Episode 99: The Cheesiest Episode of Inside Trader Joe's. Ever.

Matt, it's a cheese episode, not a cheesy episode.

“At Trader Joe's were serious about cheese,”

and we're excited about 2026. Right, it's gonna be a good a year. Matt. You're right, cheesy does it on the silly puns. This is not your average episode.

And we have Kim, the category manager for cheese, joining us from our Boston Mothership. Ah, yes, the big cheese. We're gotta be kidding me. Let's go to inside Trader Joe's.

I'm Tara Miller, director of words and phrases and clauses. And I'm Matt Sloan, the culture and innovation guy at Trader Joe's. Culture? Is that another cheese reference? Shutter believe it. Oh, Kim, in Boston, save us.

Hi Tara, hi Matt. Kim, a party. Fine, thank you, and I'm grateful to be invited to participate in this podcast today. Oh, we have lost Kim.

Or she's found the way. Wait, let's talk about cheese. It's one of my favorite topics.

“And that's why we wanted you to join us here,”

because you know all the things that are happening in the world of cheese. You better believe it. Oh, wow, my gosh. Wow, it just keeps getting better.

What's happening in cheese, Kim? We're going into a new year. Let's talk about cheese. Are there things that you think will be defining really important aspects of cheese

in our business related to it?

I mean, first of all, trying to be a bit impartial

because I find all cheeses to be delicious. But with everything else, whether it's grocery or anything else in life, there certainly trends. And we definitely see a lot of trends happening in the package world, particularly

where I would classify it as dips in spreads. They're really diverse in flavors and cheese types, but I think the common denominator they're not only delicious and at a great value, but they're also very convenient

and they're versatile in their uses. So in your thinking, when is a cheese spread in the cheese category? 'Cause it's a cheese spread, not a dip in deli. There's definitely a few different factors.

Nearly all of my cheese spreads are majority cheese, almost all of them are at least 90%.

“Cheese, a shelf life is another common factor.”

We tend to have more shelf life in our cheese spreads and dips than say fresh wood. The common denominator with all of them is they are all clean ingredients. So there's no difference in cheese

we're not getting along our shelf life because of additives per se, but it could be how it's packed and the different ingredients in it. So spreads spreads.

I'm thinking back into my Trader Joe's tenure over the last several years, cheese spreads have become more of a thing. You're right. And with Trader Joe's for six years working on cheese.

And when I started the cheese spreads that we had were really pub cheeses for the most part and then cream cheese as we still offer. The same pub cheese, the classic chartcheter in the jalapeno and horse radish

that we've always had and they continue to do very well.

But back in 2022 is really, I think, when we started to press on the gas with diversifying our assortment and adding new items. And we did that with the unexpected cheddar spread. An expected cheddar continues to be a leader

in the cheese world. This year alone in 2025, we're gonna sell about 2.1 million pounds just on the block of unexpected cheddar cheese. And that's growing. And it was kind of found by accident actually.

I was looking for a holiday item and growing up, I used to eat cheese balls at holiday time. So we went to the supplier who does our unexpected cheddar cheese.

And said, is there a way we could do like a deconstructed cheese ball? That's not loaded full of all the cool and cool bad ingredients that you typically find in a cheese ball. And so we started working on that

and it just wasn't hitting the way that I wanted to. But the base cheese was absolutely delicious. I said, well, we can't get the right cheese ball. In fact, that we're looking for but the unexpected cheddar spread is just delicious.

We brought it in September of 2022 and it's been a hit ever since. So we added a hatch chili variety of it which we bring in pretty much every summer. It's done very well.

We have a holiday cheer that we brought in. Again, this holiday did very well.

And we finally nailed it with the totally cheese ball

that we brought in this holiday and it did exceptionally well. And that is a variety of unexpected cheddar and it's blended with our accostal Sarasok Tuscano. So two of our customer favorites cheese

and one totally cheese ball spread. This feels like a lot of other categories that are parts of our store where the new development is sort of not the thing itself, but some new version of it.

So like what's exciting in cheese is cheese spread, not just a block of cheese. And we see that throughout the business.

more than two million pounds of just a piece,

the block of unexpected cheddar. So regular, if you will, cheese is still a giant thing for customers. - Yes, it is. - So another example of that would be our double cream

breast spread that we brought in as an everyday item that just launched this holiday season. We sell a lot of debris. We have a lot of different varieties of debris. Whether it's a domestic or a French,

we have the traditional French, the triple crème, as well as the mushroom brie, and some other soft ripens, like the Saint Andre.

“But there's still a desire, I think the convenience factor”

of a spread. Again, it gives you a little bit more shelf life. And so the breeze spread has been very popular, it's doing very well. It has some additional uses as to it as well.

You can cut it and put it on sandwiches. There's a lot of our customers love debris, but they don't necessarily like the rind. And that's where we came up with the idea of breeze spread and everything but the rind is really what you're getting

in that breeze spread. So it's very easy to spread into a turkey or roast beef sandwich or spread it onto apples and have a nice low carb indulgence. And you can just sell a bag of the rinds. It's like three rinds.

- Who wants to have to look at that? - I probably need those two, yeah. - I'm curious, in the cheese section, we have cut pieces of cheese, we have spreads, we have slices, we have shreds.

What do we sell the most of? What are customers seem to buy most often? - Well, I think a lot of our classic everyday,

“I like to refer to them as sort of grocery list items,”

like our shredded cheese. We sell a lot of our sliced cheese. We're able to offer the convenience of people going into buy the sliced cheese and not have to wait at a service counter, but have a great value

and great items going back to cream cheese. I consider that sort of a bridge item, like the core cream cheese to spread on a bagel and a traditional use or often in baking, particularly with the brick items,

whether it's a cheesecake or a mixed-interfrostings. But there's so many other uses there. So the amount of it we sell is pretty great. You know, put intended on the grate. (both laughing)

So on the cream cheese, which cream cheese is our top selling cream cheese item.

And we offered our first flavor of that this fall and winter.

Very popular so much so that we actually were able to chase the product and work with our supplier to bring more in, but that's everything but the pizza. So it is a cream cheese and it's great on a bagel,

but we're hearing through our crew and customers that there's so many other uses that they like to use it for, whether it's spreading it on a piece of pepperoni. Again, for a low-carb, pretty nutritious snack

or dipping bell peppers into it. You're getting the pizza without the crust. And then we have some great new flavors coming. We'll have a delicious cream cheese. Dill ishes, I should say, cream cheese.

That is excellent accompaniment with salmon or lox. For Easter time, we'll be bringing in and spring a carrot cake whipped cream cheese, which not that I play favorites with my cheeses, but it's definitely up there.

What do you do with that? What do you do with it? What do you do with it? But I like to say, my favorite way to eat it is on a spoon. It's like taking the idea of a carrot cake

and the cream cheese frosting and removing a lot of the sugar. You get all the same flavors and including little pieces of carrot, selfishly, I left raisins out of it because I'm not a carrot cake with raisin person, but it's great on our cinnamon raisin bagel.

And you could have that flavor profile if you are. A raisin person, graham crackers is another great way to eat it. You could even make a fantastic frosting out of it and just spread it on a spice cake or on a carrot cake. It would be really good on a ginger snap.

That would be a great way to offer. So talking about things that are coming, things that you're working specifically with our suppliers to develop. What's happening in your cheese making brain?

I'm very excited about all of the projects we already have that have been approved and there's a lot peeking under the tent that are to come.

“One of the ones that I think is the most interesting”

is a marinated parmesan.

They've never seen it in a grocery store,

but it's shredded parmesan and it's marinated in an oil blend that has garlic and olives in a little bit of cilantro fantastic. Almost addictive. The first time I tried it, I was like, wow,

this is a punch of flavor, not sure it's my thing. And then the second bite, I started to like it more and more. And then I just plowed through all of the samples. So initially, I was thinking of it. God, it would be really good to opt on a Cristini

as an appetizer served with pasta. And then talking to some of my colleagues and other crew members who had tried it, they use it in lieu of salad dressing. So they'll mix it into vegetables and lettuces and eat it that way.

I think putting it on a pasta, whether it's a cold or a hot pasta, would be another delicious way. And it truly just an innovative item.

And there's really not much to it, but it's a whipped ricotta.

The first time I had whipped ricotta,

I had it in a restaurant.

“And it was served with just roasted carrots”

on top of it, some pine nuts and a drizzle of olive oil. I'm not a ricotta lover. I know there's a lot of uses as to it, but I don't like the curds in it. And this is a truly creamy and dreamy way to eat it.

So that's something that will be coming to our stores in 2026. Where does it end? We are bringing whipped feta back. That was something we brought in as a limited item.

This past spring in 2025. The crew and our customers spoke and we listened. So it's gonna be coming back as in every day item this January. And we're working on some variations of that

that I don't wanna tell too much 'cause it still hasn't made it through our tasting panel, but if all works out, there'll be additional flavors coming in on that as well. - These spreads and whipped things seem to be so interesting.

And when we bring something in, it's like you actually talked about chasing. We're often chasing the volume 'cause customers lock in on things

“and they love them and then we've gotta go get more, go get more.”

What is it about whipping the cheese that makes it that much more interesting? - It really changes the whole dynamic of what you're eating. Feta's another one, I mean, Feta is very, very popular,

but the whipped feta is not just the three ingredients that the whipped ricotta, it has some other ingredients and it including some cream cheese, but it truly changes the texture and the flavor of the item. I mean, all of us are on time crunches these days.

We're trying to do too much and too little time. So to whip up the food processor and try to make it, and very frankly, when you do it that way, it just also doesn't taste quite the same 'cause I've tried doing that as well.

And I think that's a piece of it. The other is cheese is delicious. Again, I am lucky that I have the access to trying as many cheeses that we do and being able to have the pleasure to bring it to our stores.

But when you're doing some of these spreads and dips, gives you the opportunity to take something that is already delicious and elevate and change the profile of the flavor in the texture. Natural cheeses, without changing the whole dynamic

and blending the cheese really all you can do is soak it and rub it. And we do a lot of that as well. Actually, I could give another peek under the tent without in a second.

Sure, I know for one. I just won't try to make something like whipped feta. And so that's just so much nicer to go to the Trader Joe's that I shop at down the street and just pick it up. All right, you've peaked my interest, Kim.

With the soaking and rubbing spot treatment, what's happening with this is a cheese on a holiday. [LAUGHTER] That's exactly what it is. But we've moved beyond the soaking and rubbing.

And we have worked with the two different suppliers in Spain to bring some new innovation and new technology into the natural cheese world going into 2026. You've seen a bit of it this holiday with our quince Spanish cheese, which did very well.

But we have similar items that we'll be bringing in as spotlight programs next summer.

The first one is a labor of love.

It's called this sheepish tomato. The name is inspired because it's a Spanish sheep's milk cheese. Say that three times fast. But it's a good idea. So they're injecting it with a tomato jam.

That is all the ingredients are coming from the Toledo region of Spain, whether it's a tomato is a little bit of sugar, the vinegar. It's an absolutely delicious cheese. And it's really pretty to look at.

But what they're doing is they're creating the cheese. They're aging it approximately three months, and then they're injecting it using special equipment. So it's a good way of bringing new flavors into the cheese and be able to get that flavor in every bite

that you can't necessarily get out of a rubbed or soaked cheese because it's actually in the center. And then they continue to age it another two to three months. So the result is a vain cheese, just truly delicious. And just a quick shout out.

“Tritor Joe's, remember, designer Michelle”

did an amazing label for that, I love that label.

That was her and I going to her computer and looking at my vision board for probably close to 45 minutes. And then seeing her bring my ideas to life, it just warms my cheese ass heart. I love that you have a cheese vision board.

I think I need vision boards. The other one, which I may go on a limb and say, it's probably my favorite of 26 is the Mediterranean mezcla, which is really a malange of cheese. So it's a Spanish-age cheese, again,

made in a very similar way to the tomato. And then it's injected with a pideo pesto from Italy. So it's bringing two of my favorite European classics together with the traditional Spanish-sheep smoke cheese with the pideo pesto from Italy.

It's just beautiful to look at because you can really see the bright green of the pesto throughout, but you get the classic flavor of both items.

section, you've seen our spotlight cheeses,

can you give us just a quick rundown of what the spotlight cheese

“program is and what customers might come to expect from them?”

Sure. So we're putting a spotlight on the spotlight program now. Thank you, Tara. The intention behind it is to find items that are an exceptional value that you may not be able to find

in other places because they're exclusive to Trader Joe's if they're not exclusive, it's really a beyond wow. We do have some branded items. For example, once a year, we tend to bring in a point raised toma, cheese, different varieties of it,

but at a price that you just can't even come close to anywhere else. But beyond that, I really look for items that are new and different. I know that can bring up feelings of nostalgia from a different time in your life, the idea of the program is to bring something in once a month

that we sell through within that month, so that it's an additional offering from our customers and our regular cheese,

kind of soarers that they can try something else

and know that they only have a limited time to buy it. It may not be back again if it is, it won't be for a while. And the next month, they get to come in and have the same treasure hunt all over again. It makes me think that so many of the cheeses

in your category in my mind function in that way. They are special and they are great, but I'm wondering, is there a sleeper in your category that you think deserves more attention that customers should know about?

- A sleeper. Again, it's like trying to pick your favorite child. - I have one, Kim, and I wonder if you can tell me if it's a sleeper, or if I just don't know that as many people love it as I do,

the thousand-day gouda. - That's a good one. - Is that a big hit cheese? - It is a big hit cheese, good as a gouda. If you want to say it, and it cheeses.

- The right way is that way, and it cheeses it the right way.

- That's a good one for a sleeper, actually, 'cause gouda, as I think, as a whole, could use a little bit of love right now. We brought in a lot of flavored ones and blended ones. For example, we brought the green goddess,

good-a-back, this spring, and it blew out. Probably four weeks quicker than we thought, we'll be bringing it back next spring. They're one of the best blending cheeses, so we do a lot of flavors there,

but to your point, the basic goudas are probably the sleepers there. And I was gonna say the malange, the cheddar, gree, or malange. That is a cheese we've carried for a moment,

and it definitely has had its highs and lows, but it's a fantastic price point, and it really is the best of both worlds. You get the creamy buttery nutty cheddar, and then the greeer on the back end,

and that's something truly special that once in a while just kind of gets lost in that assortment, but could be my sleeper. That's a fantastic grilled cheese sandwich cheese. It is.

And we have a lot of wonderful cheddar's. We have two import greeers and one domestic greeer, so that sort of sits in the middle. Anything else you wanna share with us?

“I think one other call out that would be”

where miss of me not to mention as mascarpone. Mascarpone is the whole is sort of having a moment right now. People are cooking more at home, and they're spending more time in home, and mascarpone is that ingredient item you sometimes forget about.

It's used often in baking and different dessert items, but there's a lot of really indulgent ways to use it, whether you're making homemade pasta as a filling, or adding it to your sauces and soups, and we'll be also adding a seasonal vanilla bean for springtime.

That's something to keep an eye out on. I'm fascinated by adding the traditional mascarpone to a soup, so you could even take the classic tomato soup and add it to something like that to make it just a creamier version.

Actually, I make tomato soup that way. I just blend whether it's the San Marzano tomatoes. I use the hand mixer to it. We'll put a little bit of mascarpone in some garlic powder, salt and pepper,

and it makes a really great disc. And it's actually lighter than a disc, 'cause you don't need a lot of it. It's also great added to a sweet potato, or a squash, like a butternut squash soup.

It sounds great. You could even instead of blending it in, you could top your butternut squash soup with it with pumpkin seeds, and it looks really pretty.

“I think I wanna come have dinner at your house.”

There's lots of cheese. I could promise you that. Lots of cheese. I'm all in. Great, okay?

Soups on. So much cheese, so little time. I know. I mean, we could easily do another episode all about cheese. I mean, we really shred it this one.

Kim, fantastic. Thank you. We hope to see you again soon. You too? In the meantime, there's lots more cheese

in the refrigerator case at Trader Joe's that will start conversations at your home. And more conversations are ahead in 2026 on inside Trader Joe's. Hit that free subscribe or follow button.

It is free and worth every penny. Until next time, thanks for listening. And thanks for listening.