This afternoon, I pulled out of the freezer the latest vegan product that is all the rage these days—Tofurky’s new line of vegan pizza with vegan “cheese” and “meat.” The vegan blogs have been buzzing about this product for a while now but at $7.99 a pop at Whole Foods, I wasn’t doing any back bends to get my hands on it. I knew Emmett was going to be very busy at work when I was in Minnesota and wouldn’t have time to make himself food, so in addition to a plethora of fresh meals and snacks I made him, I also got a couple of these pizzas. When checked the pack of the package for the baking instructions to see what I should set the oven at, I stumbled onto this:
Did you catch it? No? Here, take a closer look:
Can you believe it? Right there on the packaging, a food company’s most treasured marketing space (I would know…I used to work for the world’s largest food company), they give a SHOUT OUT to their employees!! On the packaging!! They even name people specifically. How cool is that?! When have you ever seen anything like it?! How awesome must this company be to work for?! THEY THANK THE MAINTENANCE CREW! On the packaging! And some dude who designed the sausage! And they call their production staff the “hardest working…on the planet!” WITH AN EXCLAMATION POINT AT THE END OF THE PROCLAMATION!!
I mean, come on, People! Can you image a world were everyone took the time to acknowledge, in a very public way, those who helped them succeed? You see it at the end of books and in movie credits sometimes, and yeah, they do it at the Oscars but in real world, regular Joe Blow situations, that NEVER HAPPENS! And here are the folks at Tofurky giving it up for the regular peeps. I love it.
On a related note, I have to say that I enjoyed the pizza…for it being frozen and processed. I had the Italian sausage and fire-roasted veggies variety. The crust is the bomb! Crisp and crunchy with lots of flavor. The thickness is perfect, too. It’s between thick and thin, which sounds boring but surprisingly isn’t because the texture is so great. I could eat the crust just by itself. But I also like the fact that it isn’t loaded with tons of vegan cheese. There’s just enough to hold all those roasted veggies in place without interfering with the nice flavors of said veggies. I also liked how evenly cut up the toppings were as well as the variety of toppings. And while the red sauce is present, it’s definitely complementary. This is not the healthiest of products out there…810 calories per pizza (I ate half for lunch one day and the other half the next day, both with a side salad). But what do you expect? It’s pizza, it’s processed, and it’s frozen. In a pinch and not as a staple, you’d like this product. I really think Tofurky is on to something here and I hope they come out with more interesting toppings like artichoke, kalamata olives, and spinach (and vegan feta?) or black olives, pepperocini, and onion.
Hey, Tofurky…if you’re looking for a line extension manager, or even just a tester, give me a call!