Coffee Bagel

Ever eat a bagel for breakfast? Well, in this country a lot of people do. I like them once in a while with jam or plain butter or just cream cheese spread on top. A good bagel should be boiled and then baked for that chewy texture that distinguishes bagels from an ordinary bread. Some people are snobby about bagels. They refuse grocery store bagels, any bagel really that is not from a delicatessen or a bagel shop that makes their own bagels. I have some shocking news for them.

I just learned that there is a coffee bagel. It's the Expresso Buzz Bagel made by bagel king, Einstein Bagels. It contains 32 milligrams of caffeine, about a third of what you’ll find in the average cup of coffee. The Expresso Buzz is made with espresso, coffee-cherry flour, and protein derived from cocoa. That sounds like it may taste a bit too much coffee for me. I like coffee with my morning bagel, but not necessarily in the bagel. 

I should wait to try it before judging, but the problem for me is that the best bagels for my taste are the plain ones. That would be the bread product originating in the Jewish communities of Poland, traditionally shaped by hand into the form of a ring from yeasted wheat dough, roughly hand-sized, that is first boiled for a short time in water and then baked. The originators of the bagel didn't flavor them like bakers do today.

Real bagels stay fresher longer than ordinary breads because the boiling gives it an outer sheen and a crunchy, protective crust. Even when it gets a little stale, you can dunk it in coffee or whatever you are drinking to bring it back to life. But bagel snobs don't ant any of that. They won't have any of the endless flavors of bagels either. I tend to agree with the latter. I will never understand, for example, why someone would want a jalapeno bagel. I suspect no Jewish deli today would let that in their store. When I buy bagels from a grocery store I look at the containers with so many flavors- blueberry, cheese, cinnamon raisin and on and on. But I always buy a plain white flour bagel. The trendy food police bagels made with quinoa, spelt or any of the other "healthy" grains never get eaten by me.

Well, that decides it for me. I will skip coffee bagels and all the grains and flavored ones. I'll have a plain bagel with butter for breakfast tomorrow morning. shalom!