To celebrate the launch of its latest menu addition ‘The Bee Sting’, Papa John’s creates the world’s first pizza for bees. 

The busy bees at Papa John’s are buzzing to reveal their newest culinary creation – a fiery honey-drizzled pizza.

Launching 17th July, ‘The Bee Sting’ combines a hot and spicy base of Amarillo chilli, topped with signature pepperoni, mozzarella, fresh green chilli and a sweet wild flower honey drizzle, to balance the sting of the heat.

To celebrate the launch, the brand has created the world’s first ‘Beezza’ – a pizza designed exclusively for bees. After all, it is this little creature that the pizza world owes everything to.

This tiny, flying insect is in fact the most effective pollinator of tomatoes, essentially allowing us to keep up with the global demand for tomato-based products.

Yet despite bees playing such a crucial part in pollinating the food that we eat, the impacts of climate change mean that native bees are struggling to survive. To help raise awareness of this, Papa John’s has teamed up with Thom Whitchurch, the brains behind ‘Britain’s first tiny cookery school’, to create the ‘Beezza’ and inspire others to create bee friendly areas in gardens, parks and green spaces.

The ‘Beezza’, is less than one inch in diameter, made with real Papa John’s dough, based with passata and topped with wild flowers including; Forget Me Nots, Rose Geraniums and sprinkled with a mix of local pollen, Rosemary and Thyme. According to experts, all of these are favourites with bees, thanks to the fragrances, colours and easy-to-access nectar.

Although not available to purchase, Papa John’s is supporting the work of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust by giving out packs of native wildflower seeds via its social channels, to enable customers to grow plants that attract bees. For those who don’t have green fingers, the brand is also switching their online charity partner to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, between 15th July – 1st September 2019, to allow customers to donate change from their orders.

Giles Codd, UK Marketing Director said, “Bees are fundamental to the making of pizzas, so we wanted to give them a slice of the action and create one perfect for them whilst raising awareness of the well-publicised issue of declining bee populations both here in the UK and across the globe.

“We hope the new Bee Sting pizza, goes down as well with our customers as the ‘Beezza’ did with the bees.” 

Thom Whitchurch, owner of Britain’s first tiny cookery school said, “We did a lot of research into which ingredients should go on the pizza and along with the knowledge and expertise from the team at the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, we seemed to have got the recipe spot on – the bees were loving it! 

“Creating tiny food is a passion of mine, so I was excited to team up with Papa John’s to create the world’s first pizza for bees. 

Darryl Cox, Senior Science and Policy Officer of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust said, “We’re delighted that Papa John’s is supporting our work to protect and feed the nation’s bumblebees.

“It may seem hard to believe, but without bumblebees, there would be no pizza. Tomato plants hold their pollen in extremely tight structures and literally need a bumblebee to buzz the pollen out to fertilise the flowers. This free-bee service means we can produce enough tomatoes to satisfy the global demand for pizza and other tomato-based products.” 

The Bee Sting pizza is available nationwide from 17th July 2019. You can order online and directly via your local Papa John’s restaurant.