Hot Honey Pizza and the Hunt for the Best Pizza in Kissimmee

The pizza business sizes up each new year with the annual trends report from Pizza Today, the trade magazine for pizzeria owners. The 2026 Pizza Industry Trends Report came out on December 1, 2025, and one line stood out for anyone who loves a spicy slice. It says hot honey "has taken over the pizza world," and it isn't slowing down.

Food writers have a cute name for the combination, "swicy," short for sweet and spicy. On pizza it usually means chili-infused honey drizzled over a hot pie, most often one loaded with pepperoni or another spicy cured meat. If you've never tried it, it sounds odd. Once you have, plain pepperoni can feel like it's missing something.

We have our own sweet-heat pie on the menu. The trend itself started in a neighborhood pizzeria in Brooklyn, a borough our menu likes to name-drop.

Where did hot honey on pizza come from?

In 2004, a college student named Mike Kurtz was studying abroad in Brazil when he walked into a small family pizzeria that kept jars of honey infused with chili peppers right on the tables. According to CNBC's telling of the story, the first taste stuck with him, and back home he started experimenting with his own version.

In August 2010, Kurtz was working as an apprentice at Paulie Gee's, a pizzeria in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn. He brought in his honey. The owner, Paulie Gee, liked it, and it went onto a pie topped with soppressata and mozzarella. They called it the Hellboy. Customers kept asking about the honey, so for a few months Kurtz sold it out of a pint container kept behind the pizza oven. Then he started bottling it, and by mid-2011 the Brooklyn Paper was reporting that 12-ounce bottles were on sale at the restaurant and online.

That bottle became Mike's Hot Honey. CNBC reported it later reached Whole Foods in 2014, and it went on to pizzerias and grocery shelves across the country. The Hellboy is still a best-seller at Paulie Gee's. Not bad for a souvenir from a semester abroad.

Why sweet and heat taste so good together

Spicy food burns because of capsaicin, the compound in chili peppers. It sets off the same pain sensors in your mouth that react to real heat, which is why your tongue feels "hot" even when the food is room temperature.

Sugar helps calm that burn. In a 2022 study published in the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Dentistry, researchers at Mahidol University in Thailand gave volunteers a dose of capsaicin and then had them rinse with plain water, milk, or sugar water at different strengths. A rinse with the strongest sugar solution eased the burning noticeably better than water did. The authors also pointed back to older research that found a sugar rinse worked about as well as cold whole milk.

So when you bite into a hot honey slice, the honey gives the heat a soft landing. You still feel the kick, but it rolls in and fades instead of piling up. That means you can eat a spicier pie than you'd otherwise enjoy, and you can keep eating it.

Pizza gives the honey even more to work with. Pepperoni and bacon bring salt and fat, melted cheese brings richness, and honey cuts through all of it, the way a little sweet sauce perks up a salty plate of wings.

Is hot honey a fad? What the 2026 forecasts say

A few years ago it was fair to wonder if hot honey would fade. The forecasts for 2026 say it hasn't. Technomic, a big restaurant research firm, listed what it called the "Swicy Swerve" in its 2026 predictions. It said the sweet-meets-spicy combination would keep picking up steam and keep turning up in new pairings beyond honey.

The same Pizza Today report had good news for the old guard, too. New York-style pizza still sits at the top of America's favorite pizza styles, and pepperoni is still the country's number one topping. Put those two facts next to the hot honey boom and you get a pretty clear picture of what a lot of people want right now, which is a classic New York pie with pepperoni and a little sweet heat on top. That happens to describe one of ours.

Meet The Brooklyn Sting

The Brooklyn Sting is our nod to the trend and to the borough where it started. It's topped with pepperoni, bacon, ricotta, mozzarella, crushed red pepper, Mike's Hot Honey, and cayenne. Yes, that's the same honey that started on the Hellboy in Greenpoint.

The pepperoni crisps at the edges in the oven and brings the classic spice, bacon adds smoke and extra crunch, and crushed red pepper and cayenne push the heat up a notch. Mozzarella holds it all together on our New York-style crust. Then the creamy ricotta and the drizzle of hot honey cool things back down, and the honey tastes sweet first and spicy second.

It's hot without being punishing, and a good first try for anyone who swears they don't like sweet things on pizza. The Brooklyn Sting comes in 12", 16", and 18" sizes, so you can grab a small one to try alongside your usual order or go big for the table.

If you like the sweet-heat idea but want to build your own, add jalapeños as a topping to bring the heat. On the wing side, Sweet Thai Chili is sweet heat in sauce form.

The slice test: how to judge any pizzeria

Before you judge a pizzeria by its fanciest specialty pie, order one plain cheese slice. It's an old pizza-lover's trick, because a cheese slice has nowhere to hide.

What to look for:

• The fold. A good New York slice folds down the middle without cracking, and the tip stays up instead of flopping.

• The bottom. Flip it over. You want some browning and a few darker spots, not a pale, soft underside.

• The balance. Sauce, cheese and crust should all get a say. No pool of grease, no sauce drowning everything.

• The crust edge. It should be crisp outside and chewy inside, good enough that you want to finish it.

If the cheese slice passes, the specialty pies are worth your time, because the basics underneath them are right. They start with the same crust as that slice.

We sell pizza by the slice, so you can run the test on us. A cheese slice is $2.99, and you can add toppings to a slice for $0.75 each. If you're trying to decide on the best pizza place in Kissimmee for your family, start there. And when you want to know more about how we make our pies, our page Best Pizza Place in Kissimmee covers the rest.

Tips for ordering and eating hot honey pizza

A few things we've learned from watching people dig into sweet-heat pies:

Eat it hot. The honey is at its best while it's still soaking into warm pepperoni, so if you're taking it home, grab it as soon as it's ready.

Reheat leftovers in a skillet, not the microwave. A dry pan over medium heat crisps the bottom back up in a few minutes, and a lid for the last minute melts the cheese again. The microwave turns the crust chewy and makes the honey run.

Pair it with something cool. A cold fountain drink or a side salad gives your mouth a break between bites. For dessert, a slice of New York-style cheesecake is a smooth way to put out the last of the fire.

Bring a spice skeptic, because hot honey pizza can surprise people. Order a Brooklyn Sting next to a plain cheese or pepperoni pie, let everyone try a slice, and see who comes back for more.

Come by our dining room at 3158 Bill Beck Blvd, in the Walmart Plaza on Osceola Parkway, and grab a booth under the New York skyline. You can also order online for pickup or delivery, or call us at (407) 933-8800.