Dried Fruit Medley from Trader Joe's

I just discovered Trader Joe's! For those of you who shop there already, I know you understand my excitement. For those who are unfamiliar with the store, it is an American grocery store chain that stocks low priced exotic specialty foods, with an emphasis on organic foods. Their staff uniform is a Hawaiian shirt, and when you walk into the store, it resembles a retro Hawaiian beach house from the 60's.

You can find your daily items there such as cereal, milk, bread, and cheese, but they also carry a lot of really cool stuff!

CK and I found a lot of interesting dried fruit snacks in their nuts and fruits section, and decided to stock up for a rainy day (with the rainy weather lately, it will come in handy).

This is what we bought:

Dried Sweetened Hibiscus Flowers: The very first time I ate a hibiscus flower was at The Dorchester in London. It was such a good experience that I only associate good things with the flower now. The dried hibiscus flowers we bought tastes kind of like a dried cranberry but not as tart. They are a bit crunchy in texture, and have a beautiful deep red color.

Freeze Dried Rambutan: If you've never tried rambutan, I would suggest going to your closest Asian grocery store to pick yourself up a can of pineapple stuffed rambutan in syrup. It is delicious and a great way to acquaint yourself with this wonderful fruit. The freeze dried version is a little odd in taste. It tastes like a potato chip at first, then that wonderful sweet rambutan taste, and then potato chip again at the end...so odd! This is not something I would buy again, but they were cool to try. To produce just 2 oz of these freeze dried rambutans, over 14 oz of fresh rambutan were hand peeled and seeded before being freeze dried.

Dried Chile Spiced Mango Slices: These were my favourite out of everything we bought. I love spicy foods and this snack had a nice balance of spicy and sweet. The sweetened mangoes were spiced with paprika, salt, sugar, and cayenne pepper.

Dried Turkish Smyrna Figs: Dried figs are a big part of CK's culture, so buying these was a no brainer. These sweet figs were delicious.

Dried papaya spears: I actually bought my papaya from Whole Foods Market. I bought them when I had the flu because someone once told me that papaya is rich in vitamins, and are good to eat when you are not feeling well.
 

I'm looking forward to my next trip to TJ's, and can't wait to see what we discover next.

What are your favourite Trader Joe items?