Trader Joe’s Blueberry Vanilla Chèvre Goat Cheese

We’ve written here before about how weird or exotic some of the stuff at Trader Joe’s can be. Some of the flavor combinations are not what you might expect. There’s the Spatchcocked Sweet & Savory Chicken, or the chocolate dipped Bamba, or the Everything But the Bagel Seasoning.

This cousin to Aldi can stock some especially novel products in the cheese department. One option that comes to mind is the Cheddar Cheese with Caramelized Onions, which my family finds to be exceptionally good. We also love Trader Joe’s Unexpected Cheddar.

Cheese is a popular choice among many Trader Joe’s shoppers, as evidenced by the fact that cheese had its own distinct category in this year’s Trader Joe’s Annual Customer Choice Awards. One of the runners-up was this blueberry vanilla goat cheese. I’m not typically an exotic cheese kind of person, but I bought some to try.

Trader Joe’s Blueberry Vanilla Chèvre Fresh Goat Cheese cost $4.99 for an 8-ounce package at the time of publication. That comes out to about to about 62 cents per ounce. Aldi sells blueberry vanilla goat cheese for the same price per ounce (along with a cinnamon vanilla goat cheese as well), so the TJ’s version seems competitively priced.

The TJ’s cheese package I purchased in April had a best-before date in late July. This is perishable and should be kept refrigerated.

Chèvre literally means “female goat” in French. It can also mean cheese made from goat’s milk. Goat cheese is well-liked among people who are lactose intolerant because it contains less lactic acid than cow’s milk. I have some friends who used to keep a hobby farm, and they raised goats specifically so that one family member who is lactose intolerant could still enjoy milk.

Fresh goat cheese is soft, creamy, and spreads easily. It has a mild flavor. It will become drier and stronger-flavored as it ages.

Ingredients for this TJ’s chèvre are cultured pasteurized goat’s milk, sweetened dried blueberries (blueberries, sugar), salt, vanilla extract (water, ethyl alcohol, vanilla beans), and microbial enzymes. If you’re looking out for allergens, this contains milk. This is kosher.

Nutrition information and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)

One package contains eight 1-ounce servings. One serving has 90 calories, 5 grams of total fat (6% DV), 3 grams of saturated fat (15% DV), 65 mg of sodium (3% DV), 7 grams of total carbohydrates (3% DV), 6 grams of total sugars, and 3 grams of added sugars (6% DV).

So how does this chèvre taste? It’s unique, for sure. It’s mildly sweet thanks to the blueberries. The vanilla flavor is not that strong. The cheese is soft and spreadable — almost melting in your mouth — and reminds me a bit of cream cheese. This is fine to eat on your own but would also be good spread on a baguette or even on a bagel. It also might pair well with certain crackers. Some TJ’s fans recommend serving this with Trader Joe’s Meyer Lemon Cookie Thins.

It has a pretty color when you slice the the cheese log, revealing how the blueberries have dyed the cheese a soft inky purple. It can be on the messy side to remove from the package and to slice, since the blueberries tend to get everywhere.

This cheese is different enough that I probably won’t buy it again, as my family prefers more standard types of cheese, but it was fun to try.

The Verdict:

Trader Joe’s Blueberry Vanilla Chèvre features a log of creamy, soft, spreadable goat cheese flavored with vanilla and coated in dried, sweetened blueberries. This is not your ordinary cheese. If you like novel cheeses, or if you eat goat cheese, this is a good one to sample.