Bagels Inc: “I started a bagel bar, but it was my cans of iced Matcha latte that made us go viral”
Despite offering an enticing bagel menu, including homemade sweet and savoury bagels, it was cans of iced matcha latte that put this Yorkshire coffee shop on the map.
Annabel Davies, 32, set up Bagels Inc in Sheffield at the end of 2023, selling homemade, freshly baked bagels with a range of fillings to choose from.
Options range from honey chicken and smoked salmon with cream cheese to biscoff with banana, and hummus and falafel.
Ms Davies had been inspired by her year abroad studying in New Jersey where there were bagel bars everywhere.
She said: “America is just very full on with bagels.
“ Every sandwich shop is either a bagel shop or a sub shop.
“I came back to England and was working in London as an events manager.
“I always knew that I wanted my own business, and never really knew what specifically.
“I started to brainstorm business ideas because I wasn't fully happy with my job.”
Ms Davies moved back to Sheffield during the pandemic.
It was then she realised there wasn’t a bagel shop local to her although there had been several she’d come across in London.
She said: “I was doing my research at the university in Newcastle that I went to in Northumbria.
“There had been a bagel shop opened in Newcastle, and it kind of blew up on social media.
“They’d already got 40,000 followers.”
Ms Davies saw a gap in the market in Sheffield’s Sharrowvale area, an up and coming part of the city, cushioned between Ecclesall Road and Netheredge.
Bagels Inc first opened its doors on Hickmott Road in November 2023.
Ms Davies said: “It’s always been busy, especially on weekends.”
Since going viral on TikTok earlier this year with the iced coffee cans, customers have been queuing around the block.
Ms Davies added: “We have a canning machine so we can put any iced drink into the cans.
“Our iced matcha lattes are the most popular.”
Ms Davies had been inspired by a bagel shop in America on Instagram.
She said: “They popped off. We’ve almost sold out, and we’re waiting for a new delivery of the cans as we do them ourselves with our own labels.”
Drinks include iced matcha latte with strawberry, vanilla, and a range of other varieties.