I had no idea what this was supposed to be. An Açaí bowl. I knew what Açaí and a bowl are, but I’d never had one of these before. I know, I live under a rock. The closest thing I’ve come to this Jamba Juice, which I absolutely love! I showed my wife and she of course is completely tuned in to all the cool new hip trendy food trends (maybe she should be doing this blog?) told me what these should be like.
It’s basically a smoothie (like Jamba Juice) in a bowl with fruit and granola. I did a quick search on Google and sure enough, there is even a Wikipedia article about it! In Brazil, it’s very popular and it’s called Açaí na tigela which means “Acai in the bowl”. These bowls are super trendy and go north of $10 pretty quickly. They look like the healthiest thing in the world for you so no wonder they are so popular.
So, what I am told by those in the know (aka Mrs. Club Trader Joe’s), is that this is essentially a smoothie in a bowl with some fruit and granola. The directions on the back of the box say to put the bowl in the microwave from the frozen state and nuke it for 45 seconds.
What they fail to mention is that this should be slushy like a smoothie, unfortunately, it does end up that way. Mine seemed to thaw out enough. I could stick my spoon in and it wasn’t a frozen block.
The way that these bowls are served is Açaí slushy is put in the bottom of the bowl. Maybe some fruit is stirred in or arranged on top and then granola is sprinkled on top. That sounds great!
Unfortunately, in this case, blueberries and strawberries, and there must be bananas in 
I actually got an ice cream headache from trying to eat this. I let it warm up a bit but then it started to turn watery and melt. The best thing about this bowl was the granola and coconut shavings toppings.
If it wasn’t for that, I probably would dump it. One other weird thing, the blueberries had turned green. I’m sure it had to been exposed to the acid of the other fruit and bleached the color out. They didn’t taste were different, just looked really weird.
As for the actual taste? It was good! I really liked the blend of fruit and granola crunch. Now I want to try the real thing. But, I’m not sure how Trader Joe’s is going to get around to getting everything to thaw out without turning into a watery mess pretty quickly. This seems like something you could
easily make at home with Trader Joe’s Açaí puree that they sell and some fruit and granola in about the same time it would take to make the bowl from the freezer. This is supposed to be vegan and organic so it has that going for it.
It was an interesting review and one that I am sure many people will want to see, but I won’t be buying this again.
I’m going to give it 5 Bells! I must be missing something here because I just didn’t like it.
Maybe you got a bad one:( I just tried this and it was pretty great, esp considering that it was pre-prepared. The fruit all seemed to be fresh frozen and I was suprised how good it was.
I let it thaw overnight in the fridge instead of microwaving it and the texture was good, so that might have made a difference.
I wish I’d had these in the house when I was recovering from surgery.
I have to agree with the OP. I took this product out of the freezer and put it in the fridge, I literally just made it and found that it is still frozen in the middle even tho it sat in the fridge for the allotted amount of time in says on the box, probably longer. I did add a spoonful of almond butter thinking it would be really good, sadly, it is just not a good product. The amount of blueberries that are in this dish is insane. Every spoonful had at least 5-10 blueberries, it’s ridiculous. The strawberries were soggy. Very very little frozen acai because again the amount of blueberries is so overpowering. No bananas at all. Very disappointed in this product. I ended up throwing the whole thing away after about 4 bites. Seriously, it is just better to go and make your own.
[…] to Club Trader Joe’s, these açai bowls miss the mark on texture, and tend to be difficult to thaw properly. Because […]
I just had my first Açaí Bowl. Maybe they have changed the directions but mine said microwave 45 seconds, uncover then stir, microwave 15 seconds, stir again and continue 15 seconds intervals until defrosted. I did that but left it still slightly frozen and it was delicious. Very thick and the blueberries not mushy at all. I think the trick is leaving it slightly frozen. I also stuck the granola in toaster oven for about 5 minutes to warm it up and toast it slightly. I’m going back for more.