12 Best Chocolate Candies at Trader Joe’s, Ranked

Trader Joe’s chocolates are consistently delicious and make their candy aisle worth perusing on every grocery run. I recently visited my neighborhood Trader Joe’s and picked up twelve of their most popular chocolate candies to try out.

From holiday favorites like the Jingle Jangle to truffles to dark chocolate bars, I’ve done plenty of taste testing and rigorous self-reflection to come up with the definitive ranking of the best Trader Joe’s chocolates. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled on these because they make great gifts, snacks, and desserts.

12. Milk Chocolate Rondos With Caramelized Pecan Crunch

This Trader Joe’s chocolate is made up of a flat, smooth chocolate disk that’s mixed with bits of caramelized sugar and pecans. These chocolate disks are incredibly smooth and velvety, with a major contrast in texture coming from the bits of crunchy sugar and pecans.

While I enjoyed the nutty, toasty notes in this chocolate, the texture was a bit waxy, which is why it comes last on my list.

11. Dark Chocolate Covered Honey Grahams With Sea Salt

Next up on my list is the Dark Chocolate Covered Honey Grahams. This Trader Joe’s candy is fairly simple. It consists of pieces of honey graham crackers, which are enrobed in a layer of dark chocolate and then sprinkled with a bit of sea salt.

These little guys are perfectly crunchy, and the dark chocolate outside has a nice snap to it. They definitely have a s’mores vibe to them. There wasn’t as much sea salt on these as on the packaging, which is unfortunate because I think a little extra salt would have taken these to the next level.

These graham crackers are a fun little snack, but I couldn’t rate them higher on my list simply because they lack that “je ne sais quoi” that the rest of the snacks have. And don’t worry, despite how the above picture looks, no dogs ingested chocolate in the taking of this photo.

10. Cinnamon Bun Inspired Truffles

Gooey cinnamon buns plus rich, smooth chocolate. It’s a match made in heaven, right? For the most part, yes. My only complaint with these is that they’re almost (I can’t believe I’m saying this) a little too sweet. Even though they’re small, I could only eat two before I was sick of them.

But those two truffles I ate were incredibly rich and delicious. Each sphere of milk chocolate is filled with cinnamon sea salt caramel, and the chocolate is then covered in a dusting of powdered sugar. The sea salt and cinnamon are front and center here, and both flavors are quite concentrated.

Like I said, these truffles are definitely on the super sweet side, even for someone with a sweet tooth like myself. The Cinnamon Bun Truffles are Trader Joe’s new holiday item for 2023, so only time will tell if they stick around for more holiday seasons to come.

9. Dark Chocolate Bark With Almond, Pretzel & Sea Salt

This Trader Joe’s chocolate has a little bit of everything. It’s smooth in some parts, crunchy in others, partly salt, partly sweet, and just a little bitter.

It has a pretty self-explanatory name. The bits of pretzel add just a little bit of saltiness to the chocolate, which brings out the dark, rich chocolate and toasty, nutty almond flavor. The dark chocolate is sweet with just a note of bitterness, so unlike the Cinnamon Bun Truffles, I can eat a substantial amount of this bark before getting a sugar headache.

8. Mini Milk Chocolate Bars

Trader Joe’s mini milk chocolate bars are perfectly portioned pieces of milk chocolate that clock in at only 100 calories. These bars are made with Belgian milk chocolate, so they’re beautifully smooth and have a classically fudgy flavor.

This chocolate has an equal balance of cocoa and milky flavor with a velvety, melt-in-your-mouth texture. If you’re looking for a simple, no-frills chocolate at Trader Joe’s, you’ve found it.

7. Dark Chocolate Bar With Almond

Trader Joe’s has a handful of organic chocolate bars in their lineup, and my favorite is their Dark Chocolate Almond bar. This one is made with 73% cacao dark chocolate and bits of crunchy almond.

Since it contains 73% cacao, the flavor here is intense in the best way possible. The notes inside this bar, besides chocolate, of course, are coffee and caramel, so it has a sophisticated, unique feel, which those crunchy almonds only enhance.

6. Dark Chocolate Covered Mini Pretzels

These are an oldie but a goodie. I’ve been buying Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Covered Mini Pretzels for years, and they’re one of my favorite snacks of all time.

Each mini pretzel is salted with coarse grains and then covered in a perfectly thick layer of dark chocolate. The pretzel-to-chocolate ratio is on point. I’d guesstimate it’s 50/50, which is my personal preference. The bits of salt bring out the rich flavor of the chocolate, making for a well-balanced sweet and salty snack.

5. Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Like the mini pretzels, these peanut butter cups are an OG Trader Joe’s chocolate. I’ve picked up a bag of these more times than I’d care to admit, but if you’ve ever tried these, you know exactly why they’re so popular.

These mini peanut butter cups are filled with peanut butter, but not the overly-processed stuff you might expect. Instead, the peanut butter inside is made of a simple mix of peanut butter, sugar, and salt. The milk chocolate surrounding the peanut butter is smooth and creamy, acting as the perfect companion to the peanut butter center.

4. Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels

The Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels are another classic Trader Joe’s chocolate I’ll never get sick of. These candies are made with a dark chocolate outer shell and filled with a salted caramel center.

The caramel inside is more liquid than chewy, with the perfect amount of salt added. Not only is the caramel properly salted, but the chocolate has coarse grains of salt on top, which adds a little bit of crunch and even more salty flavor. All that salt brings out more chocolate flavor and makes each candy incredibly rich and decadent.

3. Jingle Jangle

Trader Joe’s Jingle Jangle is a fan favorite, which keeps coming back year after year for the holiday season. What makes it so delicious is that it’s actually a mix of different Trader Joe’s chocolate candies. Think of it as a tin of TJ’s greatest hits.

Each tin includes mini dark chocolate pretzels, mini milk chocolate pretzels, dark chocolate caramel popcorn, dark chocolate-covered Joe-Joe’s cookies, milk chocolate gems (which are basically M&M’s), and my personal favorite, mini dark chocolate peanut butter cups.

The mini pretzels are covered in a white chocolate drizzle, which brings the different chocolate types featured to three. There’s also a ton of textures in this tin.

There’s the crispy pretzels, the crunchy chocolate gems, and, of course, all that smooth, velvety chocolate. The chocolate-covered Joe-Joe’s cookies, which are Trader Joe’s version of an Oreo, are a standout of the group, along with the adorable mini peanut butter cups.

If you like a little variety, pick up a tin of the Jingle Jangle. I guarantee you’ll be hooked!

2. Toffee Chips

Speaking of variety, this Trader Joe’s chocolate gives you both a dark chocolate and a milk chocolate version in each package. The Toffee Chips are candies made of hard, buttery toffee on the inside and rich, smooth chocolate on the outside.

Both forms of chocolate in this candy live up to Trader Joe’s reputation for smooth, creamy chocolate, but the real star is found inside. This toffee is hands-down the best toffee I’ve ever tried. It’s salty, buttery, sweet, and caramelized. There are also notes of brown butter and a nutty, toasty flavor to it.

There’s so much going on inside these that it’s next to impossible to eat just one. I prefer the milk chocolate toffees only because I prefer milk to dark chocolate, but I’d happily take either version any day of the week.

1. Crispy Peanut Butter Filled Milk Chocolate Peanuts

I have to admit that it wasn’t easy choosing who I should crown as the best Trader Joe’s chocolate candy, but in the end, I had to go with the Crispy Peanut Butter Filled Milk Chocolate Peanuts.

I didn’t try this candy for the longest time because I thought it had chunks of peanuts inside, which I don’t usually love in a dessert. But I eventually realized these are only shaped like a peanut, and the filling is a smooth, creamy peanut butter.

Once I tried these, there was no going back. For the last two years, this has been my Trader Joe’s candy of choice. The milk chocolate outside crunches and gives way to smooth, creamy peanut butter that’s been perfectly salted. But that’s not all – there’s a whole other unique element to these candies. That element is the crispy rice, which is flecked throughout peanut butter.

These little pieces of rice bring in some crispy, crunchy texture and stand out from the perfectly smooth, velvety chocolate and peanut butter. The mix of sweet and salty plus smooth and crunchy makes things interesting and keeps me coming back to the Trader Joe’s chocolate aisle time and time again.