A Ranking of Every Variety of Thomas' Bagels

Apparently, the Thomas' brand was able to change National Bagel Day from February 9 (which was shared with National Pizza Day) to today. To help celebrate the occasion, they sent me (almost) every bagel they make so that I could try them all and put together a Thomas' brand bagels ranking. So without further ado, here's what I thought:

6. 100% Whole Wheat - I'm not a fan of the taste of whole wheat and it also causes the bagel to feel more like sliced bread and less like a bagel. They also sent the mini version of these and across the board, I would put the mini bagels just slightly below their full-sized counterparts as the smaller size resulted in less of that dense, soft chewy crumb. Plus, the mini ones dry out a little when you toast them.

5. Cinnamon Raisin - The cinnamon and raisin flavor is a bit light on this one although some bites are a good deal more intense than others.

4. Plain - These felt the most bagel-like in texture with a perfect balance between crunch and warm, soft chewiness out of the toaster but they almost have no flavor. Still, the lack makes for a nice blank canvas and lets you go either sweet or savory with your cream cheese or other fillings. Plain is the only flavor that comes in three varieties: mini, regular, and Nooks and Crannies. Nooks and Crannies are my favorite of the three and feature an airier crumb (with nooks and crannies somewhat like the brand's English muffins) that still compacts and chews like a bagel when you bite into it. It's very interesting but is also huge enough to use as a bun for a one-pound hamburger patty.

3. Everything - These tasted mostly like garlic and sesame with poppy seeds for added texture. They're great for making cheese and meat sandwiches.

2. Onion - Like the Everything bagels, these are ideal for making sandwiches. I liked Onion better because it wasn't as busy as Everything.

1. Blueberry - I really like blueberry muffins and pancakes so it stands to reason that I really like blueberry bagels as well as these were no exception. I especially liked that the flavor stronger and sweeter than in the Cinnamon Raisin bagels.

If you're wondering how my ranking play out versus actual Thomas' bagel sales, the brand's top five most popular bagel flavors nationwide are the full-size versions of Plain, Everything, Cinnamon Raisin, Blueberry, and 100% Whole Wheat.

In case you like bagel fun facts, here are a few courtesy of Thomas':

- Top five cities for grocery store bagel consumption: Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Boston, and Baltimore/Washington D.C.

- The 10 most popular bagel toppings nationwide are cream cheese, butter, flavored cream cheese, cheese, jelly/jam, eggs, deli meat, margarine, peanut butter or other nut butter, and bacon.

- Why is there a hole in the middle of bagels? In the past, vendors threaded the hole-shaped bread onto dowels and hawked them on street corners.

- In Germany, variations of the word bagel are: beigel, meaning ring, and bugel, meaning bracelet.

- Bagels are the only bread that is boiled before it’s baked.

- In the early 1900s, bagel makers worked in teams of four. Two people would make the dough and shape the bagels, one boiled the bagels, and the fourth baked them.

Photos by BrandEating.com.