In honor of National Bagel Day, Feb. 9, Bruegger's Bagels announced in a release the results of its Facebook and e-mail survey of approximately 75,000 fans. The survey was to track how often consumers eat a bagel during the week. Five percent of the respondents said they eat them daily.
In the category of favorite bagel flavor:
- The everything bagel won with 22.8 percent of the votes.
- Nearly 13 percent (12.5 percent) chose cinnamon-raisin.
- About 10.8 percent of respondents liked sesame bagels.
- Meanwhile, Bruegger's Asiago Parmesan bagel was a write-in favorite followed by whole wheat and rosemary olive oil bagels.
In the category of favorite bagel topping:
- Twenty one percent of respondents prefer plain cream cheese.
- Honey walnut cream cheese was chosen by 13.8 percent of respondents.
- Twelve percent chose butter.
- Peanut butter and jalapeno cream cheese were write-in favorites.
In 1983, when Bruegger's was founded, bagels were a northeast regional favorite. Today, Bruegger's sells bagels in 291 locations across 25 states.
"Bagels have become an American tradition loved by generations of families," said James Greco, Bruegger's CEO. "We pride ourselves on making the most authentic bagels available, and are pleased to share the centuries-old, time-tested tradition with our guests."
In 2009, Bruegger's sold 87 million bagels. Topping all those bagels was more than 2.5 million pounds of cream cheese. Bruegger's also is credited with creating the world's largest bagel on August 27, 2004. The oversized bagel weighed 868 pounds and required 1,100 pounds of dough, 900 gallons of water and a bake time of 10 hours.
