'Tis the season to eat lots of festive foods and enjoy limited edition treats from everywhere possible. Some Christmas items are staples on the menu like mince pies and pigs in blankets but other newcomers are fighting for a place on the dinner table.
Domino's has entered the Christmas race with their Festive One pizza, returning after the success of last year with a new topping - cranberry sauce.
This intrigued me as I'm firmly in the 'no' camp for the big fruit on pizza debate but when it comes to Christmas, cranberry sauce can make or break a meal.
The Festive One is available from all Domino's stores from now until Christmas and is described by the pizza brand as "decorated with top Christmas trimmings". Along with the pizza, Domino's has brought back the popular Choc Orange Cookies for Christmas too which cost £4.99 for four cookies.
When eating a festive food I want to instantly taste Christmas, I want to hear Mariah Carey singing as I bite down and reminisce about Christmas markets long gone. This might be a high bar but only a taste test will tell if The Festive One from Dominos can meet it.
The Festive One pizza - 6/10
★★★★★★
£22.99 for a 13.5" Large Pizza
On first glance, The Festive One looks fairly unassuming at first glance and then you realise the red drizzle is in fact cranberry sauce not tomato.
Christmas themed foods usually contain four key items - chicken/turkey, bacon, sage and onion stuffing and cranberry sauce. Domino's shakes things up with their pizza and adds sausage into this mix, omitting the crucial stuffing.
This bold choice to ditch stuffing means the pizza lacks that enigmatic Christmas feeling. Although the turkey is a sage and onion pulled turkey, the flavour isn't strong enough to make up for the missing stuffing.
Despite the gripes about the stuffing, there's no doubt that turkey, sausage and bacon on a pizza works and Domino's Meatilicious fans will probably enjoy this similar flavour profile.
The base is a familiar tomato but this wipes away much of the festive flavour the pizza company has strived to create. The tomato competes with the cranberry sauce rather than complimenting it so you're left with a tomato overtone rather than a Christmassy one.
This brings me onto the cranberry sauce, which is always my sticking point in festive foods as it can become overwhelming very quickly if your flavour balance is off. Cranberry sauce is a hard thing to get right and I thought the drizzle method would be a clever way to bring the taste subtly over the pizza.
Sadly, due to the tomato base, the cranberry flavour is totally lost in the areas without drizzle and then way too strong in the parts where it has been dolloped on.
Overall this is a nice pizza, Domino's dough is always delicious and their meat based pizzas shine on the menu but I think it's hard to believe this is The Festive One.
