| San Francisco Bread Review | Trader Joe's French Village Baguette |
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| Summary | |
| Appearance : | Terrible |
| Taste : | Very bad |
| Overall grade : | D- |
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| The bread | |
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| The wrapper | |
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| Nutrition | |
| Click on the photos for larger view | |
| Bread name | French Village Baguette |
| Baker | Trader Joe's |
| Purchased | Sunday, May 25, 2003, 6:00PM |
| From | Trader Joe's, 2217 South Shore Center, Alameda |
| Tested | Sunday, May 25, 2003, 11:30PM |
| Price | $1.19 |
| Weight | 10 oz. |
| Size (LxWxH) | 20" x 3" x 2" |
Appearance
This bread comes in a transparent plastic bag, which is of course a terrible idea for a baguette. The plastic tab used to close the bag has an expiration date, in this case 5/28. The general appearance of this bread is very industrial. It has a few scores on top, and overall looks soft and wrinkled. The feel of the loaf is terrible: it's soft and rubbery. The density is light, the crust is very soft (in fact I wouldn't even call it crust), the whole thing feels like it's made of plastic. The outside smell is barely detectable. The cut is very easy, and making good-looking slices is also very easy. The inside smell is barely detectable. Now it's time to (gasp) taste this thing.
Taste
The crust is terrible. It is dry, rubbery, and tasteless. The crumb is also dry, mostly tasteless. I would hesitate to feed this to ducks, because I like ducks.
Conclusion
What a disappointment! This is baguette at its worst. I am a big fan of Trader Joe's, and I shop there as often as I can. But this is the second-worst bread I have tested up to now. The only reason I don't give it an F is the ingredients, which are natural. The worst part of it is, this bread was supposed to expire in three days -- how bad would it have been by then?