The Trader Joe's Chocolate Bar That Doesn't Deserve To Be On Shelves

When you're after something sweet at Trader Joe's, you'll find vanilla sandwich cookie pieces covered in popping candy and a root beer-flavored coating, cookies and cream-dipped pretzels, a charming assortment of English-style fudge, and so much more. And, of course, the wide variety of chocolate bars — ranging from straightforward to delightfully textured to positively trendy (we're looking at you, TJ's Dubai-style chocolate bar) — are a shopping cart mainstay for anyone with a sweet tooth. However, not every single one is worth the buy.

Of the 18 products The Takeout sampled to find the best and worst Trader Joe's chocolate bars, more than a couple left a lot to be desired. But perhaps the worst of the bunch was the Organic Dark Chocolate Bar made with 73% cacao. It isn't just that it was quite bitter, though it certainly was; it was that it was so earthy and medicinal that it tasted like an adulterated plant ... in a bad way.

You can't chalk this low rating up to our taste tester being a dark chocolate hater, either. The version of this same bar made with almonds, Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Coffee Buzz Bar, and the Single Origin Organic Dark Chocolate with Vanilla Bean bar were all reviewed favorably. So if dark chocolate is your jam, TJ's still has some other solid options for you.

If you already made the mistake of buying the Organic Dark Chocolate Bar 73% Cacao — or any other subpar chocolates, for that matter — there is no reason to suffer through it needlessly. While it may not be palatable enough to enjoy on its own, you can certainly incorporate it into other dishes that can balance out some of those harsher notes.

Sugar and salt work wonders when it comes to taming unpleasant bitterness. Chop up some of that TJ's dark chocolate and fold the pieces into next level brown butter chocolate chip cookie dough. The sweetness and richness mellow out the jarring notes in the bar, and finishing the cookies off with a sprinkle of flaky sea salt helps even more. You can also use this chocolate in combination with milder milk chocolate in dishes like homemade hot chocolate, chocolate mousse, or fudgy brownies, where the dairy, sugar, and fat round out any flavors you want to hide.

You can even use up your Trader Joe's bar in savory preparations. Classic Mexican mole leads to innumerable variations such as mole poblano, mole negro, and mole rojo. The spicy dried chiles, acidic tomatoes, and wide variety of nuts, seeds, dried fruits, and spices work so well with chocolate — those bitter, earthy, and medicinal flavors actually add another layer of complexity to this incredibly nuanced sauce, and the slight sweetness enhances mole's savory flavors. For this same reason, chocolate is also an ingredient you should be adding to chili.