The Bagelrrito That Wouldn’t Die

For those who have been following our bagelrrito references in this space the past two weeks, an update:

The salsa-filled bagel developed by a team at the University of California, Davis, went away prizeless from the Institute of Food Technologists’ Student Product Development Competition recently in New Orleans. Indeed, news reports said the judges found the mutant bagel (which made it to the contest’s final 6) to have “a musty” flavor. There was also talk of soggy dough. While the bagel purists among us are relieved that the bagelrrito has been stopped, at least temporarily, we admit that we were secretly rooting for the cutely named invention.

By the way, the winner, for the second year in a row, was the team from New York’s Cornell University. The invention: Stir-Ins, chocolate-covered cookie sticks that not only mix in the cream, but flavor your morning joe. The idea doesn’t seem so novel to us--many coffeehouses and restaurants serve cookie sticks with coffee, and Japanese supermarkets have sold chocolate-covered Pocky sticks for years (note the cute name). But the Cornell team’s entry was impressive enough to interest scouts from Starbucks. As long as they stay away from chocolate-covered bagels.