17 Fall 2026 Trader Joe's Items, Ranked Worst To Best

The best time of the year has arrived. The beach stuff is stowed away until next summer, college football is back, and Trader Joe's has opened the pumpkin spice floodgates. No one does fall like Trader Joe's; the store is known for its whimsical pumpkin-, maple-, and apple-themed releases, which it precipitously rolls out over the course of several weeks.

Although I am a Trader Joe's fan, I have admittedly not tried any of its fall products before. So, I drove an hour out of my way to the nearest location and practically climbed on top of other midday shoppers so I could get my hands on some of its fall items to taste and rank. Diehard TJ's fans will very quickly note that there are some glaring seasonal omissions from this list, including the Autumnal Harvest Soup, Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese, and assorted baking mixes, but for the sake of brevity – and because my store didn't have everything in stock — I couldn't include every single fall release. The ones I did include, though, I ranked based on their overall texture, flavor, and seasonal ties. 

This box of chocolates is a prime example of "just because you can doesn't mean you should." I am okay letting apple crisp inspire candles, body butters, soaps, and other things — but not chocolate. That is where I draw the line.

The caramel inside each piece is supposed to be apple-caramel flavored and sit atop a crispy base. And I will give it some credit, as it did taste like apple, and it did taste like caramel. But neither was pleasant. The apple flavor was akin to a green apple Jolly Rancher, which gave the chocolate an almost sour twist. The chocolate itself was overly sweetened (perhaps to balance the sourness of the filling), and when combined with the dusty filling, it sent me into a coughing fit. These candies were positively dreadful, and it only seemed fitting to stick them at the bottom of this list. 

There are a lot of desserts you can add pumpkin pie spice to, but white chocolate shouldn't be one of them. This Pumpkin Pie Spice Bark utilizes exactly that, alongside gingersnap cookies, pretzels, a dark chocolate drizzle, and sea salt. It's like Trader Joe's scoured its fall leftovers and poured them all in a sheet pan with chocolate. And unfortunately, it tastes about as disorganized as it sounds. 

The spice is so oppressive in this sweet that it's bitter. The white chocolate does virtually nothing (as white chocolate does, considering it's not real chocolate), and I was left searching for something to save me from the harsh spice flavor. I couldn't tell what was gingersnap and what was pretzel, and there wasn't nearly enough of either. I had two bites before I tossed the leftovers in the trash, which is more than can be said for the Apple Crisp-Inspired Milk Chocolate Caramels. 

If the Pumpkin Pie Spice Bark was Trader Joe's attempt at throwing everything fall onto a sheet pan with chocolate, then Autumn Harvest Salty & Sweet Snack Mix is the more savory version of it. The one word that comes to mind here is "cacophony," as this mix includes what seems like a random assortment of both seasonal and non-seasonal things. 

On one hand, you have candy-coated pretzels, apple chips (which sank to the bottom of the bag), and dark chocolate-drizzled popcorn, and on the other, you have mini dark chocolate chips, pretzels, and corn chips with flax seeds (which taste more overbaked and burnt than savory). Much of the disorder can be credited to the peanut butter cups, which coat everything in a peanut essence. The textures are unique, and the nonpareil-coated pretzels are certainly whimsical, but I'm still confused as to how this snack mix is inspired by an "autumn harvest."

Imagine a pumpkin loaf studded with nuts that had been left to sit on a counter for three days — because that's exactly what you get with this measly tray of Pumpkin Blondie Brownies. There are supposed to be white chips somewhere, but I couldn't find them (nor did I want to). 

These blondies were grossly overbaked and dried to the point where the nuts and spices tasted acrid and harsh. Not even the paltry drizzle of icing on top could save these sad (yet still pumpkin-ish) baked goods, which don't belong in any Trader Joe's cart. 

Trader Joe's should probably add a "lightly spiced" clause to these Pumpkin Tortilla Chips because the promised notes of pumpkin purée, cinnamon, and nutmeg were all but missing. The spices must have been baked into the chips themselves, as when I shamelessly licked them like a lollipop, I could only taste the salt. Corn generally isn't an obtrusive flavor, but here, it was fighting any sort of seasonal essence like its life depended on it. If I were eating them blind, I'd probably say they tasted more like tortilla chips that had spoiled in some way rather than something that was intentionally pumpkin-flavored.

My next question is: If they aren't tasty to eat on their own, what do you pair them with? I suppose you could give hummus a fall twist with canned pumpkin and pair it with these chips, though the hummus would be doing all of the heavy lifting in the flavor department. I guess I'd eat them, but not when there are so many tastier options. They're not inedible or as confusing as the lower-ranked treats, but they lack any redeeming qualities.

I love frosted animal crackers, and I fear my personal affinity is one of the few reasons these yogurt-covered shortbreads ranked toward the middle of my list. Of all the snacks I sampled for this review, this product was the least pumpkin-like. Yes, the cookies may have been covered in some sort of pumpkin-flavored yogurt coating (which is just basically white chocolate under a healthier guise). They were also coated in nonpareils that gave them some colorful appeal, and I think that they were supposed to be shaped like pumpkins (though "amoeba" is more appropriate), but aside from that, they aren't as autumnal as my higher-ranked picks.

Are these even shortbread? Probably not, as they just taste like cheap animal crackers. Aside from the I-can-put-it-in-a-kids'-lunchbox appeal, I can't see any other reason to buy these cookies.

The Apple Cider Donuts were the first product I sampled for this review, and I admittedly didn't have high hopes for them. As a New Englander, I've had my fair share of these seasonal favorites, and after trying Trader Joe's version, I have decided I will exclusively be buying them from my local orchard. 

Rather than coming slightly crispy and sugary, these donuts look and taste like someone took "cinnamon sugar" as a suggestion rather than a direct order. The apple fragrance wafted from the package, though it was more artificial than genuinely cider-based. While the apple came through in the flavor, the mouthfeel of the donuts was flabby — like I was eating from a canister of apple-flavored Crisco. They would probably be fine dunked into coffee, and I appreciate that Trader Joe's includes them as a fall offering, but the execution was too poor for me to rank them highly. 

It's never good when I eat a cookie and audibly say, "Meh," but that's exactly how I feel about these Trader Joe's Pumpkin Flavored Joe-Joe's. Oreo clearly has no competition here, as these Trader Joe's cookies are thicker, drier, and heavier than their name-brand counterpart. They're not snappy, nor are they very satisfying to eat — but I think that's a universal experience among all the Joe-Joe's flavors. 

This one smells like pumpkin and tastes somewhat like it. It's not in-your-face like some of the other pumpkin-flavored treats on the list, and the sweetness is far less conservative than it should be. Pumpkin is such a beautiful flavor; you would think that Trader Joe's would have learned to let it do the talking rather than put it on the periphery. I'll probably crumble the rest of these cookies on ice cream, but they're not ones I would eat out of the box or go to Trader Joe's specifically for. 

This Pumpkin Loaf wasn't originally on my list of items to pick up. I was after the pumpkin version of Trader Joe's mini sheet cake, but after coming up empty-handed, I had to swap it for this frankly bad pumpkin bread. 

I initially thought it was going to be a riff on gingerbread because of the coarse sugar on top. However, that ginger note was decidedly missing from the horribly dry cake underneath. The reason we add pumpkin to quick bread is for moisture — so where did all that moisture go? To add insult to injury, it also lacked in the spice department. While it is more fall-adjacent (as it does taste like pumpkin) and is better executed than some of the other picks on this list, it was plain, boring, and not something I could see myself returning to, especially when I could make a better pumpkin bread myself at home.

Many of the products on this list failed the seasonal aspect but nailed the execution. The Pumpkin & Spice Brioche-Style Liège Waffles, on the other hand, ranked low because they just weren't good waffles. They have a cutesy appeal, and the pumpkin flavor is well-balanced, meshing better with the sweet, almost maple-like undercurrents of the waffles than I expected. 

But the dry sponge texture is where it lost me. It has the consistency of the packaged slices of banana bread I remember eating in my elementary school's cafeteria. The plasticky undertone probably wouldn't have been there if these waffles were frozen rather than sitting individually packaged in the baked goods aisle.

I wanted to include the Salted Maple Ice Cream, since it's the flavor I wait almost all year for. But alas, Trader Joe's decided not to have it available for the time this review went live. So, I settled for the Maple Leaf Ice Cream Sandwiches, which have received a fair amount of attention from folks on social media. 

This sandwich is composed of two maple cookies and a layer of maple-flavored ice cream in the center. I tried the maple ice cream first, which was very airy and light, though lacking maple flavor. You could have told me it was vanilla, and I would believe you. The cookies were about three times as thick as they needed to be, so they didn't snap easily when I bit into the sandwich. They were more maple-y than the ice cream, but nowhere near where I needed them to be in terms of flavor. This is one fall find that I don't get the hype of, which is what landed it toward the middle of this list.

I'll catch a lot of flak for this, but biscotti are not my pick of the litter, simply because I don't enjoy eating sweetened cement. But I didn't absolutely despise these cookies. For one, they won't break your teeth, and they would be especially good dipped into a cup of coffee (perhaps one sweetened with a pumpkin creamer, which I tried and ranked several brands of). 

They'll need all the help they can get, it seems, because the pumpkin flavor doesn't hold up here. They have some spice undercurrents, though the texture of biscotti is so distracting (especially eaten without a dunking accompaniment) that I couldn't pick up on pumpkin. Vanilla? Sure. But these weren't as pumpkin-adjacent as I was hoping they would be. That said, they weren't all that unpleasant, and I would much rather have them than some of my lower-ranked picks on this list, but I think you can make far better and more autumnal biscotti yourself. 

When I was making my shopping list, I tried to find products that Trader Joe's made similar fall-inspired versions of. These Pumpkin Spice Donut Holes were the other donut product I tried, and I'm happy to report that they are leaps and bounds ahead of the Apple Cider Donuts. While I am not pleased by the number of holes in the box, which seemed pretty measly for $3.49, the flavor was better and more "natural." The glaze coating on the exterior hid most of the flabbiness, though they did still leave behind a greasy residue, as all good donut holes do. 

Their quality was comparable to Dunkin' Donuts' Pumpkin Munchkins — the difference being that these are much smaller and easier to pop into my mouth. If a box of them were left on a table at the office, I wouldn't think twice about grabbing one or two, but I don't think this is delicious enough of a product to warrant a special trip to Trader Joe's.

These Pumpkin Oat Bites have tons of lunchbox potential. They're individually packaged (and come six to a box, which I honestly think is a rip-off) and appear to be marketed as a healthier alternative to cookies or other bakery treats. Each bite features a gooey, well-spiced layer of oatmeal and a pumpkin butter-like filling. 

Texturally, this product is not going to be for everyone. The oatmeal sticks to your teeth and takes several minutes to chew through. But when combined with that pumpkin butter filling, you get a nice, sweet flavor that is as mellow as it is approachable. As long as folks can look past the texture, I could see people who don't like pumpkin that much still getting along with these bites. 

This kettle corn variation, which pairs maple and sea salt, is one I've heard a lot about. Considering my Trader Joe's had it in bags at the checkout as well as on the end caps, I assumed it was a popular product. And after trying it, I see why. 

It's sweet. It's salty. It's endlessly snackable. What more could you want? I poured myself a small serving as I typed this review up, and I felt my hand repeatedly reaching back into the bag. The sugar is never cloying, and the saltiness never pushes it more savory than sweet. I also appreciate that some kernels were overtly covered, while others were scant, making it a snack better eaten by the handful.

In comparison to some of the other Trader Joe's products on this list, this one seems like a very safe choice. But if you live in New England like I do, you can find a similar kettle corn at most general stores and orchards (at a comparable quality). So, it's not unique enough to warrant a higher placing.

You know a Trader Joe's product is good when you take a bite and say "Oh, yah" with the Midwestern accent you didn't know you had, as I did with this one. I have been searching high and low for an apple pie ice cream since moving away from a childhood favorite ice cream shop that sold the flavor. But now, it appears that Trader Joe's will help me satisfy that seasonal itch with its Apple Pie à la Mode Ice Cream. 

You might say it's a weird flavor, but I say it works. There aren't a lot of apples or pie pieces in it (in other words, get a pint of Ben & Jerry's, which I tried and ranked, if you're after a better chunk distribution). However, knowing that apples contain a lot of water and don't do well in ice cream — and that pie crust would go soggy if suspended in cream — I don't fault Trader Joe's conservative approach. Others might, though, which is why it didn't take the top spot. It reads more like apple-essenced ice cream: decidedly seasonal, yet approachable, and easily a crowd favorite among all Trader Joe's shoppers.

The internet needs to be talking more about these Maple Brown Butter Flavored Almonds, which I consider a sleeper hit. They were not originally on my shopping list – I wanted the Pumpkin Spiced Pumpkin Seeds instead — but I was so glad that I found them because they have since become one of my favorite Trader Joe's products ever.

Each nut is covered in a maple-brown butter confectionery coating and is dusted with maple sugar and cocoa powder. The brown butter is not oppressive nor overly toasty, and it works with the maple flavor to elevate this nut to new heights. The cocoa powder is used as more of a balancing element (likely for its subtle bitterness) rather than a source of sweetness and flavor. When you combine that with a fresh almond underneath and a non-waxy coating, you get an absolutely delicious and endlessly snackable treat. Sure, they may not get as much press as the others on this list, but I think they are worth buying. My only regret is that I didn't buy a couple extra bags! 

I sampled each one of these products on the day I purchased them to ensure they were at peak freshness. I considered their overall freshness, texture, flavor, and how palatable they were when ranking them.

Although seasonality was important — in terms of ingredients, shapes, or autumnal whimsy — the product itself had to have good bones and be tasty enough to warrant a trip to Trader Joe's. I also considered broad customer appeal, ranking products that were more niche at the bottom of my list, while easy fan favorites scored higher.