In with the TJs tasting panel

by Nicole Weston, Posted Mar 8th 2006 @ 8:12AM

In anticipation of the opening of the Manhattan Trader Joe's location, it seems that New Yorkers are eager to find out what will be in store for them. Since not everyone could wait, a very lucky New York Times reporter headed out to Southern California to see what all the fuss was about at Trader Joe's headquarters. While there, she met the tasting panel and learned the process that all Trader Joe's products go through on their way to the shelves and into the baskets of customers. Trader Joe's is always rotating out the bottom 10 percent of their products, about 300 of their 3,000 or so items that are stocked in their stores, so the tasting panel keeps busy. The regularly gather at the company's headquarters - during breaks when they are not scouring the globe for new products and ideas - to taste test everything from whole wheat pasta to truffled cheeses and to discern whether it is possible to replicate a particular Italian cafe's tiramisu into a premade frozen food while preserving the taste. The goal of the tasting panel and of the chain as a whole is to foster and facilitate a love of cooking in the people who shop at the store. While it may not rival the passion of the Hawaiian shirt-clad staff, it's certainly a passion that is catching because Trader Joe's customers are some of the most loyal and dedicated in the industry.