What a night-schmear!
In NYC, you don’t just order a bagel with cream cheese. In fact, it’s more like your cream cheese just so happens to be served with a bagel! And though we all love our heaping schmears, we might soon find them difficult to purchase.
NYC bagel shops are currently facing supply chain challenges—along with many other businesses—that are resulting in a striking shortage of cream cheese. According to the Times, “for about three weeks now, dairy suppliers said, the cream cheese orders they have placed with manufacturers have come up short.”
Local favorites from Absolute Bagel to Pick-A-Bagel are concerned they wont have enough cream cheese to last them through this week!
“I’ve never been out of cream cheese for 30 years,” Joseph Yemma, owner of F&H Dairies in Brooklyn, a popular distributor for many of the NYC bagel shops told the Times. “There’s no end in sight.”
After the news first broke out, many bagel sellers and shops have been scrounging to prep for the coming weeks—some even heading across state lines. But the results don’t seem too promising.
The typical New York cream cheese recipe shared by the Kraft Heinz Company consists of lactic acid, pasteurized milk and cream, with many shops mixing in Philadelphia cream cheese. New York Bagel places plow through thousands of pounds of this cream cheese every few weeks, reports the Times.
The shortage seems to be a result of high demand for Kraft Heinz products, along with an insufficient amount of laborers.
In addition to bagel shops, bakeries are facing negative impacts from the shortage as many desserts require cream cheese in their recipes.
As of now, there’s no sure prediction of what’s to come from this cream cheese shortage long term, though we can only hope that the supply chain bounces back and our beloved bagel establishments that keep this city going are supported.