Pop Goes the Bagel

Why do restaurants feel the need to take something that's perfect and try to make it better?

Bagels are a great example. They are a divine creation and nothing is wrong with them. Baked right and topped off with a satisfying cream cheese there is nothing like a fresh made bagel.

So why change it?

Einstein Brothers Bagels didn't think plain old bagels were good enough so they went ahead and invented Bagel Poppers, which are a cheap rip off of Dunkin Donuts Munchkins.

The poppers are basically tiny little bagel balls. The featured flavor, Pumpkin, has a coating of pumpkin icing on top of the popper to add a little extra sweet flavor.

In the spirit of trying everything Pumpkin, the last time I was at Einsteins, I ordered up some Pumpkin Bagel Poppers. Much to my surprise, they were served in a plastic cup with a lid, all stacked on top of one another.

The icing was good, but it was extremely messy.....it was all over my fingers, hands, face and clothes because I had to dig in the cup to get the little frosting covered popper. The other problem was that the popper was chewy like a bagel. Therefore, eating it was not a pleasant experience because you're holding on to the popper with your hand and it's slipping all over the place because of the icing.

A price point of $3 for some bagel balls in a cup also seemed a little excessive. At most bagel shops you can get an entire bagel and cream cheese for about $2.

Here's the deal. Einsteins serves awesome bagels, they don't need to take the left over dough and turn them into little bagel bits. What they should have done was just offer pumpkin bagels with that rich pumpkin icing on the side......now that would have been sweet.