As someone who loves all-things doughy (I was that kid who would eat handfuls of the middle of a loaf of bread), I was ridiculously excited when I heard about Trader Joe's pretzel bagels. Pretzels are awesome and bagels are even more awesome so ipso facto they should make the perfect hybrid. Plus, just think of all the sandwich possibilities involving mustard!
So imagine my surprise when many of my colleagues weren't impressed by the TJ's product. The comment that everyone ultimately ended up agreeing with was that the product was, "Not better than a pretzel and not better than a bagel."
Out of 30 tasters, 15 people called pretzel bagels Delish, 10 called them not Delish and for the first time in all of our tastings thus far, 5 people couldn't put them in either category. "They just taste like bread," explained one of the maybes. "Has the potential to be Delish," with the proper toppings said another. (We had everyone try plain pieces of pretzel bagel.)
Some more comments from those who wanted more from their pretzel bagels:
"I wish they were more pretzel-y."
"They taste like a cold hot pretzel."
"Doesn't have enough lye; it's missing that bitter saltiness"
But then again, one colleague called them, "The best things ever."
Here's what we learned in a nutshell: Pretzel bagels are a genius idea, and the Trader Joe's version is OK, but the execution doesn't match the brilliance of the concept.
Have you tried pretzel bagels? Tell us what you think in the comments!
