The Massive Bakery Chain Serving Up The Best Sandwich Bread

If you're lucky, you've had the experience of walking into a Great Harvest cafe and perusing a generous array of free samples, from cookie quarters to slices of cinnamon chip bread or its signature honey whole wheat. Sometimes, the employee may even offer to spread butter and drizzle honey on your free slice. Heavenly! But how does Great Harvest's bread hold up when loaded up with sandwich toppings? According to Chowhound's ranking of the best breads from 11 fast food sandwich chains, it's the best in the business. In fact, Great Harvest's honey whole wheat bread is so tasty, it genuinely improved the sandwich rather than just hold together the star attractions (meat, cheese, and what have you). As the Great Harvest website points out, "Why should the inside get all the credit when it's the bread that actually makes it a sandwich?"

Chowhound appreciated the bread's heartiness, texture, and honey-infused flavor profile. The fact that Great Harvest bread is baked from scratch daily certainly doesn't hurt. In fact, despite being one of the biggest bakery chains in the U.S., Great Harvest prides itself on taking no shortcuts when it comes to bread production. This includes everything from carefully sourcing wheat from Montana's Golden Triangle (aka the Napa Valley of wheat), to keeping the bread free from additives and waking up early to begin the morning's baking. Each Great Harvest franchise has flexibility in its menu, so the bread selection varies; however, the honey whole wheat is a company staple.

A nice thing about Great Harvest is that you can simply buy a loaf of honey whole wheat— or whichever other tempting loaf catches your eye — in order to make your own sandwiches at home. Of course, even with the best sandwich bread, things can go wrong when left to your own devices, so make sure you're building your sandwich in a way so that the fillings don't fall out. 

Alternatively, you can just go to a Great Harvest cafe and order a sandwich to get a taste of its bread. Again, each Great Harvest may have a slightly different menu, but you can most likely order meals in-house if you want a high-quality, dine-in sandwich experience. Sandwiches listed on the chain's lunch menu include a baja chipotle turkey (essentially a fish taco sandwich with sliced turkey instead of fish); spicy apple bacon grilled cheese (the spice comes from pepper jelly); a Cuban sandwich; veggie-and-hummus sandwich; and a twist on the traditional cheesesteak. 

Recommended breads for these sandwiches include the honey whole wheat, farmhouse white, focaccia, and Dakota — a seed-packed version of the honey whole wheat. Great Harvest seems to do a good job of pairing interesting, possibly unexpected, ingredients with a stand-out loaf. And we haven't even mentioned the chain's breakfast sandwiches yet! So do yourself a favor, and head to a Great Harvest if there's one near you the next time you're in need of a truly satisfying sandwich, from bread to filling.