Hello everyone, this is running on empty
Food review. Well, hello, ladies and gentlemen and everyone watching
This is running on empty food view and I am your host in the report of the week. So Taco Bell has done it again
They did it again. They they did be unimaginable this time around
They released a new item. That's right
I'm just gonna give you a couple seconds, maybe two and a half seconds to process that they actually released a new item
Which is unprecedented?
quite frankly and
This isn't just any new item. This is something that's never been seen before
Something that has never even been conceived
even you know
There's there are government think tanks out there that are trying to come up with all the possible
Taco Bell items and this one hasn't even it's not even on the radar. So this is this is big.
Taco Bell has just released the
toasted cheddar chalupa
What a name right there you might be saying what exactly is
toasted cheddar chalupa
Well, it's all about the shell
Sometimes you have items where alright it's about the ingredients
Maybe they'll do something with the seasoned beef or they'll do something with the toppings
they'll have a special sauce or something and other times they do something with let's say the
Presentation or the the shell or whatever it comes in? And this is a prime example of it
It's a standard chalupa that comes with beef lettuce tomato
cheddar cheese and sour cream
Alright pretty standard for what it is. You could always swap it out and could get some chicken or some of their
infamous steak right there
But here's what makes it so special
Instead of just being a your regular plain boring old chalupa. What makes it the toasted cheddar chalupa
It's all about that chalupa shell
Because this comes with aged cheddar cheese and baked into the shell
So they try to I guess get a little bit more of a pronounced cheddar cheese type of flavor
Likewise, of course trying to bake something into the shell gives it this little more refined air,
not by much, but you know, it kind of makes it a little more artisan esque and
It's got not just your old regular cheddar cheese, but it's got like...
I guess it is old cheddar cheese because they claim it to be aged cheddar cheese
Right. Now the big debate is really on what this tastes like, but how old this cheddar cheese is exactly currently
We have estimates going from yesterday to over
14,000 years believe it or not
So there's a lot of debate going on as to how old this cheddar cheese is as of now, though
no one knows price for this on its own is
$2.49 though
of course as many things with Taco Bell
It also comes in a little bit of a specialized a box a meal deal for the price of five dollars
You can also get it with two tacos hard shell or soft shell and also a drink. That's what I did
I got it with the
box deal and then the drink baja blast
So that's what it all comes down to
Otherwise again, it's like a pretty basic item. So I think we know everything that there is to know about it
Now we'll just open up the box and we'll take a look. All right, you can see
and there it is on the
Right there. You can see those are just a plain regular tacos right there
Look at this a little closer
See it even has the special wrapping right there. It says special that's why it's special
We already have well there was a stray tomato take my word on it
And here it is I'll tell you this I can smell the cheddar cheese
yeah, I can really smell it it definitely very very
potent
Alright, that's what it looks like right there. You can definitely see that baked
baked cheddar cheese right on the shoulders more than I thought there was gonna be
Honestly, and then inside you can actually see the the meat and the tomatoes
And the lettuce and the more cheese that's in there
But it looks like a very crispy shell and I can definitely see quite a good amount that
Yeah baked in cheddar cheese, so that's the whole
Selling point of it, right? This is what they've got
And it's there. I mean I can confirm that big question is how does it taste at this point in time?
That's what we're gonna find out
That's um, what does it say? Cheddar
Chalupa right there. Let me yeah, let's do this
There we go
All right, let's say you know what's in it. I know it's in it and you see it
You can definitely see that cheddar cheese baked so well with that, I mean again, I think it speaks for itself now
We're just gonna see what it tastes like so it is the toasted cheddar chalupa
Definitely some toasted cheddar on it. We're gonna try it. I don't let you know what it tastes like what's going in
Get this here we go
Cross section now take two more bites
As always keep in mind
My new podcast is currently out
This week's show features some good discussion, and it's apolitical
It's a civilized discussion on whether looks matter in politics. It's an interesting show
Anyway, check it out youtube.com/vorwpodcast or on iTunes Spotify
Just search VORW. So I just getting the word out one more bite and then I'll let you know what I think
Disaster was averted there good I
Got to tell you when it comes down to this item my feelings toward it are completely it's like middle-of-the-road
All right, I by no means do I hate it
But I will say by no means
Do I feel it to be the best thing I've ever had like
This is a completely I would say neutral item. As a matter of fact, I would say from the initial appearance
I think I had a little higher expectations
But it's it's kind of weird because there's nothing about it that really detracts from the taste nothing about it
That really is saying I hate this I hate this it's a so bad
right, but it's just the way they make it look with the toasted cheddar makes it seem like
It gives us illusion that it's gonna be a little more on the gourmet side than it really is
And the one thing I think is that the toasted cheddar
in this shell,
It just gets a little too
Almost oily, you know, I guess it's maybe when they just baked it into the shell or something
it's like this this shell was kind of loaded with this a little bit of an oil and
once you finally get into the taco itself and it's sour cream and the tomatoes actually
It's necessary to offset that rest of that flavor that just gets a little bit a little bit overpowering otherwise
And I mean the shell looks nice. Don't get me wrong. It's very aesthetically pleasing taco to be quite honest
But it's just the shell just gets a little monotonous. It gets a little just a little too
cheesy is the best way to put it consists those baked in cheese and it just kids it's kind of dry and
Bland and monotonous and get this oil that doesn't really contribute any flavor
and then you finally work into the taco and then you get the meat then you get the sour cream and
The tomatoes and some of the other cheddar cheese and that all blends together fine, right? That's a standard chalupa
I've never had a problem with those it's usually a pretty solid item and that works out well, but like I said
It's not like it gets up. We're too so bad
But it definitely could be better. So my feelings toward this item are mixed it definitely
execution-wise
It is what they said. It was gonna be
It's not like I try this and there's a war there's one piece of the cheddar cheese baked into the shell
But I think for the way that it looks I expected it to taste a little bit better
So there's one of those things where it looks might be a little bit
deceiving because it's just
It's very standard. I would say average at best
because I could definitely eat this but I
Just I would have hoped for a little bit more in terms of quality when it comes down to it
Now real quick what I'm gonna do even though it comes with the sour...
Sorry, yeah, the sour cream. I'm just gonna pour a tiny bit of fire sauce on it. But again price for this
$2.49 $5 for the meal deal. Let me just for a tiny bit of fire sauce, and then we'll finish things up
but yeah, I mean I
Just would have expected a little bit more when it comes down to this
I
Mean
the spice that it gives at the fire sauce is nice doesn't really offset that I just
overwhelming monotony
On the show and all the Parmesan cheese baked into it out of 10 therefore
I'm gonna give it a four point nine out of ten
Definitely lacking in some pretty obvious ways to mean still edible
It's not something that I'm I'm vomiting up presently
If I do I will keep you posted but nothing to that extent, but definitely for this type of item
I would have expected a little bit better execution, especially for how it looked initially. That's all I have for you
ladies and gentlemen
I'm your host the report of the week Taco Bell was very hit-or-miss and
With with the amount of releases that they always pump out. We'll hope for better the next time around. Thank you and take care
I'll see you later with another video