Pizza lovers mixed on Kiwi twist

The Marmite-flavoured pizza is also stuffed with mozzarella cheese.

First there was kiwi burger and Kiwi As chips. Now Marmite perks up Pizza Hut's Chee Zee stuffed crust.

American pizza chain Pizza Hut has put a Kiwi twist on its stuffed crust products with the release of the "Chee Zee" Marmite Stuffed Crust Pizza.

The Kiwi-inspired crust, which is available on a Classics Cheese Extreme pizza, comes stuffed with mozzarella cheese and a thick layer of Marmite.

The unusual creation went on sale this week at $8 for a large pizza, picked up. While it's available only on the Classics Cheese Extreme - which comes with no toppings apart from mounds of cheese - extra toppings can be added for $3.

Reaction online to the pizza chain's latest creative crust has been mixed, with fans on Pizza Hut's Facebook page variously describing it as "sort of yuck", "tacky" and "yummy".

Mandy Thornicroft said the crust made the pizza taste "a little saltier" than usual.

"[I] was disappointed as a huge fan of Marmite and cheese ... [I] always had cheese on toast with Marmite."

Arbel Tenembaum was more to the point: "Argh! kill it with fire!!!"

However, there were some fans of the Marmite crust, including Taleah Johnstone. "So good. I reckon pizza hut should make a complete stuff crust pizza. Just one big stuffed crust all spiralled into a circle. [It] would be amazing!"

The "Chee Zee" Marmite stuffed crust is not the first example of a global fast food corporation tailoring one of its products for New Zealand palettes.

In 1991, McDonald's introduced the Kiwi Burger - along with the now- well-known television advertisement and song - which was essentially a standard burger with the addition of beetroot and an egg.

The same burger - minus the egg - has been sold in Australia under the "McOz" moniker.

More recently, Bluebird, which is owned by the American corporation PepsiCo, introduced the "Kiwi As" chip range.

Flavours included Wattie's Tomato Sauce & Mince Pie and Mainland Cheese, Kiwi Dip and Cheesymite, which was made to taste like Marmite and cheese toasties.