Pick This Up, Not That: Trader Joe's New March Foods

This cute chocolate bark is a big rectangle of dark chocolate covered with colorful milk-chocolate candies and drizzled with white chocolate. Chocolate-lovers, this is an obvious choice.

Calling all cheese- and mustard-lovers: this English ale cheddar cheese with mustard is for you. The hard cheese has a nice creaminess to it, and it's just the right amount of salty and tangy from the mustard. Everyone agreed this tastes great on its own or would be a nice addition to a turkey sandwich.

Salami sticks: sound weird, taste great. If you like salami, you'll be into these, and their shape makes them snackable and shareable — they'd be an appreciated addition to a cheese board or charcuterie platter.

These ginger cookies are super thin and crispy, with just the right amount of chewiness from bits of candied ginger throughout. You can tell they're heavy on the butter and salt, which makes them pleasantly savory-sweet.

Trader Joe's new pomegranate juice tastes exactly like fresh pomegranate seeds. It's not too tart or sweet, and there's no added sugar, but beware of the amount of natural sugar in a 15.2-ounce bottle — 51 grams.

Frozen pizzas tend to be hit or miss, and everyone who tasted this uncured pepperoni pizza decided it was a hit. It cooks in less than 10 minutes, and the crust gets nice and browned, while the cheese melts and the pepperoni develops just the right amount of grease.

The new organic shredded cabbage with orange carrots is a solid cabbage slaw. It's crunchy and fresh and would complement salads or BBQ sandwiches.

Tasters who are fans of tonic water and tried Trader Joe's tonic water with lime agreed it's one of the better tonics they've had — there's no bite, and the consensus is it would be a great gin mixer.

As far as crunchy peanut butter goes, this crunchy no-stir peanut butter spread receives an "A." With no hydrogenated oil, this is an appealing option for many (it comes in creamy, too).

The "no added sugar" is a major bonus in these sweet plantain chips — they're not too sweet or salty. They have a good texture and crunch and were met with much approval by those who are plantain fans.

I was initially excited about the extraordinary eggs marbled chocolates because I was expecting a similar flavor and crunch to Whoppers Easter Robin Eggs, but I was caught by surprise by a chewy center. These might give that old-school candy a run for its money, though — each color is filled with a different flavor, providing a pleasing variety, like caramel, raspberry, almond praline, and crispy cookies. Chocolate-lovers wouldn't complain about receiving these in their Easter baskets.

As far as frozen versions of Indian pakoras go, Trader Joe's vegetable pakoras are OK but not worthy of a buy. They don't get quite crispy enough on the outside, and there's an unpleasantly crunchy ingredient in the soft center. The tamarind chutney dipping sauce gets bonus points, though.

There's a reason "sweet" is the first word in this sweet onion and bacon vinaigrette. While one of our tasters said "tasty — would enjoy on my salad without having to add bacon," most agreed that the dressing is way too sweet and pretty "meh."