Woman tries to make a dirty martini with Trader Joe’s stuffed olives, one sip told her something had gone very wrong

A home mixologist recently went viral after finding out that blue cheese olives from a popular grocery store are the wrong choice for making a dirty martini. Shopper Jessica shared her bad experience online, showing off a nice-looking cocktail that was actually her second try that night. She explained the big mistake she made with the first glass, which led to wasting good alcohol.

The store packs its blue cheese olives in plain olive oil, not the salty brine that people need for a proper dirty martini. This is bad news for anyone who thought they could just pour the jar liquid into their vodka. According to Bro Bible, Jessica shared a picture of her improved, extra-briny martini on TikTok, but said getting to that perfect drink was hard. She learned the hard way that the blue cheese olives come with olive oil and not olive brine.

Jessica isn’t the only one who had this oily problem. Other shoppers have warned about this product for years. People online confirmed they made the same mistake. One person explained, “I think thats common with cheese stuffed olives because the brine can breakdown the cheese.” Another added, “And some of them don’t have olive oil, but sunflower oil and it’s gross in greasy and disgusting.” Someone else shared, “This happened to me with a Costco jar of feta stuffed pepperoncini.”

This packaging mistake has ruined countless martinis

Jessica made a good point that the packaging should be clearer about what’s inside. She loves the grocery chain and usually has no complaints, so this surprised her. “The packaging could be a LOT more informative. It wasn’t until my dirty martini went wrong that I looked at the ingredients on the back,” she noted. Similar packaging confusion has caught shoppers off guard before, like when a woman exposed misleading pricing at self-checkout.

If you still want to make a great martini at this store, you have other options. Despite warnings to avoid the blue cheese olives for drinks, other shoppers shared good recommendations that do use brine. If you like bold flavor, grab the garlic-stuffed olives or the garlic and jalapeño mix. If you want a bright, citrusy taste, the store’s lemon-stuffed olives are great. 

Other shoppers said you can still buy the blue cheese olives just for decoration, but use brine from a different jar. These frustrating retail experiences remind shoppers to always check product details carefully, much like when customers discovered predatory business practices at stores.

Some people offered practical tips for those who already bought the wrong jar. One viewer suggested rinsing the olives and putting them in a jar of real olive brine. Another suggested a complicated method called “washing” the vodka with the oil to pull out some flavor, but admitted it’s a “nightmare of a process.”