This is the #1 Trader Joe’s Product, According to Super Fans

Every January, Trader Joe’s releases the results of the Customer Choice Awards to great anticipation. Who doesn’t love finding out if everyone else is as obsessed with the Italian Bomba hot pepper sauce as you are? This marks the 15th year that Trader Joe’s has been running the awards, and they did things a little differently this time around.

Several products, including the Mandarin Orange Chicken, Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups, Unexpected Cheddar, and Peanut Butter Filled Pretzel Nuggets, have won awards so many times that Trader Joe’s has retired them from the running and added them to their product hall of fame so that other favorites have a chance at winning.

And the Winner Is…

Without these heavy-hitters to steal the show, the one Trader Joe’s product that reigned supreme for customers this year was the Chili & Lime Flavored Rolled Corn Tortilla Chips. This beloved snack is a neon-colored Taki’s dupe with an unforgettable sour and spicy flavor. If you’ve ever eaten these, you know how hard it is to put the bag down. My favorite way to eat these is by dipping them into Trader Joe’s Everything and the Elote Greek Style Yogurt Dip.

Made from stone-ground corn masa, the chips are free of synthetic food colorings and are instead given their electric hue with vegetable juice and paprika and turmeric extracts.

The Runners-Up

While the rolled corn tortilla chips took home the gold, the other customer favorites at the head of the pack were:

1. Steamed Chicken Soup Dumplings
2. Kimbap
3. Steamed Pork and Ginger Soup Dumplings
4. Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese

Category Favorites

The awards also feature winners for specific categories, because there’s plenty of love to go around. The winner of the beverage category was the seasonal spiced cider. You can’t get it year-round, which might account for why people love it so much (absence makes the heart etc. etc.).

The favorite cheese among Trader Joe’s sought-after cheese selection was the goat cheese. At $2.99 for 5 ounces, this little log of chèvre is less than half the price of a 4-ounce portion at my local chain supermarket.

Surprising approximately no one, customers’ favorite produce item was the beloved banana. I’m betting that, just like the goat cheese, customers love the super low price of this fruit bowl mainstay at just 19 cents per banana.

The Creamy Spinach and Artichoke Dip was crowned the #1 appetizer among a sea of challengers, including the runners-up for this category: mac and cheese bites, parmesan pastry pups, Greek spanakopita, and vegetable bird’s nests with soy dipping sauce.

For breakfast, hash browns took the gold medal. The lunch and dinner favorite, which will be no surprise to anyone who has tried it, is the Butter Chicken With Basmati Rice.

Finally, the top-voted sweet treat was the Sublime Ice Cream Sandwiches, chocolate chip cookies sandwiched with vanilla ice cream and rolled in even more chocolate chips.

See the full roster of winners on the Trader Joe’s website, or listen to the latest episode of their podcast, “Inside Trader Joe’s.”

If you missed out on voting for this year’s Trader Joe’s favorites, don’t worry! You’ll have all year to ponder your picks for next year’s competition, and in the meantime you can try this year’s winners (if you haven’t already).