This Is What Makes Subway Sandwiches So Delicious

You can make a delicious sandwich at home. Your grocery store probably has a pretty respectable meat and cheese counter, and it's become pretty common to be able to find a cave-aged Gruyere or a smoky Pecorino Calabrese at almost any market. Add some fresh-baked in-store bread, some fancier condiments, and whatever produce you love, and your creation can rival almost any delis. But what if you are lazy, or running errands, or you have your kids with you and they have zero interest in chowing down on some Jamón Ibérico and want something a bit more... familiar? 

You can head over to your local Subway sandwich shop and order up one of the 7.6 million sandwiches the stores creates each day. With around 42,000 locations in more than 100 countries, you can pretty much "eat fresh" in almost any corner of the world. So what makes these sandwiches so delicious? Read on to find out!

Everyone likes choices, and if you're the kind of person who wants to add tuna to your turkey and tomato sandwich, than Subway is the place for you. There are 37 million different ways you can order a sandwich at Subway. It's basically impossible to try every single combination on offer. 

You want some of those delicious cookies in that sandwich? Go for it. You want a gigantic layer of just salt and pepper and no other toppings? You go, girl. You want to create your sandwich masterpiece and by 'masterpiece' meaning just ordering a flatbread with olives and mayo? Subway can make your dreams come true. In the United States, turkey and tuna are the most popular Subway sandwich choices, but with 37 million different ways to make a sandwich, you can easily tweak one of those choices to your very own specifications. 

Having a sandwich that tastes exactly like you want it to taste certainly makes it extra delicious, wouldn't you say?

If 37 million sandwich choices is just too much for you — but nothing on the menu board sparks your taste buds — you can also order off Subway's secret menu. One of the more typical secret menu items is the pizza sub. You just order red tomato sauce, cheese, pepperoni, and a sprinkling of oregano. After that baby is heated up you'll have your very own personal pizza. 

For you meat lovers out there, you can ask for the Carnivore off the secret menu. That baby has four scoops of steak, six slices of pepperoni, and a whopping eight pieces of bacon. 

An oldie but a goodie that Subway discontinued from the menu in 2010 is the chicken Parmesan, but for those in the know all you have to do is ask for roasted chicken breast, marinara sauce, olives, a few pieces of spinach, and a big helping of provolone cheese. 

If you can find a secret menu item from Subway that strikes your fancy, there's no doubt your order will be delicious, every single time.

Subway is known for baking their bread fresh in store, and you can smell it before you even leave your car. With varieties like Italian, Italian herbs and cheese, 9-grain wheat, and multi-grain flatbread, there are even more ways to make your sandwich just the way you like it. Some locations even offer Jalapeno cheese and rosemary and sea salt bread variations.

The Subway bread hasn't always been the same as it is today, back in 2014 a food blogger discovered that the bread contained a chemical called azodicarbonamide, which is also used in the creation of yoga mats. Since then, Subway has phased out this unpleasant ingredient. 

Some people find the smell of the Subway bread incredibly unpleasant, where others love the smell of the fresh baking bread. Love it or hate it, it has been debunked that no, Subway does not intentionally vent the smell of the bread onto the street to attract hungry passersby. Still, we have to admit, that smell hitting you in the face as you walk in certainly does make that sandwich taste better once it's finally in your hands. 

Subway has ten fresh vegetable varieties including lettuce, red onions, spinach, cucumbers, banana peppers, green bell peppers, black olives, jalapeno peppers, tomatoes, and pickles. Avocados are also offered seasonally at most locations for a small up charge. Keeping their menu full of fresh vegetables is a smart choice for Subway, because not only does it appeal to customers trying to eat healthier (or trying to get their kids to eat healthier), one of the core customers of Subway are millennials, and millennials sure do love their fresh veggies. 

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, millennials prefer to eat more fruits and vegetables over grains and meats. About 200 Subway restaurant locations are located on college campuses, giving younger consumers easy access to piling on spinach and red onions to their cold-cut combos. Reddit user Ariana-Mcclair, a former Subway sandwich artist, confirmed how fresh the vegetables are in an AMA thread."Fresh veggies (tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and green peppers) are good for 2 days. Pickled veggies (black olives, banana peppers, pickles, and jalapenos) are good for 5 days. So we only prep what we'll use within 2 days."

All those fresh, non-wilted vegetables go along way toward making your Subway sandwich the best it can be.

Most Subway restaurants have a pretty wide variety of meat choices, including turkey, roast beef, chicken breast, salami, pepperoni, meatballs, shaved steak, bologna, ham and tuna. That's a whole lot of delicious meat choices to choose from, making Subway an especially tasty choice for carnivores. 

Obviously, the leaner cuts of meat like turkey and chicken breast will have less calories and fat than things like the chicken bacon ranch sandwich, which has 32 grams of fat and over 600 calories, for just the six-inch size! 

But if calories and fat aren't your main concerns, you can opt for the spicy Italian sandwich which contains a heaping amount of both salami and pepperoni, or the cold cut combo which features salami, bologna, and ham. True meat freaks can even go so far as to order their sandwich with "double meat," which simply adds a whole second serving of meat to whatever combination you order. You just need to keep in mind this may make adding a whole lot of additional toppings a messy (yet delicious) undertaking. 

It's not easy to eat out as a vegetarian, as choices for food that is meatless, tasty, and filling are few and far between. That's what makes Subway especially appealing to the meat-free crowd. 

Subway has a lot of options for vegetarians, and they can add one more exciting choice to the list in fall of 2019. At 685 select locations across the United States and Canada, Subway will be offering Beyond Meatball marinara sandwiches, created with Beyond Meat brand vegan meatballs. Len Van Popering, Subway's Chief Brand and Innovation Officer had this to say about the new vegetarian offering. "Subway appeals to so many fans because we truly offer something for everyone. Our guests want to feel good about what they eat and they also want to indulge in new flavors. With our new plant-based Beyond Meatball Marinara sub, we are giving them the best of both worlds." 

In the United Kingdom, Subway customers can even order a vegan patty sandwich with vegan mayo. For those stateside, you can always order the "veggie delight" and add as many menu vegetable choices as you want. Veggie sandwiches never tasted so good. 

Cheese makes everyone happy. Unless, of course, it's bad cheese. 

With apologies to those lactose intolerant, a sandwich just isn't a sandwich without a whole mess of cheese added to it. Subway know this, and that's why they're bringing their A-game when it comes to the cheese that graces their already delicious sandwiches. Subway currently offers American and Monterey cheddar, with some locations offering mozzarella, cheddar, provolone, Swiss, feta, and pepper-jack. Adding extra cheese costs, well, extra, but that shouldn't stop you from ordering a few extra slices to make your sandwich extra yummy. You only live once after all. And remember, if melty, gooey cheese is your thing (and why wouldn't it be?), you can any sandwoch toasted at Subway. Melted cheese makes everything better. 

For those truly enamored with the magnificence of cheese, you can also ordered a toasted cheese sandwich at Subway — with multiple types of cheese if you're going all-in. Which pairs lovely with their soup offerings.

Sometimes you just don't need six or twelve inches of bread getting in the way of your meat and cheese and vegetable toppings, which is why you can make any sub sandwich of your choosing into a delicious salad. You know a sandwich is delicious when it doesn't even need the bread.

You can choose the standard menu items like a cold cut combo salad or a Subway club, or go wacky and just create a salad consisting of red onions, olives and mushrooms. It's your life, you can do what you want. 

Salad dressings on offer include red wine vinaigrette, sweet onion, ranch dressing, and fat free Italian dressing. You can even add any of the other Subway sauces, like creamy sriracha or fat-free honey mustard. In order to be more eco-friendly, Subway uses salad containers and lids with 95 percent post-consumer recycled content, so you can feel better about what your delicious salad is served in — no guilt makes them taste even better. 

Just because you are trying to eat healthy doesn't mean you have to stick to cottage cheese and carrot sticks, because Subway offers a lot of menu items that are both low in fat and low in calories. Oh, and they're delicious, too. 

The sweet onion chicken teriyaki is only 330 calories. The classic roast beef only contains 1.5 grams of fat. The veggie delight is the healthiest Subway sandwich on offer, with only 200 calories! 

For those who are on the keto diet Subway is a total game-changer. The chicken and bacon ranch melt with no bread only contains six grams of net carbs. Most of the salads are 11 net carbs or less. Subway also has a lot of breakfast options that you can tweak to fit the keto lifestyle simply by tossing out the bread. 

The fact that Subway can fit into almost any diet plan you happen to be without a thousand tweaks just makes it taste that much better. 

Even though sneeze guards aren't the most attractive restaurant decor, there's something to be said for watching your food prepared directly in front of you to make anyone squeamish about sanitary practices or food freshness feel better. 

Subway employees are required to wear plastic gloves when creating sandwiches. You watch your sandwich being prepared. You see if the tomatoes are limp or if the lettuce is soggy. It's reassuring to watch your delicious sandwich being prepared in front of you instead of in some kitchen out of view where you have no idea if it's been dropped on the floor or worse. Knowing your food is clean and fresh just makes it that much more delicious to eat, and you can make sure you're getting the correct yummy toppings and sauces in the correct amount you've asked for. 

Freshness, cleanliness, savory meats and cheeses and tantalizing breads topped with crisp vegetables and delicious condiments make Subway as popular as it is.