The Worst Newman's Own Frozen Pizza We Tried Was Lacking On All Fronts

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Founded by the movie star turned philanthropist, Paul Newman, Newman's Own brand encompasses dozens of products, from a line of salad dressings to pet food. Since the brand donates all of its after-tax profits to charities, Newman's Own products appeal to our morals. But do they appeal to our taste buds? Not always. After tasting six Newman's Own frozen pizzas, our least favorite was lacking on the taste and texture fronts.

Newman's Own four cheese pizza landed in last place, even though it wasn't offensive or inedible. We were looking for pizzas that lived up to the ingredients or toppings listed in their titles, gaining extra points for unique flavors or an extra delicious crust. While a four-cheese pizza is simple, that should give the star ingredients more of a chance to shine. So, we were hoping to savor each different type of cheese's distinct flavors in all their gooey, melted glory. Unfortunately, we couldn't taste anything other than mozzarella.

Worse still was the scant amount of cheese that didn't even cover the tomato sauce. Perhaps if this were a margarita or just a plain cheese pizza, we could've accepted a splotchy cheese topping. The crust was ultra-thin and became overly crispy and crunchy in the time it took to defrost and melt the cheese. A crispy crust with no flop had great potential to contrast a gooey melted cheese topping. But without much cheese, the crust became a rock-hard cracker.

Customers from Target aired their grievances about Newman's Own four cheese pizza being an utter disappointment, not to mention overpriced. One customer wrote that the pizza "had very little cheese — plenty of bare spots where you could see the crust and the other places had a single piece of cheese, not a layer." What little cheese there was tasted bland and waxy, according to customers. While we experienced a hard crust, other customers complained that the crust wasn't crispy at all.

Even more reviews from YouTube were most disappointed by the sauce. One YouTube review praised the simple ingredients list, but also thought they might be a bit too simple as far as the sauce was concerned. The reviewer said, "The sauce was lacking...the ingredients said tomato puree and tomato paste, and that's what it tasted like. It tasted like paste. It was on the sweet side, not too savory." Yet another YouTube review bemoaned a lack of seasoning, stating, "you don't get any garlic flavor, onion flavor, and even any salt. The sauce is like a bland tomato sauce."

But before you decide to go with another frozen pizza brand, not all Newman's Own pizzas were worth skipping. Our favorite Newman's Own frozen pizza is the Margherita pizza. As an elevated cheese pizza, the Margherita is a great alternative to the four cheese pizza, with an airy, crispy, Neapolitan-adjacent crust that won our hearts and stomachs.