Thanks, Panera!

Last Thursday, I was out and about, trying to run a bunch of errands on my rare day off, when I realized that I was insatiably thirsty and hadn't actually had any fruit or vegetables all day. Nice. So, I decided to go to a nearby Panera to try one of their "real fruit" smoothies. That counts as fruit, right?

While waiting for my drink, I notice a sign for the new cherry vanilla bagel, and since I'm always thinking of new food combinations, I asked the very fine looking guy at the register if he had tried it. I thought it sounded good, but I was having a hard time envisioning those flavors in a bagel.  He had tried it, but felt the same way, that it was an odd flavor for a bagel. (Insert our conversation about how great cinnamon crunch and asiago cheese bagels are). "Do you want to try a cherry vanilla bagel?" he asked. I just looked at him with "do-I-have-to-pay-for-it?" plastered all over my face. "I'll let you try it," he said. And of course, I let him give me a free bagel--toasted.

So, here's my review of the cherry vanilla bagel, which boasts that it's "flavored with cherry chips, dried cherries and cranberries, vanilla, honey and brown sugar": It's just okay. It smelled divine, like homemade cake, but I think the flavors would go better in a muffin or something that's lighter than a bagel. I couldn't decide if it needed to be more sweet or if it was too sweet, which I realize sounds like a paradox, but I'm pretty sure cream cheese would have solved whatever flavor problem there was  (I didn't want to push my luck by asking for free cream cheese). Bottom line: I was glad the bagel was free. After all, it's hard to top the cinnamon crunch and asiago cheese bagels.

P.S. I just learned that the cherry vanilla bagel is the "Pink Ribbon Bagel" honoring breast cancer. While that information doesn't make the bagel taste any better, I love that Panera is joining the cause in their own way.