Orange Flavored Cranberries

Sometime late last year, M was reading about orange flavored cranberries ($1.99) at Trader Joe's and was so intrigued by them that she picked them up on her next visit. We like dried cranberries and we like the dried juicy mandarins there (which we've never written about), so why wouldn't we like the orange flavored cranberries? M bought two bags in case it was a temporary or seasonal item, put them in a box, and they never came out of the box until a few weeks ago, when we realized we'd had them for well over 6 months. Oops. We broke open a bag and had very different opinions.

M's thoughts:

My first thought on trying these were that they were really, really sweet. They reminded me of Sweet Tarts in how sweet they tasted. I wasn't really a big fan and couldn't really eat too many of them before they became too sweet. I missed the tartness from cranberries and oranges individually, as this was just so predominantly sweet.

Buy Again? Probably not for me.

A's thoughts:

On my initial mini-handful, I thought these were oddly sweet. All dried cranberries are a little on the sweet side, but these seemed extra sweet. The other thing I noted was a hint of orange peel. I was a little ambivalent about them and stopped eating them after the first bit of them. The next day I decided I'd have a few more to see maybe if I just wasn't fair to them. My second handful seemed much better. The orange flavor was more evident, and it really seemed to balance out some of that sweetness. I ended up really liking them, and I ate the rest since M didn't like them.

Buy Again? I would, but I probably won't since I try not to buy things that M won't eat at all.