Pizza Hut Launches New Mozzarella Poppers Pizza
While everybody loves pizza, opinions are divided as to whether the crust is actually worth eating or not. While crust is not inherently objectionable, there's something so disappointing about getting up to the top of the slice and then suddenly running out of sauce, topping, and cheese. No wonder the crust often gets left in the box, or is perhaps fed to some lucky pooch (who was probably hoping for pepperoni but will take what they can get).
Pizza Hut has been trying to do something about the whole boring crust issue for the last 25 years — they introduced their cheese-stuffed crust back in 1995, and it's been selling pretty well for them ever since. Outside the U.S., however, Pizza Hut really upped their crust game, with wacky innovations such as shrimp and hot dog pizza crusts in China, meat pie crusts in Australia, Marmite-stuffed crusts in New Zealand, and even a pizza crust with — we kid you not! — Cadbury crème eggs in the UK (via The Things). The worldwide abomination known as the Hot Dog Bites pizza even made it to the U.S. market for a short time back in 2015 (via PR Newswire), in case you've forgotten (as Pizza Hut undoubtedly hopes you have).
Once again, the U.S. is getting a next-level crust, although it's really just more cheese — mozzarella sticks, to be precise.
What the Mozzarella Poppers Pizza tastes like
Actually, you could consider Pizza Hut's new offering to be basically a free appetizer thrown in alongside your pizza. These mini mozzarella sticks aren't baked into the crust, instead, they're just sitting along the edge — two per slice on a large pizza. They can be easily detached for dunking into the little cups of marinara that Pizza Hut will be providing on the side.
The Impulsive Buy blog got hold of one of these new pizzas, and was... well, not super-impressed. The poppers themselves, seasoned with garlic, onion, parmesan, parsley, basil, and oregano, are crispy and relatively flavorful, especially when dipped in marinara. Detaching them, however, leaves a crust that's pale, moist and even blander than usual. The end verdict: Pizza Hut's new offering "is a bit ho-hum."
What's next for Pizza Hut?
It may come as no surprise to know that the Mozzarella Poppers Pizza will be available for a "limited time only," since the struggling chain wants to see how well their new product is going to do once the novelty factor wears off. The pizza's the same, the mozzarella sticks, ditto, so really, it's only the juxtaposition that's at all innovative here.
The good news, according to Pizza Hut's chief brand officer David Graves, is that the Mozzarella Poppers Pizza is just "the first of many new craveable pizzas you can only get at Pizza Hut," (via QSR). They have yet to hint at what comes next, but we're thinking, perhaps a wing-topped crust might be nice.