Trader Joes Figments

Large bits of figs covered in dark chocolate!


MMMMM Figs...
WAAAAAAAY back in the olden early 1980's when Gigi was but a wee little lass her Grandfather has a fig tree in his back yard. Grandpa would share his ripe figs with me. OK it was less sharing and more like I would sneak them from his plate. At any rate the long story short is that I was the only kid in the state of Arizona who liked figs.

Moving on. As a fig lover since 'back in the day' I have always been somewhat disappointed that save for Fig Newtons there are not a heck of a lot of fig snacks out there. Trolling the candy selection at Trader Joe's guess what I found!

Since the title of this review is "Trader Joe's Figments" you probably have guessed it was the Figments I found.

The figments are glossy orbs roughly the size of a Whopper. It is labeled as being made with dark chocolate but personally I think semi-sweet is a better description. Taste-wise it is like a higher quality Toll House Morsel. The chocolate is smooth and cool on the tongue. It starts off waxy but once you are through the first layer it melts quickly (but in this case that's good)
The fig piece is chewy and still moist. The figs also still have they're seeds.

What a combination! the bitter-sweet notes of the chocolate, the gritty chew of the fig. The only downside is that they are addicting!

If you like chocolate covered fruits like raison's, cherries or blueberries you should love these.

Caramelized Pear & Toasted Pecan Haagen Dazs

I love the thought of this flavor. It just sounds so decadent yet refreshing.


Caramelized Pear & Toasted Pecan is supposed to have a base of pear flavored ice cream studded with chunks of Caramel covered pears and pieces or toasted pecans.

Like all Haagen Dazs the ice cream it's self is rich and creamy. The base flavor is supposed to be pear (you know like I already told you). I say "supposed to be" because it actually ends up tasting more like apple sauce ice cream. In it's own way apple sauce ice cream is not all that bad, I just wasn't expecting it.

The Caramel covered chunks of pears. Now those were interesting. I loved the caramel coating. It was just thick enough to add some depth but not thick enough that it was sticky or ran off into the ice cream- which could have been great. The pear themselves were weird. It was kinda like a chunk of caramel covered paper. I have to wonder If the R&D department of Haagen Dazs has ever actually tasted a pear because they are 0 for 2 so far.

The nuts. If they had had some crunch left in them they would have been good. They are lightly salted- which is outstanding with the caramel. The nuts in my pint however were rubbery and that just killed it. Of course on that count I could have just gotten a pint that had been on the shelf a little long.

If they tweaked the pear issues and the nuts were crunchy this would be a damn good ice cream. As it is it's not bad but there are better ways to consume empty calories.