Episode 88: Trader Joe’s Goes to Modena, with Vim and Vinegar

Inside Trader Joe's

Trader Joe's

Arts, Nutrition, Health & Fitness, Food

4.7 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There are certain foods that are synonymous with their place names. Parmigianno Reggiano. Kalamata Olives. And the focus of this episode, Balsamic Vinegar of Modena. A world-renowned product with a long and fascinating history, Balsamic Vinegar of Modena is produced exclusively in the Modena region of Italy. In this episode we sit down (and do a bunch of walking!) with one of Modena’s largest and most respected producers of this vigorous vinegar – they’ve been supplying Trader Joe’s for decades – where we learn some history and get a behind-the-scenes look at how it’s made. Listen in for a sneak peak at a new TJ’s product coming soon to your neighborhood Trader Joe’s.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Through the years, millions of people have come here to California to see where movies are made.
0:07.0	Yeah, that's called film tourism.
0:09.0	And global wine tourism generated almost $51 billion last year.
0:15.0	You know, that's another big one in California, along with France, Italy, Spain, Australia, Argentina, Chile, a whole bunch
0:23.9	of other places.
0:24.9	But where would you go for vinegar tourism?
0:28.4	Oh yes, vinegar tourism is a thing.
0:30.6	It is.
0:31.8	And we were vinegar tourists ourselves when we went to Modena, Italy, the birthplace of balsamic vinegar.
0:39.0	We didn't take a lot of pictures while we were there, but we did record some good audio.
0:43.8	Perfect for a podcast. Let's go inside Trader Joe's.
1:00.1	I'm Tara Miller, director of words and phrases and clauses.
1:04.3	And I'm Matt Sloan, the culture and innovation guy at Trader Joe's.
1:06.9	Oh, Chris, this is the part where we introduce ourselves. Well, I'm Chris. I'm the senior category manager. Get ready, folks. I oversee frozen, grocery,
1:12.9	candy, cookies, snacks, nuts, and dried fruits. That is a lot of stuff. It's like most of the store.
1:18.7	It's a third of the store. Okay. The most important part, though. Vinegar. Vinegar is the single
1:24.5	most important thing at this show, at least for this podcast. Yeah. In this moment, vinegar is the most important thing at Trinidad Joe. At least for this podcast.
1:28.5	Yeah.
1:28.9	In this moment, vinegar is the most important thing
1:31.4	because we had this really great visit
1:34.5	with an impressive group of people in Modena, Italy.
1:38.7	Well, it's a great thing to talk about.
	...

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