Iowans Choose This Type of Bagel Over the Rest of the US

It's pretty serendipitous that a week after Big Apple Bagels' "Stocktober Fest" helped raise money for people in need all throughout the Tri-States, the website Shane Co. published a comprehensive survey examining how each state likes their bagels.

This massive survey consisted of just over 3,000 Americans to determine how the bulk of people from each of the 50 states takes the popular staple for their breakfast and/or lunch. The most popular response is the one that was named for every state. The only states omitted failed to produce enough data, which were: Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming, respectively.

Personally, I enjoy my bagels with eggs, sausage, and cheese, which are uniformly popular toppings according to this recent survey. 65% of the 3,000 Americans surveyed wanted eggs on their bagels: 57.5% wanted bacon, 45.8% wanted cheese, and 39.8% wanted sausage. Interesting note: 7.7% wanted capers (edible flower buds) and 2.6% actually enjoy radishes on theirs.

Overwhelmingly, most people prefer everything bagels (and I'm not talking about the one featured in Everything Everywhere All at Once). The toppings, however, do vary. In Illinois, people generally take their everything bagel with garden veggies (the only state where that's a preference), bacon, egg, and cheese. In Wisconsin, people like them with no cream cheese; just bacon, egg, and cheese.

Now, Iowa is where we see a bit of a curveball...

Iowans prefer asiago cheese bagels more than they do other varieties, such as everything, plain, cinnamon raisin, etc. Furthermore, Iowans generally like cream cheese on their bagels. No other toppings necessary.

To some degree, there's truth in Midwesterners being the salt of the Earth and enjoying the bare necessities of everyday living. But it almost sounds like a bagel with cream cheese is too simple for people in this state.

It's also worth noting that the avocado craze that's taken over the United States doesn't appear to be slowing down. Avocado is the most popular fruit or vegetable topping on bagels over all; one out of every three respondents deem it their favorite bagel topping. Apparently, it goes with the seasoning very well.

Iowans can take pride in the fact that our bagel preference goes again the grain of all other states.

View the full results of the survey on Shane Co's website!