Why Taco Bell Is Now Serving Cheez-its
Taco Bell has added another novel, albeit unexpected, limited edition its to its menus. The chain is now serving Cheez-its.
Taco Bell has had a whirlwind of press lately. Most of it has come from its limited-edition items, like the Mexican Pizza. The Mexican Pizza craze was accelerated by the menu item’s biggest fan, Dolly Parton. With all this attention on Taco Bell, the restaurant chain has decided to add another beloved food to its roster: Cheez-Its.
Taco Bell isn’t just releasing Cheez-Its as a side order but putting the chip inside two different meals for brand new creations. The Cheez-It Tostada will have the cracker as a base instead of a regular, flat taco shell, topped with layers of ground beef, sour cream, tomatoes, lettuce, and cheese. The tostada will cost $2.49 each and will only be available at the Taco Bell Irvine, California location. The cracker inside the menu item is 16 times the size of a regular Cheez-It, ensuring you’ll get all the cheesy and salty flavors with each bite.
The Cheez-It Tostada isn’t the only new item on Taco Bell’s summer menu. A second item will also come with the salty snack, called the Big Cheez-It Crunchwrap Supreme. Most Taco Bell fans already know the legacy of the Crunchwrap Supreme: a wrapped tortilla stuffed with ground beef, nacho cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and sour cream. The Cheez-It version is almost identical, with a giant cracker placed at the bottom of the packed Crunchwrap.
Many might be wondering, why are these new menu items only available in one city in America? Taco Bell has regularly used its home base, Southern California, as the titular spot for testing out new meals and sides. Irvine might seem like a random spot to have the only limited-edition Cheez-It menu additions. Still, it’s standard for Taco Bell to try out new products in this specific area before expanding them nationwide.
Last year, Taco Bell used the Southern California vicinity to test its plant-based protein with willing customers. The meatless protein is wholly made of peas and garbanzo beans and was placed inside a limited-edition taco for an Orange County location. The fast-food chain collaborated with Beyond Meat for this pea-based product, concocting other meatless options to see which would satisfy Taco Bell consumers. The chain is known as one of the best vegetarian fast-food options due to its available substitution of black beans for ground meat. The company wants to continue its vegetarian-friendly legacy by introducing new meatless options for its loyal customers.
Taco Bell has always been a fast-food chain to revamp its menu while collaborating with other food companies. Doritos has been a prominent ingredient in many popular menu items, including Doritos Locos Tacos and the Nachos Doritos Locos Supreme. The partnership with the iconic snack brand paid off for Taco Bell, which sold 500 million Doritos Tacos in one year after it launched in 2012. Including more well-known snack brands into menu items can help increase the chain’s sales, which every chain is attempting to do in an abysmal economy.
Taco Bell is continuously advancing its products by testing new meatless options or adding inventive menu items to its roster. If they’re anything like the Doritos Tacos, then the Cheez-It Tostada and Big Cheez-It Crunchwrap Supreme will be great successes.
