Whilst a crisp breeze begins to snake through the air, fallen leaves crunch underfoot with autumn’s golden glow welcoming Trader Joe’s harvest of fall delights, filling the shelves with pumpkin-flavored staples, apple-spiced favorites and hints of cinnamon for comforting seasonal treats.

Trader Joe’s, known for its affordability, private-label items and unique selection of products, makes for a fun shopping experience. Their seasonal goods also spike interest, as they introduce new items while bringing back previous customer favorites. This year’s autumn selections brought an array of fresh fall flavors, with butternut squash and apple-spice alongside the returning gem of this time of year, pumpkin.

Pumpkin Items:

Starting off with breakfast goods, there are various options out there to set the tone of a fall morning, including the Pumpkin Pancake and Waffle Mix. It offers strong notes of pumpkin spice throughout the light and fluffy pastries without the graininess one might expect from a box mix, earning a 7/10.

On the sweeter side, the Glazed Pumpkin Pie Spiced Donuts were bite-sized and moist. Unfortunately, the sweetness of the glaze really overpowered the pumpkin of the donut, receiving a 4/10.

The biggest letdown on this list was the Pumpkin Cream Cheese Spread, as it had a weak pumpkin flavor and smell. It almost had the consistency of hummus, more like a grainy paste, than a regular cream cheese. The spread was also too sweet, as the “cheese” was more of a sour aftertaste, resulting in a low score of 2/10.

For an autumn afternoon snack, we can be sure to recommend the Pumpkin Spiced Teeny Tiny Pretzels. The salty-to-sweet ratio was perfectly balanced with the yogurt coating and the crunch of the pumpkin seeds, getting an 8/10. 

The Pumpkin Bread Mix was another high-scoring item, earning points for both the sweetness and the moistness of the bread. Lasting three to four days if wrapped properly, this product is sure to become a staple in your fall diet, securing another 8/10 in the snack category.

To finish off a cozy night with a Halloween movie and a sweet treat, you can expect to see us enjoying either the Pumpkin Ice Cream or the Pumpkin Spice Mini Sheet Cake. The ice cream is definitely an acquired taste, knocking it down a few points, as it is very “pumpkin-y,” yet smooth and creamy for an enjoyable scoop, obtaining a solid 6/10. The mini dessert is by far one of the top contenders for our fall favorite, with an amazingly fluffy and moist cake that doesn’t have an overly artificial pumpkin flavoring. The frosting is to die for, as it has a perfect balance of sweet and classic cream cheese flavor, taking a perfect 10/10.

Apple Items:

Many people in Granite Bay often make a trip to Apple Hill, a tight-knit community of family-owned farms, ranches, wineries and businesses in Placerville, CA. It is most famously known for its autumn apple harvest, which offers pumpkin patches, cider tasting, baked goods and all things apple. One of their most popular items is apple cider donuts, most specifically from Rainbow Orchards, but Trader Joe’s has seemingly created an almost identical copy: the Apple Cider Donuts. Every bite fills us with nostalgia; the moist, sugar-covered donut sticks true to the phrase “melt in your mouth” as the cider smell surrounds you. This breakfast treat gained a hard-earned 9.5/10, only due to not being the real thing.

While we can’t be sure what flavor of pie is your favorite during the fall, our’s is definitely apple. We now have found the solution to pie cravings without taking hours to bake such a treat. The Apple Pie Spread was delicious, with soft chunks of glossy apple within the syrupy caramelized filling to make a sweet combination. We recommend warming it up and enjoying it on top of a graham cracker with whipped cream for a mini-pie experience. The sweetness was strong but mixed with a small level of tartness, earning a 9/10.

For a fun autumn drink, many people often enjoy a crisp apple cider. However, the Trader Joe’s Apple Cider was just not one we could recommend. Most people look for key spices in a cider that differentiate the drink from a juice, yet we don’t see them within this drink. It’s nothing spectacular and is more of an apple juice, hardly a cider, receiving a dismal 3/10.

Butternut Squash:

While many are still mourning the loss of the famous Trader Joe’s Butternut Squash Soup that was discontinued in 2023, we set out in search of something to fill that void and achieved our goal with this next fall find: the Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese Bites. Although the store normally carries mac and cheese bites, the butternut squash version is a huge step up. We could really taste the squash flavoring throughout the breading and the mac and cheese itself, creating a warm autumn feeling with each bite. The mac and cheese was creamy and delicious, while the outside was crispy and well-baked. We highly recommend using an air fryer to cook these for maximum crunch, but overall, they secured a strong 8.5/10.

Final Fall Favorites:

Although the competition was insanely tough and we had trouble deciding which autumn flavors would win the title of our favorites, we came to a conclusion. Third place with a 9/10, is the Apple Pie Spread, followed by our 2nd place winner, the Apple Cider Donuts, at a 9.5/10. The item we declare as our 2025 Trader Joe’s Fall Item Favorite is… the Pumpkin Spice Mini Sheet Cake, with a perfect 10/10! We strongly recommend all of these delicious goods. If you don’t grab them fast, you might just find yourself haunted by the ghosts of autumn treats past!