Are Dunkin' Bagels Fresh Or Frozen?

Since 1996, Dunkin' has served up a round baked good besides its signature donuts: The humble yet delicious bagel. Customers have enjoyed jazzing up Dunkin' bagels or eating them as-is ever since, but these doughy treats certainly haven't stayed the same over the decades. For one big shake-up, Dunkin' used to serve fresh bagels, but now only uses frozen ones, which not every customer and staff member is happy about.

Dunkin' has described its bagels as "fresh" since they were introduced, and according to self-proclaimed employees on social media, the donut joint used to serve bagels that were truly freshly-baked. Some staff say that dough was delivered to their stores and designated bakers would then bake it in-house, while others say the bagels were baked at off-site facilities, then delivered to stores every morning.

Over time, a majority of Dunkin' locations switched to bagels that were frozen and then shipped to stores. Restaurants either used "thaw-and-serve" bagels that were fully baked off-site, then defrosted before sale, or pre-formed but uncooked bagels that had to be defrosted, proofed, then baked. But today, Dunkin' employees say the overwhelming majority of bagels are "FTO," or freezer-to-oven. FTO bagels arrive at stores pre-shaped, frozen, and uncooked, but don't require defrosting before baking. The company began rolling them out as early as 2020. Some internet users even claim that "everything" at the chain is frozen nowadays, including Dunkin' breakfast sandwiches that may use bagels as a foundation. Customers have definitely noticed these changes — often in not-so-nice ways.

Like most chain restaurants, Dunkin' likely uses frozen ingredients to streamline food preparation, but some staff members have never found the frozen bagels easy to work with. Back when Dunkin' used uncooked, frozen bagels that had to be proofed, or rested at room temperature to rise before baking, employee errors could result in severe shrinkage, which many customers have complained about. 

As for the freezer-to-oven bagels used today, some Dunkin' employees think they cut down on hassle, but others report the opposite. One Reddit user wrote, "They sucked and STILL required me to thaw them out a bit otherwise they wouldn't bake right." Another user said, "my store cannot figure out how to make them look like a bagel [...] They come out just a blob with no middle hole." Some staff members also dip the bagels in water or even soak them before they go in the oven, or else they come out hard, dry, and misshapen.

Many Dunkin' customers are also not huge fans of the modern bagels, complaining of a cardboard-y taste and strange, stale texture. One Reddit user wrote, "I used to get one everyday ten years ago [...] I tasted one recently, it was like eating a form of chewy paper." While you can use a trick from Dunkin' employees to revive stale bagels, and plenty of customers take no issue with these baked goods, others really miss the days when they didn't come out of a freezer.