Review: PopUp Bagels' Cheez-It Schmears Are More Creamy Than Cheesy

For a long time, you could only get a really good bagel in the bagel capital of the world, New York. While New York still reigns supreme as the home of iconic bagels thanks to New York's water and the signature New York-style bagel technique of boiling and baking, there is a new bagel franchise currently taking social media by storm, and it started in Connecticut. 

PopUp Bagels began during the pandemic in a home kitchen in Westport and has gone on to open popup and permanent bagel locations across New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Part of PopUp Bagels's charm, beyond its humble origin story, is that its piping hot bagels are meant to be ripped apart and dipped into one of its signature vats of butter or cream cheese. 

Perhaps because its roots are in social media where culinary trends and collaborations help food lovers connect with new eateries, PopUp Bagels routinely collaborates with both elevated and mainstream culinary ventures to add a little extra wonder to its cream cheeses and butters. Past collaborations have included Utz cheese ball cream cheese, Dominque Ansel escargot butter, and Old Bay crabby cream cheese. 

In celebration of the upcoming Super Bowl, PopUp Bagel is teaming up with everyone's favorite snack cracker, Cheez-It, for two limited edition smears to enjoy with its beloved bagels. We sampled the collaboration as soon as the schmears were available so we could bring you our official review ahead of game day. 

Bagels aren't necessarily the first food you think of when planning your Superbowl menu, but viral sensation PopUp Bagels and legendary snack company Cheez-It want to change that. Bagels pair exceptionally well with fried eggs and smoked salmon. Yet, those classic toppings only scratch the surface of what flavors are possible on a bagel. PopUp Bagels knows a thing or two about inventive game day bagel pairings, having rolled out an unexpected, yet masterful past collaboration with a highly popular Belgian white beer brand. The Blue Moon PopUp Bagel collab showcased a Blue Moon Beer Bagel with Valencia orange cream cheese.

For the 2025 Super Bowl, PopUp Bagels and Cheez-It have joined forces to marry the iconic cheese cracker with PopUp Bagels, to deliver two wholly original schmears. Cheez-Its have been a staple snack across households in America for over 100 years. An updated cracker with a whole new look even launched in 2022 to celebrate the centennial. So, it's fitting that Cheez-Its, an American icon, has been tasked with helping transform PopUp Bagels into a sought-after snack that honors America's favorite pastime. 

The new schmears collaborations are: PopUp Bagels x Cheez-It Buffalo Wing Butter, and PopUp Bagels x Cheez-It Original Schmear. They will be available for a limited time only. For Cheez-It novices, the Buffalo Wing Butter is a take on one of our top-ranked Cheez-It flavors, Buffalo Wing, which pays homage to the classic chicken wing sauce. The Original Schmear is an unctuous and salty Cheez-It-inspired cream cheese.

PopUp Bagels won the hearts of food lovers on the internet by appearing in different hot spots along the East Coast, like a boutique hotel in Palm Beach, Florida, and in a town square in Amagansett on the East End of Long Island during holiday weekends to bring its bagels to new audiences. One of the wonders of the popup concept, which PopUp Bagels continues to honor even now that it has franchised and has permanent storefronts across several states, is that it celebrates culinary experimentation. For PopUp Bagels, this translates into splashy collabs and surprising flavor pairings that are possible because of how limited the run is. 

The PopUp Bagels X Cheez-It collab featuring two Cheez-It-inspired schmears is exclusively available from Wednesday, February 5th, 2025 to Tuesday. February 11th, 2025. As with all PopUp Bagel offerings, you have three options when it comes to ordering. Unlike traditional bagel storefronts, PopUp Bagels only come in bulk. For $42, you'll get your selection of a dozen bagels in a variety of types including, everything, plain, sesame, poppy, and salt as well as the two collab schmears Buffalo Wing Butter and Original Schmear.

If you're hosting a larger Superbowl gathering, you can opt for the Big Box of Bagels with your choice of 30 bagels and five containers of schmears for $95. The collab can be preordered online or you can snag a spot in the walk-in line at any PopUp Bagel storefront.

Any PopUp Bagel lover knows that a PopUp Bagel isn't meant to be eaten like a traditional bagel. Instead of slicing a PopUp Bagel and slathering on heaps of cream cheese or butter, PopUp Bagel encourages food lovers to rip its bagels apart and to dip the doughy bits into its schmears. After I had my order in hand, I selected an everything bagel from the assortment of a dozen for maximum flavor pairing potential. I lightly toasted the everything bagel, but made sure to leave the dough nice and fluffy as PopUp Bagels's are much airier and dough-forward than other New York-style bagels, and I wanted to preserve the signature texture. 

I dipped my wedge of everything bagel into the container of PopUp Bagel X Cheez-It Original Schmear and took a hearty bite. The first thing I noticed was how whipped the cream cheese is. I anticipated the collaboration to be cheese-forward, but instead, the flavor that was most striking was the richness. The Cheez-It Original Schmear has a nice nuanced texture, thanks to the bits of crushed-up Cheez-Its peppered throughout it, which helps to complicate the otherwise mildly bland creaminess. 

To be honest, I wish the schmear was much cheesier. It has the salt and decadence of a Cheez-It, but the creaminess overpowered the overall flavor. One of the drawbacks of mixing flavors into cream cheese is that if those flavors aren't strong enough, they end up dulling the overall cream cheese flavor profile. While I appreciate the mouthfeel of the cream cheese and the quantity of Cheez-Its in it, the taste leaves something to be desired.  

Now onto the PopUp Bagel X Cheez-It Buffalo Wing Butter. Admittedly, I've never eaten the Buffalo Wing Cheez-It flavor on its own, so I had no idea what to expect when it came to translating that flavor into a butter. When I dipped my hunk of lightly toasted everything bagel into the carton of PopUp Bagel X Cheez-It Buffalo Wing Butter, I was immediately struck by the density of it. When you're enjoying schmears outside of a bagel store, sometimes the butter is viscous and doesn't maintain a thick consistency. Perhaps because PopUp Bagel is an exclusive to-go bagel eatery, it has mastered the art of takeaway schmears. 

When I took my first bite, I was pleasantly surprised at the intensity of the buffalo wing flavor. The tasting notes are pretty uncanny to a traditional buffalo wing. It's butter-forward with a sophisticated heat that grows on your tongue the more you consume. The spice enhances the overall flavor profile while the butter is smooth and lush, without overpowering. 

Most importantly, all of the tasting notes felt authentic. A possible drawback with attempting to marry a quintessential American snack flavor with a classic spread is the potential for the flavor to feel synthetic. Here, the butter is elevated and the bite is wonderfully akin to a plate of piping hot buffalo wings. Notably, the butter is significantly more yellow in color than the collab cream cheese, maybe because of the spices in the Buffalo Wing Cheez-Its or because of the quantity of Cheez-Its. In either case, the intensity of flavor is superior. 

As you plan to assemble your game day spread, I'd recommend adding the Cheez-It x PopUp Bagels collab to your table. Celebrating the Superbowl is a festive and wonderful opportunity to experiment with new snack foods and surprising flavor pairings. What could be more American than a 100-year-old cheesy cracker blended with the iconic New York staple, the bagel? For starters, PopUp Bagels are delicious on their own. The bagels have a wonderfully doughy texture that will enhance any food platter and the bagel toppings are generous. Because the Cheez-Its-inspired schmears are only available for a limited time, I believe it's more than worth the splurge to order a dozen bagels and two vats of specialty schmears to sample the cheesy spreads for yourself.

While it's true that the PopUp Bagel X Cheez-It Original Schmear leaves a bit to be desired in terms of cheesiness, the texture of the cream cheese paired with the chunks of crushed-up Cheez-Its is still a wonder to behold. And then you have the Cheez-It Buffalo Wing butter. Besides the incredibly authentic taste of the Buffalo Wing butter and the mouthwatering spiciness, we have another compelling reason why it's a must-have this Superbowl Sunday. The Buffalo Wing butter may taste identical to Buffalo wings, but they are vegetarian, making them an excellent addition for any guests who aren't eating meat, but who still want to sample the iconic flavor.