'They Taste Like Cardboard' – The Aldi Bagels That Reddit Says To Skip

A good bagel should have the perfect balance of flavor and chewy texture — store-bought or otherwise. Unfortunately, according to customers on Reddit, Aldi's L'Hoven Fresh Bagel Skinnys miss the mark where it matters: in the flavor department. "I'm never buying their "skinny" bagels again," one user wrote in response to an r/aldi Reddit post about items to avoid at the popular discount retailer. "They taste like cardboard in the worst way." Thin varieties of store-bought bagels are typically meant to cut down on bulk and calories. But they shouldn't sacrifice on taste, or taste like paper packaging.

Several customers on Reddit were equally unimpressed. "Even compared to the name brand skinny bagels they're pretty awful," someone else wrote in the comments section of the aforementioned post. While the bagels' taste is quite the deal-breaker, others signaled quality issues like molding quicker than expected, while another person said these came at a higher cost compared to regular bagels. At $2.99 per pack (though price may vary depending on location) for eight 110-calorie bagel thins, off-notes considered, the product just doesn't cut it for many people — and some Redditors say the bagels aren't even sliced evenly.

It's not clear if the unpleasant flavor is a quality issue or if there are just better Aldi bread products you could buy instead. It's possible the taste could come from oxidized ingredients like oils or stale bread itself. Some of the ingredients could contribute to the product's reported off-flavor. This includes possible culprits like the cellulose fiber (commonly used in reduced-calorie foods) in the bagels, since added fiber in foods has been known to sometimes translate into less-than-appealing tastes. 

Whatever the reason for the poor flavor, Redditors have been complaining about the product for years. Still, other people don't really mind (or seem to notice) the taste — and like the plain or everything versions of the product. On a different Reddit post about disliking the product, some people posited that the bagel thins are better in a category of their own — not as a bagel equivalent. "They're not good as a replacement for bagels but they are good as a vehicle for a huge sandwich/burger," one person commented, with another person adding, "Would never eat as just a bagel but great for a sandwich bun." Perhaps a slather of cream cheese isn't enough to mask the sub-par flavor. But as pizza bagel bites or a bagel grilled cheese sandwich, the thin bagels from Aldi could pass some customers' taste tests.