Champion Frozen Pizza Review
Champion Pizza is a frozen pizza line started in 1981 in the microdot town of Hebron (Illinois, not Palestine).
Like many frozen pizzas in the Upper Midwest, they got their start supplying to restaurants and bars before landing shelf space in regional grocery stores. They also supply products for charitable fund raisers.
About their product, they say “We pride ourselves on using only the freshest ingredients that include our own hand made pizza sauce, freshly grated
mozzarella cheese and fresh raw italian sausage, not a precooked nugget.”
You can look in the window of their “factory” – the times I have, there has only been one person making pies. They boast about making nine different varieties in two sizes.
Surprisingly, you can’t buy the pizzas direct, but you can pick some up at the gas station at the end of the block, underneath the towns sole blinking red light.
The gas station is directly across the street from the Dari, local fast food establishment (reviewed), and across the other street from “Beaners” Mexican restaurant. (Hey, I just report, you decide).
Packaging. Cello wrapped on cardboard
Champion is in the “value pricing segment” of frozen pizzas, clocking in at around $5 for their large, single topping pie.
The crust is cracker thin, but never quite gets to cracker crispness, except for the edges. Not sure why. Even experimented with more time than the instructions stated.
The cheese person must have been out the day my pie was made.
It’s quality cheese but doesn’t run out to the edges, and unwrapping this pie, the paper stuck to the top, and some of the cheese was a little melted, so this baby must have thawed somewhere along the line and then was refrozen.
The hand pulled chunks are good. Good flavor, good texture. Smattering of herbs.
Will I add this to my go-to list of frozen pizzas. Nah. But good for them that a small operation can make a go in a segment where two global players have about a 90% share of the market, right?
And locals seem to like it a lot.
Out of the package
14 mins at 425
Champion Frozen Pizza Review Champion Frozen Pizza Review