Trader Joe's Greek Style Apricot Mango Yogurt Review

Trader Joe's Greek Style Apricot Mango Yogurt Review

I just tucked in to an 8 ounce container of Trader Joe's Greek Style Apricot Mango Yogurt. I bought it because I like Yogurt, and having had this flavor before, I liked it too. Man does Trader Joe's have a gift for messing up a good thing.

While most of the employees are happy, smart and really helpful people projecting this Utopian image of good old Trader Joe's, my sense is behind the scenes at corporate HQ either "Joe" is being held captive while his company is being slowly destroyed or there is a clearly defined plan to very gradually squeeze every penny from the good will the brand enjoys while hoping nobody in the buying public notices. Well I have been noticing for some time. And it sucks.

The store employees are still great. No doubt about that. But Trader Joe's corporate, or TJ's as it is popularly known, really sucks donkey doo doo. I can cite product after product that has either been brought "in-house" under TJ's private label when a commercial brand was successful, only to have it ruined, or, decent house items run into the ground. Recently, in the case of the Trader Joe's Greek Style Apricot Mango Yogurt, a TJ's dairy staple is turning to garbage thanks to either cost constraints or zero quality control. What grates so much is the TJ's "Flyer" loves to tout how finicky the TJ's tasters and quality folks are supposed to be... bollocks to that. It is clearly all about the bottom line these days.

While I can't name names as it would harm good folks, the employees at my local TJ's have agreed with me (more than a few times - staff and management) that quality has been suffering terribly due to choices made by corporate management.

In the "instant case," the Trader Joe's Greek Style Apricot Mango Yogurt I just ate started off okay - a Greek-style yogurt that was creamy yet firm, not too sweet or tart. But then you take a bite of any of the so-called Apricot or Mango and the train flies, not falls, off the track. Geez. What the hell were those supposed to be? Not any Apricot or Mango I've ever eaten. As a child I've eaten fresher and tastier boogers.

I've struggled trying to find an analog for the texture and flavor of the bits of "fruit." They "give" more than cardboard and rubber pencil erasers but those qualities do come to mind. Seriously Trader Joe's, fix your Greek Style Apricot Mango Yogurt and the other products you've destroyed (Apple Blossoms come easily to mind). Despite your clever efforts to sell your story, it is very clear to me and doubtless many others that the Emperor Has No Clothes.

UPDATE: I've eaten the second container of this yogurt purchased at the same time as the one reviewed above. This one was devoid of any fruit whatsoever. None. Just the yogurt itself. If that does not speak to inconsistencies in the quality control process at Trader Joe's I don't know what does.

Did you like this review? Then please follow me on Twitter, like this story on Facebook, and like our Facebook fan page too. It is all right over there on the right side of this page. Thanks and happy eating!