Monday, November 14, 2011

Bagel Bagel's Dakim Dakim Cheddar Cheese Flavored Thin Pretzels

So it didn’t take long for Bagel Bagel to get on the "flat pretzel band wagon" that Osem started with their "Shtuchim" and Meir Bagel continued with their "Shtuchaleh". But Bagel Bagel took it to the next level and they put out four different flavored flat pretzels that they're calling "Dakim Dakim". Dak means thin so Dakim Dakim basically means ultra thin. The four flavors are Cheddar Cheese, Sea Salt, Sour-cream 'n Onion and Seeds 'n Garlic (poppy seeds & sesame seeds)



בייגל בייגל דקים דקים גבינת צדר
Just last week I was craving cheese flavored crackers (like cheez-it). From time to time I can find them here in select convenience store and mini markets (that have a large selection of imported items) but I haven’t seen cheese flavored crackers in a while, so I settled for cheese doodles and cheese flavored pretzel bits. But it made me wonder why no Israeli cracker companies have tried to copy the cheese flavored crackers or cheese flavored pretzels. Then a few days later I found Bagel Bagel's cheddar cheese flat pretzels. I couldn’t help but laugh to myself as I added them to my shopping cart.

These Bagel Bagel flat pretzels are shaped in a classic "knot-like pretzel loop" whereas the Osem and Meir Bagel ones are a round circle.

The first thing that hit me about Bagel Bagel's Cheddar Cheese flavored flat pretzels was how salty they were. Yes I like salty pretzels and all cheddar cheese flavored snacks are salty but somehow compared to cheese doodles or the Snyder's cheddar cheese pretzel pieces these Bagel Bagel ones seemed way more salty. If I am not mistaken Bagel Bagel actually added salt to them aside from the cheddar cheese flavor. That made them too salty for me. I couldn't eat more than one or two of them at a time.

The pretzels seem to have a little "kick" to them. I think I picked up on a touch of chili flavor but they aren't really "hot 'n spicy".
Snyder's
My biggest issue with these Bagel Bagel pretzels is that they are non-dairy so they cannot be made with real cheddar cheese or milk of any sort. That was clear to me once I tasted them. To me they in no way resemble or can replace cheese doodles, Snyder's cheddar cheese pretzel pieces or the cheese flavored crackers I was talking about before.

Another thing that bothered me about these pretzels was that I didn't think the cheddar cheese flavor was "integrated" properly or completely with the pretzel. It was as if the flavor was an "afterthought" and not "baked into" the pretzel the way it seems to be with the Snyder's ones.

I know all cheddar cheese flavored snacks leave a lot of "orange residue" on your fingers but these Bagel Bagel pretzels seem to leave way more of the orange powder than usual. I didn’t like that either.

And now for those of you who may get a kick out of the commercial for these pretzels here it is... (you can read a translation and interesting statistics on Rachel Neiman's post over at Israel1ty blog)


Bottom Line: Compared to other cheddar cheese flavored snacks I was disappointed with these Bagel Bagel pretzels. I really wanted to like them but for many reasons they just didn’t live up to what I was expecting. Still they weren’t awful, if you like really salty, somewhat cheese flavored snacks you may enjoy these. I just think they need a lot of improvement for me to buy them again.

300 gram bag 9.90 NIS
I saw some of the other flavors in a small 60 gram bag as well - 2.49 NIS

Kosher Parve Badatz

Disclaimer: All items were purchased by me. No one is paying me for this review. All opinions are my own.

9 comments:

  1. I just bought a couple small bags of these this morning. I got the cheese one and the salt one. I was actually looking for a hot pepper flavor but didnt see any. Havent tried it yet.

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  2. Cool you bought them:) there is no hot pepper one but the cheese one seems to have some hot pepper in it too.
    I didn't find a small bag of the cheese one the only ones they had in small where I check was the salt and sour cream and onion.

    Enjoy

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  3. I gotta say that the "parve" thing would be a plus in my book cuz I think most "flavored" chips tend to be mostly artificial anyways and I'm always excited for variety of chips etc after I ate meat and can't eat milk products for a few hours, but I do hear ur point.

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  4. Yup I agree it is often hard to find good Parve chip like treats in interesting flavors. So yes I see how them being non-dairy can be a big plus.I would be curious to what you think of these pretzels once you taste them, let me know if you taste them what you think.

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  5. These are actually my favorite snack right now. The cheddar ones.

    It's not because I love cheddar cheese - I don't. I don't even recall particularly enjoying any cheese flavored snacks, here or abroad.

    In a blind taste test I'd have no idea these are cheddar. I'd answer salty, delicious, and addictive, which is exactly why I love them... and now I'm craving scorching my tongue with these again.

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    Replies
    1. Cool! So happy you are enjoying them so much. Thanks for your review, I always appreciate hearing other peoples opinions on products I tried:)

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  6. Daniela I also crave, crave! some good cheese and other flavored pretzels. This market in Israel is still wide open, I dont know why. I almost thought of writing a thank you letter when finally bagel bagel had the guts to venture outside of the three flavours here - salty, sesame and plain. Im hoping they catch on just so the other two venture out with new tastes for pretzels as well. Its the same with chips, barbeque or pizza or fallafel and onion tastes and thats about as far as they take it, dont know why.
    Im sure theres a huge market for cheese and spicy hot tastes and so on.
    As for these pretzels - I was so excited to get these and found they were a little lacking in "cheese" taste which Id love to be more dominant. They werent so salty to me. likes the bigger shapes. overall thumbs up!!
    ps. also like meir beigel's regular, from all three.
    Guy

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  7. I gave them another try.
    This time I had another issue which is the residue they leave on the fingers. After 4-5 crackers my fingers were already a deep orange. while I can recommend them for someone who likes a natural fake tan for a substitute, it feels kind of unclean to eat them and you need to wash hands after just a few.

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    Replies
    1. Yes the residue bothered me too.

      "while I can recommend them for someone who likes a natural fake tan for a substitute"
      Hahah here in HOT SUNNY Israel I am not sure there is much need for fake tans especially in the summer, but I totally agree and understand what you are saying:) Thanks for the chuckle :)

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