hello everyone this is running on empty Food review well hello ladies gentlemen and everyone
watching welcome one and all to this newest edition of The Running on Empty Food review
series I'm your host the report of the week thanks for checking in a double review is
in the works right now this is probably one of the most hyped up releases from Taco Bell in a
long time they announced this all the way back in January and they've finally done it for the third
time since the 1990s Taco Bell's volcano menu is back it's back it'll be here for a limited time
I have gotten the two new volcano menu items that they've released and I'm gonna try them both
the volcano menu is available right now for a Taco Bell rewards members so if you use the Taco Bell
app you can get it early however starting on June 29th anyone can get it and then you could just go
to Taco Bell you could go put in a delivery order you could go into the store go to the
drive-through and get these items as well there's a lot of demand there's a lot of interest and I
just want to try out these two items see how they are take it from there so this is going to be a
pretty quick straightforward review because again otherwise I'll be here for about 45 minutes so
they have a volcano taco and a volcano burrito now obviously given the name of
everything spice is the emphasis here and these are supposed to be very spicy items in the past
they were very well received and that's why of course there's so much hype surrounding this so
first and foremost we have the volcano Taco it's available at the price of two dollars and
49 cents it is a hard a shell taco comes with seasoned beef cheese lettuce and lava sauce
I also got the volcano burrito available at the price of four dollars with that you can get beef
rice cheese Fiesta strips sour cream and lava sauce I think as you could obviously see the big
emphasis here is the lava sauce so we're going to see how hot this is how spicy it is how good it is
I was able to get this somewhat early had to go over to the Taco Bell to get it and um despite all
the hype this was a pretty new Taco Bell it opened just a couple years ago even four years back there
used to be a line wrapped around the building and uh there's no one there it's like a ghost town and
when I I got the food it didn't smell all that good it still doesn't and I know people might be
saying out there you say that about Taco Bell but it is what it is I'm just going to describe it as
I see it just because it smells a certain way it doesn't mean of course that it's a bad item may
not be the case at all um but this is something to be aware of and uh obviously Taco Bell you know
the in person interests that you see just isn't what it used to be but that doesn't mean that they
can't have a good product and again uh there still is a lot of excitement for this new release okay
so starting out with the volcano taco has a red shell and you can see it's a hard
shell taco there's the seasoned beef uh that's the sauce right there that kind of
no it's like a yellowish orange then you could see the cheese and the lettuce so there's again
a good look at it a very eye-catching shell I'm gonna try this out first let you know what it
tastes like then I'll go into the burrito try that out I'll be giving two separate ratings
because this will be two reviews in one so trying out the volcano taco from Taco Bell it's going in
all right volcano taco generally as far as the quality of the taco is concerned it's
your basic Taco Bell quality obviously the main ingredient here that's different from
everything else is the sauce the lava sauce so as far as the seasoned beef the cheese and the
lettuce all that is about what you would expect from Taco Bell fast food quality but the beef
is actually pretty flavorful despite any sort of smell that uh perhaps the order initially
had the taste does not reflect that and that's good that's exactly what you would hope to see
the lettuce it's actually a little better a little better than I thought it was going
to be as well so that's good news too the lettuce isn't soggy it seemed pretty fresh
crisp the cheese is basic so as far as like this being a hard shell taco from Taco Bell
standard quality yeah it's not going to be Gourmet restaurant quality but it's good enough for what
it is totally acceptable the lava sauce here's the interesting thing and uh then I'll just try out
the burrito and see if this is similar the thing about this lava sauce which is pretty cool to me
when I bit into it I could kind of taste it right and I think we've all had certain
spicy foods so I think we know these sorts of things you know those sorts of spices and sauces
where you take a bite and the spice is not immediately noticeable and it's like you're kind
of waiting for it and it's like all right when is it actually gonna kick in is it actually that
spicy I'm not really tasting it Etc and then after like a delay of maybe 20 to 30 seconds
then it hits that precisely is how this sauce is I took those bites I was waiting because I know
people have said yeah that lava sauce is supposed to be really really spicy I was sitting here I was
waiting for it I was like all right I'm not really tasting it it doesn't seem uh like it's all that
hot what's really going on here then 20 seconds in it hits that's not to say that this is the hottest
sauce I've ever had far from it but I will say as far as Taco Bell is concerned this is definitely
one of their spiciest sauces that is obvious to me where the spice is strong it's potent
it hits with a slight delay and it lingers mostly in the back of my mouth similar to an item I think
I tried out these spicy nuggets from Burger King in a previous review and if you remember that if
you watch that video similar to that I mentioned that the spice will kind of start in the back of
the mouth and then gradually work its way forward and that's exactly what's Happening Here wherever
the spice again first materializes way in the back of my tongue and then it kind of works its way
forward it especially lingers on as a very spicy aftertaste so with every word that I enunciate you
know I'm kind of exhaling and the spice is coming back up a bit but it's definitely lingering on
and even those sips of the Baja Blast that I took did not quell the spice so it's definitely a spicy
item even though it's not really materializing it's like I could feel my nose is starting to get
a little bit runny so it is manifesting a sort of physical reaction and the the powerful nature of
this spice eventually starts outweighing all the other ingredients of this Taco so when you first
go in you're gonna first notice okay the beef and the lettuce and the cheese Etc the texture right
the hard shell but then that sauce hits you and as soon as it does that dominates the rest of the
item and that eventually is all that you could really taste so it's not the spiciest sauce in
the world but I should mention it's definitely potent definitely does have good spice to it
it's long lasting and if you are more sensitive to spice then you will really feel this and make sure
you have a nice cool drink to go along with this because you will need it but overall they have
a whole novelty here is the lava sauce and I am pleased to say the lava sauce did not disappoint
2.49 for this limited time item price is good enough All Things Considered that it's a special
sauce limited time it's back after so long so uh I'd say it met expectations quality is fine and
again the sauce definitely packs a punch out of 10 to therefore I'm going to give the volcano taco
an 8 out of ten very happy with the quality and I think they did a good job
with all the spice all right and next and I'm sorry for that little cut right there because I
just wanted to get the other item organized and what I also wanted to do most importantly and I
thought just may as well do it then I wanted to cut the burrito in half just so you could get the
adequate cross section of course because as you'll see this burrito it looks you know just like
a regular Burrito on the exterior so the volcano burrito it's available again for the price of four
dollars has the beef Fiesta strips rice sour cream cheese and the lava sauce so I cut it in half
right there and that's what it looks like so you could definitely see a lot of the rice in there
some of the beef as well the white is the sour cream and again that sort of orange yellow Hue
that it has to it that's a lot of the volcano or the lava sauce my apologies mixed in there
so that's what it looks like as far as the cross section is concerned and you can see why I took a
moment to do it because from the outside looks like an indistinguishable burrito and I also
think that you know once it's cut in half you could just get a better profile of it I think
it could taste more Etc so hope that makes sense that's why I kind of did that sort of
went with that sort of methodology perhaps all right the volcano Taco packed a punch
I could really taste that long-lived spice what I essentially want to do now because we already
know at this point what the lava sauce tastes like is this does this taste good and if it
is as spicy so that's what I'm going to discern now the volcano burrito from Taco Bell going in
quality wise I would say it's very similar to the Taco to the extent that the quality
of it is exactly what you would expect from Taco Bell so again the beef is good enough
it's flavorful the ingredients seem fresh enough the um sour cream is the one thing
I can't really taste all that much of it's like I can identify it I can see it
but I can't really taste it the rice as you could probably see I would say that there's more rice in
this burrito than there is anything else there is definitely more meat in the taco so despite
this burrito being a bit bigger it's filled more with just various filler as opposed to the meat
this is on the cheesier side that is one thing that I definitely noticed as I was eating this I
could definitely taste the cheese sauce that's in it way more so it's much cheesier than the
taco so it's like that might not be a huge deal to some but obviously if you really like
all things cheesy then I would say the burrito would probably be better for you in that regard
now as far as the lava sauce is concerned here's the interesting thing to me and I can only speak
from my experience here having tried now the taco and this burrito but to me the taco seems to be
spicier than the burrito I think maybe it has to do with the fact that on the taco the sauce was
more concentrated and there were less ingredients for the sauce to have to compete against so to
speak it's like that sauce is definitely there in the burrito I could definitely notice it it
has all the same characteristics that the sauce exhibited in the volcano taco but it just doesn't
seem anywhere near as strong and by that I mean anywhere near as perhaps concentrated
so that's what I really notice here is that the lava sauce it has the delayed reaction it has that
spicy aftertaste but it's maybe only like half as spicy if even as the volcano Taco itself was
and I think again it's just maybe there's just more competing ingredients in the burrito so
that's the only thing that I really notice here that's just a bit different to me don't
get me wrong it's still spicy but it's just not to the level that the taco itself was
I would say given that it's Taco Bell and you know how much variability there really is
with these sorts of items I would say
I'm just thinking
my experience might just be a bit of an outlier where it's like there might be
more sauce because I just don't want to I don't want to say order the burrito with extra sauce
when it might be too much but just know from my experience
the the taco itself is way more spicy to me again then the burrito was bear that in mind burrito is
cheesier still some spice not to the level that the taco itself was though bear that in mind still
good though still tastes good still packs a punch four dollars is the price therefore out of ten
I am going to be giving the volcano burrito a 7.2 out of 10. good but not as spicy
so there you have it I enjoyed the taco more than the burrito both are still good
and both are still producing a bit of a reaction with like the mucus and stuff so I'm sorry if my
delivery is a little weird I just keep feeling like I have to clear my throat
and all of that but anyway spicy tastes good and that's what matters most go with the taco in my
opinion burrito's so good but if you really want that spice make sure you get the taco
and as far as the burrito goes just be aware the sauce may not be as potent that's all
that I have for you thanks for watching until next time I'm your host the report of the week