The grocery store that is constantly releasing innovative products, Trader Joe's, announced the winners of its 10th Annual Customer Choice Awards this month.
Their Mandarin chicken is a favorite of mine, so I'm not surprised that it won, and their peanut butter pretzels are the favorite snack for SFWB's group editorial director, too.
I'm curious as to how they polled their shoppers in regards to this contest—their site says that [they've] "counted and re-counted; your votes have been tallied, and the wait is over!", but they didn't say exactly how they polled their customers. (a good way would have been to have these at their sample counter, and see who liked what—I'll admit that I head straight to the sample counter each time I visit my local Trader Joe's!)
(Upon further review, it looks like voting took place on its website, though, via Google Doc)
The winner of Favorite Bakery, Danish Kringle, won top honors in the Retail Bakery category for the 2016 BEST in Baking Program. Runners up for the category included Sliced French Brioche, Chocolate Brooklyn Babka, Sliced Sourdough Bread, and Vegan Banana Bread.
We don't generally write about candy here at SFWB, but the runners up in the Favorite Candy category included Sea Salt & Turbinado Sugar Dark Chocolate Almonds, as well as Dark Chocolate Covered Almonds.
In case you're looking to make a pizza, check out the Favorite Cheese category—the winner was "Unexpected Cheddar Cheese" (what makes it unexpected, I wonder? Must research this...) and the runners up were Coastal Syrah Toscano, French Brie, Cheddar with Caramelized Onions, and Triple Crème Brie. (I'll take one of each, please)
The winner for Favorite Dessert was Hold the Cone! Mini Vanilla Ice Cream Cones, and runners up included Macaron Variés, Gone Bananas, Chocolate Lava Cakes, and Key Lime Pie.
The winner for Favorite Snack, as mentioned above, were their Peanut Butter Filled Pretzels, and runners up included Roasted Plantain Chips, Organic Corn Chips Dippers, World's Puffiest White Cheddar, and Bamba.
Don't forget about Favorite Seasonal, too: the winner were the Candy Cane Joe-Joe's, with runners up being Chocolate Covered Candy Cane Joe-Joes, Jingle Jangle, Mini Mint Stars, and Pumpkin Bread & Muffin Mix.
Trader Joe also cheekily notes the following: Since posting, the details of this item may have changed due to fluctuating market prices, federal regulations, currency rates, drought, pestilence, bandits, rush hour traffic, filibusters, zombie apocalypse, punctilious product developers... Contact our Crew for current price and availability.
