I have a long history with Trader Joe’s bagels. When I first started shopping at Trader Joe’s after the birth of my first son, we ate a lot of bread and bagels. Back in those days, there wasn’t a lot of Gluten Free options but Trader Joe’s did always have good bagels. Not the soft mushy type of bagels you buy at regular supermarkets. They had 4 or 5 different styles. Plain, Sesame, Poppy, Everything, and Whole Wheat.
As the years have gone on, Trader Joe’s has cut out just about every bagel except plain and everything. My kids lived on the Whole Wheat bagels for many years. Now we have a few different types of Gluten Free bagels. Probably the most popular is the Everything bagels. If you’ve read this blog very much, you know that I don’t go gluten free, but I like to review these products because I know so many readers are gluten free and Trader Joe’s was never one to let a good trend go unexploited!
These bagels come in an attractive bagel bag. You get four bagels per bag. They are about 100 grams each or about 230 calories. Obviously, these are sprinkled with Everything seasonings which has onions, garlic, sesame seeds and poppy seeds. You can smell the garlic the second you open the bag. They look like well made bagels but picking them up and giving them a light squeeze, you realize that these aren’t going to be the best bagel you ever had. They were a little soft when you squeezed them.
In my humble opinion a good bagel should have a good chew, but not too much. Should not be soft. The old Trader Joe’s wheat bagels were like this. These are not those. I’ve had worse bagels from Safeway. They are just like Wonder bread bagels. I could hardly call them a bagel except they are bagel shaped. But soft and mushy.
The Gluten Free Trader Joe’s bagels are somewhere in the middle. They have a touch of firmness to them with a nice crust, but they are hardly what I would call a bagel. Probably because of the high amount of rice flour, they can’t make these like traditional wheat bagels where you briefly boil them before you bake them. To test them out, I took one out. They are pre-cut down the middle which is always handy. Then toasted it and put butter on it.
I wanted to keep it simple so I could see what they were really like. I smelled the Everything seasoning wafting out from the toaster oven. I really liked that. They came out of the toasted with a nice brown toasty color to them. When I took a bite, they weren’t gummy like so many other Gluten Free bread products but as a decent slice of bread. Still not chewy like a real bagel but not too bad. Hard to taste any flavor here because the Everything seasoning overwhelmed the subtle bread flavors but that was to be expected. They weren’t half bad. I would rate them 6 Bells! If you are gluten free and want a bagel shaped piece of bread, these might be the ticket for you.
Nutrition
Serving Size 1 bagel
1 bagel = 99g
Amount Per Serving 230 Calories
Daily Value* 7% Total Fat 4.5g
Saturated Fat 0g
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 640mg
Total Carbohydrate 44g
Dietary Fiber 0.5g
Total Sugars 4g
Includes 3g Added Sugars
Protein 4g
Vitamin D 0mcg
Calcium 130mg
Iron 0.4mg
Potassium 94mg
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
43.5 Net Carbs Per Serving
Ingredients
Water, Tapioca starch, Brown rice flour, Potato starch, Sorghum flour, Everything Bagel topping blend (sesame seed, poppy seed, dehydrated onion), Cultured brown rice flour, Cane sugar, Expeller pressed canola oil, Contains 2% or less of dehydrated garlic, xanthan gum, dehydrated onion, egg white powder, baking powder (sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate, potato flour, monocalcium phosphate), yeast, sugar vinegar, sea salt, dough conditioner (brown rice flour, calcium sulfate, enzymes)
Contains Eggs
I have celiac disease and so I must eat gluten-free. It’s not an optional diet for me. But I am very glad when non-celiac people demand gluten-free because it adds to the demand and makes it possible for me to get better quality GF items. (You have no idea how hard to find and crappy GF foods were before the gluten-free diets became popular.)
So I am very glad you like these bagels and publish your approval because I really love them and without enough demand TJ will probably discontinue them, too.
I think Gluten Free products are here to stay for a while, but like any Trader Joe’s product, they could be gone tomorrow!
I have a gluten allergy so I have to do GF. But even if I weren’t, I would buy theTrader Joe’s GF almost everything bagel! These are the best bagels I’ve ever tasted! Before I had to do GF, and could eat gluten…. I had many bagels. They were hard and chewy … I compared them to dog treats. Ugh!
These are good toasted, but so delicious when they are pan toasted with a little butter. After I had them the first time, I went back and bought 7 more bags! I froze 6 bags. You never know when they will disappear and be gone forever.
Love TJs gf everything bagels, most satisfying gf “bread”-like product I have found. If you must eat gluten free, and know how horrible most gf bread really is,
These may satisfy that bread craving.
My wife and I are gluten free. We have in the past really enjoyed these bagels.
It seems this year (the precise time line is difficult to establish) that the bagels have become notably saltier, so much so that we have stopped buying them.
I wonder if Trader Joe’s has somehow changed the recipe to saltier ingredients.
Considering how fast these bagels get moldy, putting more salt in something slows down the mold quite a bit. But we also know that trader joe’s changes producers from time to time and maybe they changed the recipe.