Snack Review: Trader Joe’s Mexican Hot Cocoa Cookies

So, I had just embarked on a new Healthy Eating Plan which was going to be based on ensuring that the number of cookie packages bought per week was less than the total number of trips to the gym in the same week. Then I made the mistake of doing this week’s grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s.

Trader Joe’s seems to have an insane number of new sweets for the holiday season. I bought three boxes of cookies for a week in which, having spent part of it sick in bed, I believe there were zero trips to the gym. Arithmetic is not my strong suit, but I am pretty sure I blew the plan.

My excuse for two of the packages of cookies was that I was bringing them to a party, and never mind that said party often has so much dessert at it that even a nice box of cookies might end up never getting opened and therefore going home with the bringer. The excuse for this, the third package, was that I just couldn’t help it. They are chocolate, and seasonal, and who could resist this text on the package:

“A true hot chocolate is made with real hot melted chocolate, creating a smooth and creamy chocolate elixir. The rich chocolate flavor in our Mexican Hot Cocoa Cookies is reminiscent of those decadent hot chocolate beverages.”

Well, um, no, it isn’t. This was an unfortunate comparison for them to make, especially for the texture of these cookies – the dry, crumbly nature of them is as far from the ’smooth creamy beverage’ end of the scale as a food can get. And the chocolate is good, but the effect does not remind me of the punch-in-the-gut chocolate hit you get from a good example of the type of hot chocolate they’re talking about.

So, at first, these suffered badly from over-hype. The description was so far from the reality. I ate a few and planned to give the rest of these away too.

But the next day, I couldn’t resist having some more, and discovered, never mind the advertising - the reality may be different, but there is something addictive about them. I like the texture, which reminds me of a Christmas cookie that I make that is similarly shaped in little lumps or balls – kind of sandy but in a good way, very crumbly and delicate. They are definitely not overly sweet, which makes it easy to keep eating. And the cinnamon is not overwhelming – it seems to be mostly on the outside, powdery coating and fades quickly after the first bite. Nice but not intrusive, it doesn’t overwhelm the chocolate.

So while these are nothing like what the box description evokes, I really liked them. I can’t think of any other commercial cookies with this texture, so that’s a nice change of pace, as is the lack of overwhelming sweetness. And on the bright side of their not being like hot chocolate – they would be good, and not redundant, eaten with a cup of hot chocolate.

I am not sure what is going on at the Trader Joe’s marketing department. I don’t know how the writers could have leapt from the experience of eating these cookies to the thought ‘creamy beverage.’ I kind of wonder if someone was just given the name ‘Mexican Hot Cocoa Cookies” and asked to write the copy for the box without ever tasting the cookies. Which would be very, very sad.

So the verdict is: A, try these cookies. There aren’t a lot of cookies out there that are like this, and they seem like something that may be only around for the winter. And B, Don’t apply for a job writing package copy for Trader Joe’s without making sure the contract includes free samples. Not only will you do a bad job without them, but spending the day writing about food you don’t get to eat sounds like absolute torture!

• Trader Joe’s Website

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