Review by Robert Tilendis: Trader Joe’s offers a variety of confections, most of them involving chocolate. The latest one to cross my path is the Organic Dark Chocolate PB&J Minis.

I can hear you asking “What is this?” I suspect it’s a riff on Reese’s peanut butter cups, without the cup. It comes in a 3.5 oz. (100 g) bag (resealable) containing eight pieces. Individually wrapped. (I can understand the reasoning — better that than a large lump of candies, but in my household, overpackaging earns a demerit.) In this incarnation, the “J” in PB&J is raspberry fruit filling, not quite a jelly, but more like a jelly than anything else. It is, of course, covered in chocolate.

However, the proof is in the eating. 

As might be expected, the dark chocolate covering is slightly brittle, and breaks apart readily to flood the mouth with the flavor of raspberry jam. In fact, the raspberry pretty much overpowers the peanut butter — or it would if raspberry jam stuck to the roof of your mouth. Actually, the peanut butter taste is there, but it takes a while to make itself known. Needless to say, there’s not a lot of nuance here: the flavors are nicely blended, without a lot of subtlety. I will say, though, that the tartness of the raspberry cuts the buttery qualities of the peanut butter nicely, while the chocolate offers a good foundation.

I don’t know if I’ll go searching for these at my local Trader Joe’s, but they are a nice treat if you’re in the mood for PB&J and don’t feel like making a sandwich. And the chocolate is a plus. But be warned: it occurs to me that it would be very easy to work through a whole bag without realizing it.