One of the dietary staples of college students and singles, frozen pizzas come in all shapes, sizes, and brands. There are single serving pizzas, family size, thin crust, deep dish, round, square, you name it. Two of the leading brands are Totino’s and Tombstone. As there are numerous toppings available for each, a comparison is best when it is made between two brands’ standard pepperoni pizzas. The Totino’s Crisp Crust Pepperoni Party Pizza and Tombstone Pizza Original Pepperoni are two popular pizzas.
In appearance, Totino’s Crisp Crust Pepperoni Party Pizza is the smaller of the two pizzas. It weighs a mere 10.2 ounces, compared with the Tombstone Pizza Original Pepperoni’s 12 ounces. Totino’s also has less cheese coverage over the pizza, as evidenced by the higher amount of sauce showing through the cheese. For those who don’t like pizza crust, the Totino’s Crisp Crust Pepperoni Party Pizza has a tiny outside crust. Tombstone, on the other hand, has a very distinguishable outside crust, with no stray cheese overlapping it. The style of pepperoni also differs between the two pizzas. The Tombstone Pizza Original Pepperoni has the standard round slices of pepperoni, which, while tasty, seem to rubberize in the oven. Totino’s pepperoni are small cube-shaped meat objects with a lot of pepperoni flavor. One nice advantage that the Tombstone pizza offers is that after unwrapping it, you can stealthily rearrange the pepperoni slices so that if you split the pizza with another person, you can have most of the pepperoni. Don’t try that with the Totino’s Crisp Crust Pepperoni Party Pizza, as it comes out of the wrapper sort of like a frozen pizza wafer which would crumble if you tried to rearrange the toppings.
Nutritionally speaking, the Tombstone Pizza Original Pepperoni is said to be 3 servings of 280 calories apiece. Totino’s is 2 servings of 380 calories. Altogether, Tombstone and Totino’s are 840 and 760 calories respectively. Surprisingly, there is less fat, overall, in the Tombstone pizza. In fact, the Tombstone pizza tends to be more healthy in most aspects. Per serving, it has a higher percentage of dietary fiber and protein, and fewer milligrams of sodium and carbohydrates. Where the Totino’s Crisp Crust Pepperoni Party Pizza tends to excel is that it has half the cholesterol, a tad more iron, and slightly less sugars.
Owing to their nature as crusts with toppings, both Totino’s and Tombstone pizzas are comprised primarily of flour. Totino’s brags that theirs is enriched flour. Going down the list of ingredients, water is the second highest. But after that is where the two part ways. As indicated in the evaluation of appearance, the Tombstone Pizza Original Pepperoni’s third ingredient is mozzarella cheese. Totino’s skimps on the cheese and goes straight to the sauce. The Totino’s Crisp Crust Pepperoni Party Pizza then wows its consumer with a “Cheese Mozzarella Substitute”. The substitute is made up of oils, starches, preservatives, and food coloring to make it look, well, cheesy. Totino’s, way down the list, does later admit to having some mozzarella cheese. Tombstone, not to be outdone in yummy labeling, boasts that its pepperoni comes from pork, beef, and “Mechanically Separated Chicken”.
Bad images aside, they both taste pretty darn good. Of the two, The Tombstone Pizza Original Pepperoni tastes more like restaurant style pizza then the Totino’s Crisp Crust Pepperoni Party Pizza. Tombstone’s pizza tastes less processed and has a somewhat spicy sauce under quite a bit of cheese. Totino’s puts just enough sauce to hold things together.
The two pizzas also really differ in their price. Totino’s Crisp Crust Pepperoni Party Pizza can usually be found for around $1.25 – $1.50 in most grocery stores. Occasionally, they goes on sale for 10 for $10.00 or less than a buck. The Tombstone Pizza Original Pepperoni is typically around $3.00 to $4.00, and sometimes still goes on sale for as low as $2.00. Neither will break the bank, but there’s a good feeling in picking up one of the Totino’s pizzas for a dollar and taking it back to your apartment and blasting it in the oven at 450 degrees for 10 minutes and gulping it down in one sitting.
Each pizza is good in its own way. The Tombstone Pizza Original Pepperoni, being slightly larger than Totino’s Crisp Crust Pepperoni Party Pizza works well as a pizza for two. However, Totino’s does have something Tombstone can’t touch: a cult following. Totino’s Crisp Crust Pepperoni Party Pizza, in it’s little red cardboard box, is a favorite, and will probably remain so for a long time to come.
