It’s official.
The month of October will no longer be known as the “Halloween season.” Instead, it will officially be deemed “Trader Joe’s month-long pumpkin-palooza.”
Seriously, walking into a TJ’s this time of year is like being transported into one of your grandma’s autumn tablecloths, with every store orifice (storeifice, for short) being plastered with kitschy graphics of everyone’s favorite vegetable. Or fruit. Whatever the heck your know-it-all cousin insists that it “technically” is.
And while I’ve already discussed Pumpkin O’s cereal, it isn’t the only pumpkin cereal Trader Joe has plucked from his field. So whether or not you consider granola to be an actual cereal (the word is on the box so leave me alone, dang it!), it’s time to give Country Pumpkin Spice Granola its time in the candlelit spotlight.
As I examined my heavy bag of orange oat clusters, I was a bit confused and slightly overwhelmed. The typically minimalistic Trader Joe’s really went with the kitchen sink approach here. Not only do the clusters contain dried pumpkin and a pumpkin spice blend (which actually includes cardamom—the rarest of the pumpkin spices), they also contain coconut, honey, puffed corn, fennel seeds, raisins, and more.
Man, they really took the “cornucopia of flavor” idea to the literal extreme. I’m surprised there’s no actual “herb of kitchen sink” in it.
The granola clusters are mostly teeny tiny in size, with the occasional girthy puffed corn cluster dwarfing the rest like Jupiter in a field of crunchy stardust.
I take a bite, and the granola’s flavor immediately bites me back: this stuff is spicy. Throw any memory of sweet pumpkin spiced cookies or cupcakes out the window, because the many spices and herbs here take “Pumpkin Spice” down a much more literal avenue.
The most notable tastes are the semi-burning sensations of cinnamon and ginger. This is coupled with an unpleasant, licorice-like burst of fennel, which is a bit bitter, too. Also present are faint notes of citrusy cardamom.
After chewing awhile (and you will chew awhile, since these are more chewy than crunchy), the spice dissipates, and I’m left with a very earthy oat base that has a slight sweetness from the honey and coconut. The corn has an occasional pop, but little contribution in the way of taste.
And because, when it comes to cereal, raisins are my raison d’être, the most welcome addition is actually the raisins. Though they are super chewy and not as sweet as those in, say, Raisin Bran Crunch, the raisins act like delayed-release land mines: after chewing them, they release an addictive, puckering tang that mixes well with the more neutral oats.
Notice something missing here? I certainly did: there’s not gosh darn pumpkin flavor! Maybe the pumpkins at Trader Joe’s were off taking a cigarette break when this cereal was made, because try as I might, my tongue can’t pinpoint any of its squashy goodness in this cereal’s convoluted Where’s Waldo? book of flavors.
So all-in-all, Trader Joe’s should have took the Charmin approach and went “less-is-more” with this cereal (the high fiber content of this granola makes that reference relevant, trust me). While the sweetness of milk can balance the spice overload a little bit, it’s still too much like sucking on an incense stick for my liking.
So while I can’t recommend this granola on its own, my suggestion to Trader Joe’s and its shoppers is to try mixing this stuff with TJ’s other pumpkin cereal to make “Pumpkin O’s Crunch.” I tried it, and the result was an awesome combo of vegetable-y pumpkin and pumpkin spice.
If you can imagine a team of Pumpkin Harlem Globetrotters performing alley-oop after tasty alley-oop, you wouldn’t be far off.
The Bowl: Trader Joe’s Country Pumpkin Spice Granola
The Breakdown: A lack of flavor focus leads to a spicy mess that even delicious raisins can’t fully save. Mix with Pumpkin O’s for best results!
The Bottom Line: 4 raisin land mines out of 10