Trader Joe's New Dessert Find Has Customers Running To The Store — 'There Goes My Self Control'

There's a new item in Trader Joe's dessert aisle, and customers are going wild over it. But this isn't one of those desserts you'll start eating as soon as you get into the car: The grocery chain is selling Meringue Dessert Shells which are ready to be filled with your own concoctions. A set of two sells for $2.99.

Customers turned to Reddit to express their excitement. "I was OBSESSED with meringues when I was younger and always bought them from a nearby bakery. Now Trader Joe's has them?! Welp ... there goes my self control," one Redditor commented under a post on the r/traderjoes subreddit. "Now I need to drive 45 minutes to TJs today," wrote another.

Meringue, which is made from whipped egg white and sugar, is a fun but finicky technique. Egg whites don't always behave: Your egg whites could fall flat if you use the wrong kind of bowl or simply live in a hot, humid environment. Trader Joe's meringue shells offer shoppers an opportunity to make custom DIY desserts minus the headache. "I'm beyond excited!" wrote one Redditor. "These are so good and my dad used to make them, but they are very hard to make in South Florida where I live now."

Redditors enthused about using Trader Joe's Meringue Dessert Shells for pavlova, a dessert made from whipped cream served in a meringue shell and topped with fresh berries. One recommended Eton mess, a parfait-style dessert of crumbled meringue and strawberries layered with whipped cream.

The shells are also a fantastic option for folks seeking dairy-free alternatives to traditional whipped cream: Trader Joe's currently sells a coconut-based whipped cream alternative for $3.99. You'll want to buy your berries somewhere else, though. Every Trader Joe's shopper knows that the produce is overpriced.

But don't limit yourself to berries and cream. Try filling the shells with lemon curd, chocolate pudding, or using them as a serving bowl for ice cream. Feel free to get creative with your own interpretations, too. If Trader Joe's keeps the shells around into fall, you could use them for miniature pumpkin pies or even maple-roasted butternut squash pavlova, which might become your new pumpkin pie.

Preliminary reviews are good, with one stipulation. "Of course it's delicious," You Me Food Review said in a Facebook video. The influencer duo, who ate the shells pavlova-style, did comment that they were was sturdy — maybe excessively so. "I had a little higher hopes for this. It's not easy to eat ... It's easy to put in your mouth and eat it, but getting it onto your fork is a little difficult," said reviewer Susan Rogers.