Taza Chocolate at Trader Joe's?

[FinnFPM]

We stopped into the Trader Joe's in Acton tonight, and I noticed, stacked among the various chocolates that they sell, some Mexican chocolate wheels that looked really, really, REALLY similar to Taza's stuff. They were basically the exact same, except, obviously, they were branded in the creepy sans-origin Trader Joe's sort of way.

I know that TJ's is always stripping the identification off of products and selling them at a discount; sure enough, these wheels were $3.99. I came home to do some research and I'm not the first person to notice this (I also saw some tweets to the effect, a a few unanswered inquiries on the Taza FB page):

http://zomgcandy.com/2012/09/05/trade...

I'd be really surprised if Taza isn't the company producing these for Trader Joe's. I saw one person on Twitter saying that they can confirm that TJ's is selling Taza stuff, but they can't say how they know; take that for what it is, but, I think the signs are all there.

Has anyone else seen these TJ's wheels? Anyone know anything else?

[wandergirl]

It may well be Taza, but I'd just caution you that Trader Joe's isn't above using misleading packaging. TJ's used to carry King Arthur flour but then switched to their own brand. Fair enough, but the design on their flour bag echoes King Arthur's design in a way that seems aimed to mislead.

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2009/03/02/say-it-aint-so-joes/

http://www.thekitchn.com/product-revi...

[Infomaniac]

I got some at the Coolidge Corner store and I'd say Taza is private labeling it for TJ's. It taste exactly the say.

All supermarkets have their brand private labeled by someone, and it usually is coming from the company with the most shelf space for that particular item. Market Basket milk used to come from Hood but I'm not sure of that anymore.

[digga]

We saw them in Arlington Heights several weeks ago at the registers and we also noted the similarities. We didn't actually buy and sample them, though. Might it just be copy-cat?

Could one actually call Taza to get the low-down?

[FinnFPM]

Doesn't Trader Joe's basically make its suppliers sign non-disclosure agreements? I get the impression that Taza wouldn't tell...

[BlueTrain84]

Saw the same chocolate wheels at the coolidge corner trader joe's maybe 2-3 months ago and completely agree, these must be Taza. The two flavors they had were dark chocolate (70%, I think) w sea salt, and chocolate w cayenne pepper.