The Seattle jalapeño cheddar bagel jamboree: Bloom Bistro
Seattle’s dedication to the jalapeño-cheddared arts is something to behold
Welcome to It’s A Shanda, one Northeastern Jew’s quest to find a decent bagel in Seattle (and beyond). Along with free bagel reviews every Sunday-ish, we also offer bonus posts each week. If you’re already subscribed, I hope you’ll consider upgrading to a paid subscription! Thank you for reading.
Welcome back to The Seattle Jalapeño Cheddar Bagel Jamboree. You can read the previous entries here, here, here, here, here, and here. Full rankings can be found at the bottom of the post.
As far as I can tell, I’m almost done finding every jalapeño cheddar bagel in Seattle. We’ve had some highs. We’ve had some lows. We’ve learned. We’ve lived. We’ve loved.
One of the few remaining JCBs I’ve really been wanting to check out is the Bloom Bistro one. Marisa Figueroa’s shop usually only makes them on the weekend, and they can go quickly. So I made sure to swing by early on a Saturday morning to suss out some spicy bagels. Sure enough, they had them in the case.
As a reminder, while my general bagel rankings are based on whims and vibes, I’m handing out actual scores in the jalapeño cheddar rankings. Each bagel will get a score from 1-5 on Bagel Quality, Jalapeño Factor, Cheesiness, Middle, and Overall Experience, as well as an Intangibles bonus (which can add or remove points to the overall score). I’ll add all those points for a Total Score out of 25.
Initial Thoughts
The jalapeño cheddar bagels at Bloom Bistro have a unique look thanks to a twirling pepper placement method. The jalapeño strings almost look like they’ve been painted on. At first glance, it seems the cheese placement is a light touch, so I’m intrigued to find out how much flavor comes from that. As for the bagel itself, it looks like a classic BB offering.
Bagel Quality
One of the reasons I’ve been anticipating this one is because Bloom has one of the chewiest bagels in Seattle, and that tends to be a great canvas for a JCB. As for my bagel, it was a good size, featured nice golden coloring, and had a small center. It was very blistery all the way around. The top was incredibly crispy and crinkly thanks to the cheese and a little oily to the touch as you’d expect. The bottom had a nice dark ring covering most of it and was firm but crinkly.
The bite was soft but had some heft, creating a full rebound after each bite. Chewy but not airy, the bagel maintained its integrity throughout. Jalapeño and cheddar aside, this was a very enjoyable bagel to eat.
Score: 4.5 out of 5
Jalapeño Factor
As mentioned, Bloom goes with a distinctive JCB look with thin twirls of pepper strewn all over the bagel. There are also some full slices to be found along the edges. I counted 9 pepper placements, a solid amount to ensure you get something in each bite.
The jalapeños weren’t too spicy, though the heat did start to build the more I ate. I did get plenty of good pepper flavor, even if they weren’t too fiery.
Score: 3.5 out of 5
Cheesiness
The cheese was a deceptively thin layer that ran across the entire top of the bagel and even covered most of the edges, curling out into several crispy nubs. The cheese even made its way into the middle for full coverage. There were also bursts of cheese along the bottom, including a little but jutting out of the center.
The flavor started subtle but built up as I kept chewing. Even when overpowered by a pepper at first, the cheesiness would reveal itself afterward. It wasn’t a cheese that punched me in the mouth. Instead, it was very consistent. You don’t always get a breadth of cheese coverage like that from a JCB so it’s always appreciated.
Score: 4 out of 5
Middle
Whereas the cheese was crispier on the edges of the bagel, the cheddar inside the center was a little chewy. Coupled with the softer bagel, it made for a delightfully doughy, cheesy bite. There was also that burst of cheese towards the bottom of the center to provide a little flavor there as well. Had a jalapeños strand snuck in there it might have been perfect but now I’m getting greedy.
Score: 3.5 out of 5
Overall Experience
If you’re not a heatseeker but enjoy the flavors of a jalapeños cheddar bagel, this might be the ideal version for you. The flavors were consistent throughout. The exterior was crispy and cheesy while the interior was chewy. It was a very balanced sensation experience and a thoroughly enjoyable bagel to eat. I devoured the whole thing.
Score: 4.5 out of 5
Intangibles
I think the whole jalapeño swirl look is really striking and makes this bagel visually appealing and stand out from the crowd. That’s deserving of a bonus point.
Bonus points: 1
Final Score
With a total score of 21.0, the Bloom Bistro JCB moves into second place on the Seattle Jalapeño Cheddar Bagel Jamboree Rankings. Honestly, I don’t think you can go wrong with any of the Top 4. But I’m glad this one lived up to my expectations and my appreciation for Seattle’s dedication to the jalapeño-cheddared arts keeps growing.
Seattle Jalapeño Cheddar Bagel Jamboree Rankings (1/26)
Little Rachel’s (22.5)
Bloom Bistro (21.0)
Backyard Bagel (20.5)
Loxsmith Bagels (20)
Cafe Argento/Safeway (15.5)
Rubinstein Bagels (14)
Westman’s (6.5)
Einstein Bros. (6)
Blazing Bagels (5.5)
Bagelbop (4)
Thanks for actually reading this far. If you enjoyed my bagel review and want to read more of them, make sure you’re subscribed to It’s A Shanda. Know someone in the Greater Seattle Area (or beyond) who would appreciate way-too-detailed reviews of local bagels? Please forward the link their way.
Stacked!