It’s a good thing calories don’t count during pandemics!
Trader Joe’s Springle Jangle
Normally this would be danger, danger, danger, but Trader Joe’s Springle Jangle couldn’t have released at a better time.
Every holiday season without fail, there is nothing – and I mean nothing – that gets my jangles jingling more than Trader Joe’s Jingle Jangle. If you don’t know what Jingle Jangle is, then consider yourself dead to me and also:
Describing both the collection of chocolate covered treats and the noise they make as you open the tin, Jingle Jangle is an only-at-Trader Joe’s assortment of a whole bunch of things that taste terrific, bathed in chocolate. Inside each generously sized tin, you’ll find mini pretzels covered in milk & dark chocolate and drizzled with white chocolate; dark chocolate-covered caramel popcorn; dark chocolate-covered broken Joe-Joe’s cookies; milk chocolate gems with a red candy coating; and milk & dark chocolate mini peanut butter cups. Don’t you feel all jingly and jangly just thinking about it?
Yes, in the pants, which I quickly outgrow because it’s more addictive than any drug I can think of, which is probably why Riverdale named a fictional drug after it!
So here we have, for the first time ever, a new spring variant of Jingle Jangle called Springle Jangle. It comes at an opportune time for snacking because unlike Jingle Jangle, which we eat until we gain 20 lbs and then have to show off our rounded physiques to friends and family at holiday parties, Springle Jangle debuts during unprecedented times where we’re being asked to avoid social interaction altogether. Perfect!
This one features spring-hued non-pareils, pastel candy gems, pink & yellow drizzled yogurt pretzels, butter toffee peanuts, dark & milk chocolate mini peanut butter cups, and Joe-Joe bark.
One of the immediate “flaws” of Springle Jangle, even though it results in a more inexpensive product, is that it comes in a narrow 10 oz tub instead of a wide tin. This mean you can’t jam your hand down deep into the container digging for the smaller things because your fat hands just hit a shield of pretzels. This is easily remedied by dumping the entire tin into a bowl, which you should just go ahead and do now and resign yourself to the fact that you’re going to eat all of it one sitting anyway.
A major difference with Springle Jangle versus Jingle Jangle is that this one comes with yogurt-covered pretzels instead of milk and dark-chocolate covered pretzels. I actually like this because it breaks up the potential overload of milk and dark-chocolate (though I would be lying if I said this ever happened to me with Jingle Jangle). As always, Trader Joe’s has great covered pretzels that are super crunchy and perfectly salty.
The milk and dark chocolate chocolate peanut cups and candy gems are holdovers from Jingle Jangle, though the latter gets a fresh coat of paint with pastels. I’ll never complain when Trader Joe’s peanut butter cups are in my mouth, but white chocolate cups may have been more appropriate here. The candy gems are merely tasty decoration – nothing I’m mad about nor excited over, but the colorful pop they bring does make the mix more fun.
Now onto the new stuff…
I really like having the butter toffee peanuts in Springle Jangle. I feel like most of the best trail mixes for fatasses involve nuts, and covering them in sugar and butter seems especially fitting.
The dark chocolate Joe-Joe bark replaces the broken dark chocolate covered Joe-Joe pieces in Jingle Jangle. Though these use the same ingredients, this bark is heavier on dark chocolate and lighter on the cookie side. I still taste plenty of delicious cookie, but I prefer the Jingle Jangle version mostly because of the presence of the next components.
I have never seen nonpareils quite like the nonpareils with spring-colored sprinkles in Springle Jangle. They are huge and they are THICK. They’re surprisingly satisfying to eat, but I can’t help but feel like we don’t need huge chunks of a straightforward dark chocolate after already getting dark-chocolate Joe-Joe Bark and dark chocolate peanut butter cups. It just feels a bit underwhelming – especially because they’re the second most prominent thing in this container.
Look, as I’ve been sitting here writing towards the conclusion that Springle Jangle is inferior to Jingle Jangle, it’s worth noting that I’m already on my second container. Everything is of excellent quality and the stuff finds a way to jump into your mouth whether you like it or not. I especially enjoy the change-up that the yogurt pretzels and butter toffee peanuts provide.
Just remember, once again and before you feel bad about yourself:
Calories don’t count during pandemics!
Burning Questions:
- How much weight have you gained during the pandemic? A lot!
- Why didn’t they call this “Springle Sprangle?” Missed opportunity.
- Why don’t they do this every season? They should start!
Place of Purchase: Trader Joe’s
Rating: 8 out of 10
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