Behold the stuffed crust bagel

New York (CNN) Within the Nineties, Pizza Hut unveiled an essential cheese-in-bread innovation, the stuffed crust pizza. Now, Philadelphia cream cheese and H&H Bagels, a New York Metropolis-based bagel store, are attempting to please the carbohydrate- and dairy-loving communities with a brand new and doubtful spin on the stuffed crust: The bagel filled with cream cheese.

However not like stuffed-crust pizzas, the bagel is full of cheese after it’s baked, making it extra of a cream cheese bagel donut, if not in spirit then no less than in type.

The bagels are “baked recent each day after which cooled to be individually filled with Philly’s signature cream cheese one by one,” in accordance with Jay Rushin, CEO of H&H. “H&H Bagels use a pastry device to pipe within the Philly cream cheese by hand,” he added. “The method leaves very small holes the place the insertions are made, much like a jelly donut.”

The apparent query, as is usually the case with meals mash-ups, is why. What’s so mistaken with slicing a bagel and slathering on a wholesome quantity of cream cheese? Why should we pre-cheese the bagel? As a result of, Philly proprietor Kraft Heinz and H&H say, the straightforward acts of chopping and spreading are taxed, no less than in New York.

“New York Metropolis could be the bagel capital of the world, however its residents incur a daft ‘bagel tax’ every time they decide to buy a bagel that is sliced and schmeared with cream cheese,” the businesses mentioned in a launch.

That is true, kind of. New York does not have a particular bagel tax, defined Ryan Cleveland, a consultant of the New York State Division of Taxation and Finance. However sure meals merchandise, together with baked items, are tax exempt, whereas ready meals aren’t.

“It is when a bagel turns into a sandwich or a ready meals that it then turns into taxable,” he mentioned. In New York Metropolis, meals bought at eating places is taxed at 8.875%.

Philadelphia and H&H plan to skirt this rule with the stuffed bagel, which is offered at H&H’s Manhattan places for $1.90 every, from Friday by Tax Day on Tuesday, April 18; and likewise on-line.

“In immediately’s panorama, persons are juggling sufficient hurdles, and having to pay an additional tax to get pleasure from their favourite bagel with Philly cream cheese ought to merely not be certainly one of them,” mentioned Keenan White, senior model supervisor of Philadelphia cream cheese, in an announcement.

White and Kraft Heinz (KHC) might properly care about their clients’ tax funds. However for meals corporations, advertising and marketing stunts are about creating buzz and staying on the forefront of consumers’ minds after they go to the grocery store — or bagel store.

Kraft particularly has lately been leaning into questionable combos, just like the Velveeta Martini and a sizzling canine flavored popsicle, to advertise its manufacturers and get consideration.

Philadelphia cream cheese, which struggled with shortages prior to now, turned that subject right into a advertising and marketing alternative as properly. There is not any drawback with provide now, in accordance with the model.