Trader Joe’s latest mochi ice cream flavor is Salted Caramel. And I gotta tell ya, after the abomination that was Caramel Apple, I came into this tasting cautiously optimistic. I mean, you can’t screw up plain caramel, can you? Thankfully, the answer in this case is no.
Now, is it truly salted caramel? The salted caramel I’m used to really pushes the bitterness of the caramel so that the salt makes it really pop. And here, I’d say, this is more like, just caramel. It tastes a lot like caramel hard candies — somewhere between caramel and maybe butterscotch disks. And the salt doesn’t really seem to show up to the party exactly.
Interestingly, there’s no actual salt in the ice cream. Not even a pinch, it seems. But the ingredient list includes miso, so it should have a little salty umami going on. I like these just fine. They rank somewhere behind Black Sesame, Blood Orange, and Ube for me. So unlike other flavors, I’m NOT saying you gotta grab 2 boxes when you hit up TJ’s. Would I buy Trader Joe’s Salted Caramel Mochi Ice Cream again? Maybe. 🤷🏻♀️ They’re good. I’m just not wowed.
Check out some other We Tried’s from Trader Joe’s: