Trader Joe’s Is Selling a Holiday Staple for the First Time Ever

During the most wonderful, busiest time of the year, I turn to one store for my holiday entertaining needs: Trader Joe's. From Friendsgiving favorites to gift-able goodies, to the easy 2-ingredient dinners that nourish and sustain me between all those holiday parties, Trader Joe's is my one-stop shop from Nov. 1 all the way until January. But, as any true Trader Joe's fan knows, there are some products the store just doesn't carry.

Until as recently as this week, I would have to go to two stores in order to stock up for all my holiday baking needs. I love a cookie swap and make cookie platters for friends and family each year, and find that TJ's is the most affordable place to get staples like butter (especially my favorite, Kerrygold), sugar, flour, and chocolate. But there was one pesky product the store never carried: sprinkles. That is, until now.

Trader Joe's Introduces Its First-Ever Sprinkles

We first learned about this news the way we learn about all of our best Trader Joe's gossip: on the "Inside Trader Joe's" podcast. Hosts Tara Miller and Matt Sloan discussed the newest addition to Trader Joe's holiday product lineup: the brand's first-ever sprinkle. Why did it take so long for such a prolific store to make its own sprinkles? There's a good reason why.

As we learned in a previous episode of the podcast, Trader Joe's has strict product quality standards, and that extends to what does, but more importantly what does not go into its products. One of those things is artificial coloring, a common ingredient in most commercially available sprinkles.

Even so, how hard could making sprinkles be?! These cute and unassuming sprinkles started in product development almost a year ago, Miller and Sloan explained in the newest episode. The sprinkles had to pass several tests including holding their color in wet cookie icing, buttercream frosting, and over several hours if not days (something particularly hard when working with naturally derived colors). Each and every sprinkle in the mix was hand selected by the Trader Joe's team, from its shape to its proportion in the mix to the exact shade of each color.

Trader Joe's Holiday Sprinkles Review

So how do they stack up? Our editor Andrea Lobas scored a pack of the new sprinkles on her latest Trader Joe's run. Here are her thoughts:

"I grabbed these sprinkles before I was even ready to start thinking about holiday baking. They were just too charming to pass up, and like all the best Trader Joe's seasonal goodies, I had a feeling they would sell out by the time I'm actually ready for cookie decorating. They're an adorable mix of colors and shapes but the best part is they actually have flavor! They have a lightly sweet vanilla taste and perfect crunch to add flavor and texture to whatever you're adorning."

As Andrea mentioned, you'll probably want to stock up on this seasonal find while you still can, because knowing Trader Joe's, there's no telling how long they'll last on shelves.