Bagels are one of the most popular go-to street food in New York and many other surrounding states. Fresh bagels can be found from every street cart in the state to delis, grocery stores, bakeries, coffee houses, and small cafes. Their popularity is attributed to them being cheap, filling, delicious, and customizable with one’s favorite toppings. Various toppings can make bagels even more delicious, from cream cheese, bananas, and blueberries to ham slices and scrambled eggs.
But Bantam Bagels takes the convenience and flavors of bagels a little further. Bantam Bagels is a bagels company that exclusively creates and sells frozen stuffed mini bagel balls. They make mini bagel balls with various stuffing and flavor combinations, even more than one can find in delis and street carts.
Bantam Bagels frozen bagel balls are sold in sealed boxes, making them greatly convenient. The sealed packages retain the freshness of the bagel balls and make them easier to carry and store at home.
Bantam Bagels was founded in the Fall of 2013. Their frozen stuffed bagel balls had gained considerable popularity within the first year, landing them on Oprah’s Favorite Things List in 2014. The founders made their appearance on Shark Tank shortly afterward, in the fall of 2014. Since then, the company has continued to grow. They have released many new flavors, introduced two new product lines, and added many stores to their list of stockists.
The Shark Tank pitch for Bantam Bagels was as quick as it takes to prepare them! Their product had already proved worth investing in, so it did not take much for investors to make their offers to make it bigger, better, and available for everyone to enjoy. The founders of Bantam Bagels worked on Wall Street before becoming entrepreneurs, so their skills in marketing and selling also helped them during the pitch. Since the Shark Tank’s success, the company has added mini-stuffed pizza balls and mini-stuffed pancake balls to its product lines.
Our Review of Bantam Bagels
We find Bantam Bagels exciting for their wide range of flavors for their bagel balls. Besides plain and everything bagel balls stuffed with classic flavor combinations, they also offer onion bagel balls, pretzel bagel balls, and others that can be anyone’s new favorite. Moreover, their pizza and pancake balls product lines are also available in classic flavor combinations that make it a no-brainer to stock at home for a quick snack or meal.
While their bagel balls require defrosting overnight, the pizza and pancake balls can be popped into ovens straight out of the freezer, making these products even more convenient.
Bantam Bagels was sold in 2018 to Lancaster Colony Food Company for $34 million. Now Lancaster seems to be abandoning the business after a bad year. I wonder if somehow it will end up back in the hands of the original owners who appeared on Shark Tank. I sure hope so…
Pros of Bantam Bagels
The advantages that contribute to the popularity of Bantam Bagels are:
- Consumers don’t have to leave their homes first thing in the morning to enjoy bagels or pancakes for breakfast. It also allows consumers to enjoy late-night fresh pizza balls at home.
- They reduce food waste. Bagels, pancakes, and pizza become stale and stiff after a few hours, making them unpleasant to eat. But with deliciously fresh balls of pizza, bagels, or pancakes, food wastage can be easily minimized.
- They come in a wide variety of flavors, including 12 for bagel balls, 4 for pancake balls, and 4 for pizza balls.
- Consumers can also try cooked and ready-to-eat Bantam Bagel bagel balls at any Starbucks café across the United States.
- Bantam Bagel products can be easily ordered through the company’s official website or found in stores across the US.
Cons of Bantam Bagels
While Bantam Bagels are a great convenient product, they do have some disadvantages. These disadvantages are:
- They are not suitable for vegan diets
- They don’t make gluten-free options
- All their bagel balls are produced in the same facility; therefore,consumers allergic to even one ingredient must avoid the brand altogether
- While they increase the availability of bagel balls, they do require preparation which might drive certain consumers away
Who is Bantam Bagels for?
Bantam Bagels is for everyone who wants to enjoy fresh NY-style bagels anytime without stepping out of their homes. While they are a great convenient product for residents in New York, they are also a means for residents of other 51 states to enjoy authentic NY-style bagels whenever they want.
Bantam Bagels is also a convenient product for consumers who cannot spend much time preparing breakfast or lunch. Defrosted Bantam Bagels can be popped into an oven or microwave within a minute and ready to eat within 5-7 minutes. The freshly baked bagels make excellent on-the-go breakfast or lunch options.
Their pancakes and pizza balls with classic flavor stuffing can also be enjoyed by young or old for breakfast, brunch, quick lunch, or a midday snack.
Are There Any Alternatives?
There aren’t many competitors of Bantam Bagels. However, Bagel Bits and Bagel Dots are two companies that manufacture products like Bantam Bagels. But out of these two companies, only Bagel Dots can be considered an alternative to Bantam Bagels.
Bagel Dots also offers frozen bagel balls with stuffing. Like Bantam Bagels, they can be found in grocery stores throughout the US in freshly cooked in partner restaurants and cafes. However, Bagel Dots only offers 5 flavors of bagel balls and no other product line.
However, Bagel Dots bagel balls contain considerably fewer calories per bagel ball as compared to Bantam Bagels. Therefore, they make a healthier alternative for the available flavors.
Our Final Thoughts
Bantam Bagels are a delicious and convenient way to enjoy the classic NY-style bagel taste, no matter where one lives in the US. While they require preparation, the frozen bagel balls greatly reduce the chances of consumers ending up with stale and inedible products. The pizza and pancake balls are also convenient and quick snacks.
Overall, Bantam Bagel products can be useful for working parents’ families, single-parent families, individuals with solo and busy lifestyles, and homebodies who don’t like stepping out but don’t like cooking. Though Bantam Bagels doesn’t cater to consumers with specific diets or dietary restrictions, consumers who can enjoy it can find Bantam Bagels products favorable.
