This past Friday, around noon, a package arrived for me from Kraft Foods. Much to my delight it was two boxes, one plain, one cinnamon, of Kraft’s new Bagel-fuls. It was time for a taste test. Along with a handful of lovely female assistants, including Serious Eats blogger (and photographer for this taste test) Erin Zimmer, I got to work heating up the eight Bagel-fuls that had been sent my way.
I provided my readers with a sneak peek at the Bagel-ful packaging in my last post, but wanted to give you all a look at the cinnamon version, which is billed as, “Cinnamon & Brown Sugar bagels filled with cinnamon cream cheese.”
“Raisins anyone? Oh wait, no raisins, I’m just a cinnamon bagel. Weird”
So what about our thoughts on the product?
The flavor of the plain bagel was surprisingly decent. While it doesn’t compare to a fresh bagel, it has the texture of a decent to above-average frozen or off-the-shelf bagel. The biggest flaw seems to be the cream cheese. For starters, there was not as much cream cheese filling as I would like. The cream cheese does, in fact, maintain its cool temperature even after being toasted, but its texture is not as creamy as I would like it to be, it was more mushy/crumbly like some sort of blue cheese/cottage cheese hybrid.
“If you look really closely, you might see a small cluster of cream cheese inside me. Also, aren’t these leaves a festive touch?”
Both Erin and I agreed that the plain was a little better than we expected, but the cinnamon wasn’t anything special.
We decided it would also be important to heat up the Bagel-fuls with various heating methods: regular toaster, toaster oven, microwave and also eat one cold from the refrigerator. As far as heating method goes, my first piece of advice is make sure these get very well cooked. If they are undercooked, they will taste chewy and gross, and won’t have a good crust. Erin and I found that the Bagel-fuls were best when cooked in a regular toaster and pretty good (although not perfectly cooked) in a toaster oven. The microwave version was a little too plastic, and when Bagel-fuls are eaten cold, the taste of preservatives is more noticeable.
Here are a few comments from some of my co-workers who tried the Bagel-fuls:
“Tastes good, not like a normal, fresh bagel…but it doesn’t taste old or gross”
“The cream cheese wasn’t as rich and creamy as fresh phili cream cheese”
“They were actually tastier than I expected (I was expecting a chemically taste and for the filling to be void of flavor)”
“Simple/Quick alternative, less bread/carbs than a regular-sized bagel”
“Cream cheese had somewhat of a cottage cheesy like texture but I enjoyed the cinnamon flavor”
“They look like corn dogs for vegetarians”
“After taste of cinnamon is equivalent to a bad tic tac”
Thanks to Erin Zimmer for her photography, heating & reviewing assistance, and thanks to Kraft Foods for providing me with these samples.
Stumble it!
24 responses so far ↓
1 Nora // Mar 11, 2008 at 3:20 pm
I stand by my original assessment: stoner food, and only stoner food.
Also, a HANDFUL of female assistants? I think YOU are the handful.
2 lemmonex // Mar 11, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Do you have to have a toaster with wide slots to fit the bagel in there? I am imagining myself cramming the bagel in my toaster, and then being unable to get it out…then setting the house on fire and having to tell the firemen I am too damn lazy to spread cream cheese on a bagel.
3 shatraw // Mar 12, 2008 at 2:02 am
eick, was getting free bagel-fuls worth doing kraft’s dirty work with the free plugging?
HOW CAN YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT?
and more importantly…
WHY WON’T ANYONE SEND ME FREE FOOD IN THE MAIL?
4 Theresa // Mar 13, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Call me a purist, but your review notwithstanding, I would have to be starving to even try one of these. To say they sound gross is an understatement. If I’m going to eat a bagel, I want it to be fresh, untoasted and with a schmear of REAL cream cheese, not some nasty crumbly shiat.
5 Bagel with cream cheese made even easier « brunch and the city // Mar 15, 2008 at 11:45 pm
6 seriouseats.com - How popular is seriouseats.com? (://URLFAN) // Mar 17, 2008 at 11:55 pm
7 Abi // Mar 18, 2008 at 12:28 am
I just bought 5 different Lunchables (photographic evidence: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonesabi/2335662766/>http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonesabi/2335662766/) and I am not compelled to try those. Bravo.
8 Nostical // Mar 21, 2008 at 12:06 pm
I tried them prepared all three ways and I was amazed a t how good they were. Contrary to the taste test by Jon, the cream cheese was smooth. They tasted awesome and will be great on the go.
More importantly, my kids loved them and wanted to know where they were when we ran out. I can’t wait to be able to get them locally.
9 momoftwo // Mar 23, 2008 at 2:30 pm
I love these they aren’t very good in the toaster, but they are excellent in the microwave for 30 seconds.
10 PimpStyle 2000 Advanced Messaging System // Apr 18, 2008 at 1:30 am
11 Anna // May 2, 2008 at 8:52 am
I really like the Chive flavor from the toaster. These are a nice alternative and fairly healthy too with only 200 calories and 5 grams of fat these are just right for breakfast.
12 FRAN // May 8, 2008 at 9:30 pm
I LOVE THESE THINGS CAME HOME LATE FROM WORK AND STOPPED AT WALMART FOR JUST THESE ..CANNOT STOP EATING THEM
13 JEY // May 11, 2008 at 9:12 pm
THERE REAL GOOD. I HIGHLY RECOMEND THEM. THIS REVIEW IS JUST REAL PICKY.
14 ME // May 12, 2008 at 4:34 pm
So glad they didn’t put raisin’s on the cinnamon version. Yeah!
15 Pancakes and Sausage on a Stick! | So Good // May 12, 2008 at 10:10 pm
[...] Good got pretty obsessed with our coverage of the Kraft Bagelfuls, but Culinary Couture reminds of us of just one of the many other weird food [...]
16 Theresa // May 15, 2008 at 11:56 am
What is wrong with you people. These are great! Ate mine up (which I bought and didn’t get for free) in a few days……kind of dangerous really. I got the plain, which was the only one available at the store. Can’t wait to try the others. The dough is fresh and tastes good, the cream cheese is good, could be a little more and I heated mine up for 15 secs in the microwave. Good job Kraft! If you want to eat an unhealthy fattening bagel with your own gobs of cream cheese, compare the calories and this is a better choice and on the go.
17 Sapphrina // May 20, 2008 at 12:01 pm
I came, I tried, I LOVE it!! They are very tasty and I can’t wait to try the other flavors as I only tried the original. Only thing is, I heated mine up for 30 seconds instead of 15 so that they are not cold in the middle at all. I know, if I had used a real bagel, toasted it and then spread the cream cheese on it, the cheese would have been cold…but I liked it all heated up and then waited about 1-2 minutes to let it cool abit and wham! it was great!!!
Sapph
18 Sapphrina // May 20, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Oh, I microwaved mine instead of toasting…
19 Jessica // May 20, 2008 at 1:53 pm
These were kinda nasty, reminded me of a rubber band with goo coming out. On my cinnamon flavored ones they were so dark in color that they looked burned!!!
20 izzybella // May 21, 2008 at 10:01 am
I let mine thaw and then cooked them for 12 seconds in the microwave. The cream cheese was really smooth and it tasted really good. Maybe the key is letting them thaw first and then heating them.
21 melanie // May 22, 2008 at 10:30 pm
these are DELICIOUS! i keep them in the fridge and put them through 2 short cycles in my toaster (turning over between the 2 cycles). i tried the strawberry and it was gross. didn’t care much for the plain ones, either- but the cinnamon ones are absolutely delicious. i eat one pretty much every morning.
22 HR // May 23, 2008 at 11:59 pm
Have tried the original and love them! I keep them in the fridge and then put them in the microwave for about 10 or 15 seconds and they’re great. Nice neat snack. Will try the cinnamon next.
23 Mark P // Jun 7, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Really Kraft?
Are we soooooooooo lazy that we can’t even handle buying bagels and cream cheese seperatly? Then putting the two together once you want the two?
24 ann // Jun 16, 2008 at 1:18 pm
The original are pretty good actually. They have a lot of cream cheese in them. I feel bad for liking them, but they aren’t bad. Around here we can’t get good bagels anyway (they are more bread then bagel) , so I usually eat frozen because at least they are chewy so I can’t notice much of a difference. If you had truly great bagels I could see how you wouldn’t like these. I also had no problem with the cream cheese inside. Not chalky at all.
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