Brand Test: Frozen Pizza – Rising Crust – Nov. 13

Turns out we have not grown past our young, reckless college appetites. It is a well-known, and well-respected fact that frozen pizza is appropriate at any time, day or night, at any temperature. And while Jack’s and Tombstone are just as common on college campuses as beer and textbooks, we decided to class it up a bit and test a few “higher-end” frozen pizzas.

Brand contenders:

• Freschetta
• DiGiorno
• Culinary Circle

Best taste: Freschetta
Best packaging: Tie between Freschetta and Culinary Circle
Best appearance out of the oven: Culinary Circle

Breaking it down:
Taste: Freschetta had the best crust and sauce and won the vote by just one point. DiGiorno was a bust. Culinary Circle has a mighty fine cheese pull and looks irresistible right out of the oven. Golden brown, cheesy goodness with little herbs sprinkled over the crust and cheese.

Packaging: Freschetta has appealing photography, and a great cheese pull image (we’re suckers for the cheese pull!), but we would appreciate seeing more a bit more of the sauce. The packaging colors are bright and fresh, making the pizza more appealing in its frozen state. Again, DiGiorno was a bust. The coloring is red and dark, too predictable. Culinary Circle was very readable and showed a lot of the product, with lots of sauce around the edges – we’re sold! We were most impressed with the images of their other pizza varieties that are sure to keep us coming back for more!

Honorable mention: Home-Run Inn
We didn’t test this brand, but it was mentioned multiple times throughout the test and was given rave reviews. Just an FYI.

Up next: Brownie mix