tonight and I suggested we buy a tub. I really do want to try them in cookies, but we’ve got a ton of other desserty stuff and don’t need any more cookies.

    For the record: Peanut Butter M&Ms; make AWESOME cookies.

    Comment by Bruce on 10/11/06 at 6:28 pm #
  14. There are two pb flavored baking pieces made by Herhey’s. One is pb flavored “white choco” chips, as you describe, but there are also mini-mini Reeses cups. They are very similar to the TJs mini-mini cups, but inferior in taste. The chocolate is very grainy and sugary, and the pb is subdued. So, no need to search out and sample those! Yay Trader Joes!

    Comment by Kate on 10/12/06 at 10:01 am #
  15. I saw them in TJ’s and had marked them in my mind as “something to try” and then that same weekend a friend brought some over.  Obviously I was meant to eat these things.

    I love them; the chocolate to peanut butter ratio worked fine for me and I really liked that the peanut butter was less dry than your typical peanut butter cup.

    Comment by Ruth on 10/13/06 at 11:10 am #
  16. OMG!  These are the BEST peanut butter cups I have ever had,  I discoverd them about a month ago and I have to say they beat any other peanut butter cup I have ever tried.  They melt in your mouth!  Can you say YUMMY!?!?!?!?

    Comment by Natalie Lauzon on 10/31/06 at 7:30 am #
  17. They’re great in Banana Bread!

    Comment by srhcb on 11/16/06 at 5:33 am #
  18. I tried the TJ PB cups in regular chocolate chip cookie dough.  They melted too much, and PB flavor was lost.  I’m looking for a cookie dough backed at a lower temp, and will then try working with frozen PB cups.
    Anyone else worked with these yet?

    Comment by Heather Burke on 3/20/07 at 2:01 pm #
  19. Heather, you might try them on top of butter shortbread cookies. I use a melon baller to make a tiny scoop of shortbread batter, then I put them on a cookie sheet and flatten them slightly. Then I bake them at 350 for 10-11 minutes. Once I have the sheet out of the oven, THEN I put the little TJ peanut butter cups on them. Since the cups aren’t actually baking in the oven, they don’t melt into a puddle of chocolate/peanut butter goo.

    They have a MUCH better chance of keeping their shape this way, when you put them on after reming the cookies from the oven!

    Comment by Z. on 6/24/07 at 2:26 pm #
  20. I love these little PB cups.  They taste wonderful
    frozen too.  Yummy!!  They are also great in ice cream, yogurt and applesauce!! Good also for those of us who might be watching our weight and want just a little taste of something sweet.

    Comment by kristina on 8/26/07 at 10:11 am #
  21. Do you have the tiny peanut butter cups at the Carson City Store? Thanks Robbie Borowick

    Comment by Robin Borowick on 12/04/07 at 1:13 pm #
  22. Mm yeah, we got those once… they were yummy and cute, but I think I prefer the regular size better. Plus, the salty Reese’s taste is far superior over this strong nutty flavor.

    Comment by Jeni on 12/09/08 at 4:49 am #
  23. THESE ARE SOO GOOD!!!

    Comment by Laura Geiger on 5/12/09 at 7:16 am #
  24. all this over a candy - heaven bless the internet

    Comment by Keith on 12/09/09 at 4:54 pm #
  25. My husband and I LOVE the Wal-mart brand mini peanut butter cups - but I’m hoping to try the shortbread recipe with them that was mentioned above. Thanks for the idea!!!

    Comment by Stephanie on 12/25/09 at 3:02 am #
  26. Love them! I am addicted to the point I am avoiding Trader Joes or o will buy and eat the box in the car on the way home.

    Comment by Cindy on 5/22/11 at 10:50 pm #
  27. The dark chocolate peanut butter cups at Trader Joes is to die for!! My daughter bought a few containers of them and ate them as we drove cross country recently!!!  I don’t even really prefer dark chocolate over milk chocolate and LOVED these!!
    They are even better than Reeses Peanut Butter Cups!

    Comment by Kim on 5/23/11 at 5:38 pm #
  28. Any idea who manufactures the Trader Joe’s pb cups? I love them all and recently moved away from my beloved trader joes. It’s very depressing and the Reese’s dry chocolate WILL NOT do!

    Comment by Elizabeth on 11/07/11 at 12:18 pm #
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