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 thank you for checking in all right it is a guarantee
one of the only guaranteed things in this world pretty much but it is nonetheless a guarantee
that Taco Bell has a new item out yeah Taco Bell they are probably one of the most consistent
establishments out there in terms of fast food releases and this is no exception if there's one
place that always has new items coming out it's Taco Bell and they are continuing that Trend No
Doubt now this is it's a bit of a re-release with a little bit of a tweak so let me explain
if you are a frequent either viewer of this Channel or if you are a frequent Taco Bell
consumer or both then you may remember about a year or two ago Taco Bell released an item
called the crispy Cantina melt Taco I believe it was called well that is back with one change
it is no longer they got rid of the the Cantina part of the name and now it has returned as the
crispy melt taco so I guess we're not at the Cantina anymore now we're just at Taco Bell
here's what it has when I had it again I think it was like a year or two ago sometimes I lose
track of these uh releases when precisely they were released but here's what it has
it has a white corn shell so it's a hard taco in it is a melted three cheese blend
nacho cheese sauce seasoned beef sour cream lettuce tomato and shredded cheddar cheese
and it is available with the price of two dollars and 49 cents for the taco itself
so it's obviously heavier on the cheese and again it's supposed to be crispy crunchy has that melted
cheese blend therein and then of course the usual Fixins as they say lettuce tomato the seasoned
beef and uh and they say it'll all get tied together nicely and it'll make for a good cheap
eat as I said when I tried this out originally I didn't mind it I didn't have a problem with
it but as we know sometimes things do fluctuate with time and what I always like Discerning when
an item gets re-released are they maintaining the standards are they exceeding the standards
or have those standards just falling right off a cliff because that does indeed happen sometimes so
this Brown receptacle is not the crispy melt taco so if you're looking at this and you were
thinking what the heck is this this is the bag this is what they call a bag and that's what
houses the crispy melt Taco that's where it lives
I think I noted but again the price for this is 2.49 just for the taco itself
I did get a Baja Blast for the heck of it I mean why not it's it's fun to look at I
think it adds a little bit to the review foreign these days I am not a very big
soft drink consumer but Baja Blast is an exception always hits the spot
all right let's see what we have here
let's see
looks like it comes in its own little little um holder right here let's take a look
cheese escapee
foreign crispy cheesy
we also have
so that isn't like some red colored slug or anything that's actually a tomato escapee anyway
if we pull it comes in a little holder if we pull it out slightly all right now you can see
it has that whiter hard shell
and inside you can see a little bit there's some cheese seasoned beef lettuce
some of those Tomatoes the tomatoes really stand out I'm sure you can see
I'll try this out
my preliminary observation just based on what I'm seeing is uh the only thing so far it pretty much
looks exactly the same as I may call it being with one little exception it just doesn't seem as
cheesy as I remember it being the last time that's just me of course you know find out in a second
how it actually tastes but given that there's so much emphasis in terms of the cheesiness because
again there's that three cheese and blend there's the nacho cheese sauce and the shredded cheddar
cheese that are supposed to be on it immediately I just see the shredded cheddar cheese on the top
the ad if you look at the picture and obviously you know the expectations versus reality type of
thing that's always that's always the case with fast food but when you look at the ad
it makes it seem like the thing is just drenched in cheese but alas I really don't see any but that
doesn't mean that that isn't the case as a matter of fact let's let's give a proper assessment
let's look at the Ugg see look at this it was lurking it was lurking
now look at that
there's that cheese
a lot of very bright lights so I had to hold it extra close but there it is
there's that cheese seeping out the ends there
well I think this is what you don't like to see so for you I'll do it
I'll just bite right into the seepage I'm just gonna go in right they say you only live once so
it may as well like I said that's what we want to see so I'll just do it I'll just dive head first
into the seepage and uh and get into things all right crispy melt taco from Taco Bell going in
thank you
that was my mistake that was my mistake but I was an extremely extremely extremely unpleasant bite
that was you know that's just I I knew what I was getting into I couldn't swallow that
and I don't mean to be dramatic that's just how it was what happened was uh for the sake
of entertainment I suppose I I saw the big glob of cheese there and I bit straight into it and uh
it was just a mouthful that was all that there was there was a tiny little bit of the
shell and then a huge mouthful of just the it wasn't even the three cheese Glenda that was
actually just the pure nacho cheese sauce so imagine if you had a little bit of like a cup
full of the nacho cheese sauce from Taco Bell and he just squeezed like a good third of that into
your mouth and then we're expected to just swallow that hole I just couldn't get myself to do it but
that's just a distribution when it comes down to this I'm not even you know what
it just is what it is I'm not going to really hold that against them let's just take some
more rounded fights and give a fair assessment shall we that is what it is let's keep going
second bite was way better than the first
but as you know this is a common thing that you see with Taco Bell and any sorts of these items
the distribution of things is not always uniform so there is certainly going to be instances of
all those of you watching who decide to get this item there are going to be cases just
like that where you may be eating this and then you may find a pocket so to speak of an extreme
concentration of a certain ingredient some of you may really like that some of you may know
in my case again when I took that bite I actually I saw that there was a blob of cheese there that's
actually what the advertisement kind of portrays I I personally did not realize that the blob of
cheese in that first bite was going to be as big as it was because what happened is I bit in and
and behind it was this huge pocket of the the nacho cheese sauce and as I said it was the
equivalent of probably shooting a third of a of a cup of this sauce just in my mouth and then expect
it to just swallow it whole because there was no substance otherwise it was just pure nacho cheese
and it was horribly unpleasant and indeed and might have looked awkward it probably
looked like I was crawling under the desk or something but um I had to spit it out into a a
napkin and then dispose of it and I just tried to handle that with a bit of dignity it just
feels kind of wrong to just spit it out on on camera or something like that but it was just
I don't know I thought it was going to be better than it really was I guess that's all
so it is what it is but that variability is a very real thing
well here's the thing about it
that's sort of variability that you see from one Taco Bell item to the next that's
nothing new we see this time and time and time again and it's just the way it is
I've had these experiences where I'll bite in and it'll just be a bite where solely I only get the
season to be for solely it says the blob of sour cream and in this case I bit into that end there
expecting maybe a little bit of the nacho cheese sauce because that's what's portrayed in the ad
and then it's just an inedible mouthful of that that's not a problem specific to this item it's
merely a Taco Bell problem this is how it is but what I will mention I'm Not Really Gonna
I'm Not Really Gonna rag on them for that exclusively it just is what it is
the only thing that I just want to mention here is that by itself it's okay for what it is I'm
not going to say that it's the best item in the world nor am I going to say that it's the worst
item in the world but I will say that there's just one little thing about it that's just a little
I think it's a little iffy I think it's a valid criticism to mention when I look at the ad and
when I look at the marketing and when I look at even the name of this the crispy melt taco
all right in terms of the crispness to it I'd say they actually did a good job with that the
shell is crispy it's solid and there's no problem there at all it certainly does add that crunchy
crispy texture to it so that's totally fine the only thing that I mentioned because otherwise in
terms of the ingredients in terms of what I notice anyway is that you have the all right the seasoned
beef the lettuce the Tomato all that is just your standard Taco Bell quality uh the tomatoes are on
the fresher side at least which is good they're juicy the seasoned beef actually a pretty decent
amount of it I would say and uh oh the lettuce is there it's not the world's highest quality of
course I could really notice that shredded cheddar cheese and uh of course the nacho cheese sauce as
well but the thing that's a little disappointing is one of the big points here that's emphasized
in both the marketing and again the name is that three cheese blend that's essentially supposed
to be melted that's why they call it the crispy melt taco and what I notice is I'm eating this
and I don't know how well it would show up on a cross section so
I'll even just try to look you can't really see it all too well
um but if you look there yeah it doesn't it doesn't doesn't show up as well as they
they thought it would anyway if you look real close at that blob
no it's not really focusing anyway so what I'll what I'll describe is
you have that blob of the nacho cheese right there and on the top of it there's this tiny little span
that looks like it just has a few little strands of of cheese
that's the melted cheese there's barely any there's tons of the nacho cheese sauce and there's
tons of the shredded cheddar cheese but the actual melted cheese what the what really is this items
namesake and what strongly emphasized isn't there at least to the extent that I thought it would be
and the extent that it's marketed and the extent that um really you're given the impression that
it's that it's there so that's a problem just one of the key components and one of the key
core ingredients just isn't really there it's just lacking in that regard
this is actually a little bit of a Messier item than I expected it to be as well I'm gonna have
to wash my hands after this but anyway so that's just a problem obviously I just want the items I'm
not expecting some sort of five-star restaurant quality item or anything like that I know that
I'm just here at Taco Bell getting a 2.50 Taco so I'm not going to expect the world from this but
certainly when a certain impression is given when they say all right this is going to be a crispy
melt Taco of course you want there to be the crispy aspect of it as well as that melt aspect
and when that's not there and instead you just bite in and it's just this glorified blob of nacho
cheese sauce with some shredded cheddar cheese and barely any melted cheese then it's not really what
is advertised and that's just an important point that needs to be emphasized in that regard I'm
just going to move the plate real quick just so I could see the time okay because I'm looking at
the screen so I could find out how much memory I have left anyway getting to the end of the
amount of time left so on a final note it's just it's not perfect it's not the worst thing in the
world not the best thing in the world either just understand that it may be lacking a bit in terms
of that melt aspect but if you like the nacho cheese sauce and you like the shredded cheddar
cheese everything Blends together well enough it tastes all right but I wish it was heavier on that
melted side because that's the impression that's given that's what's portrayed in the name and the
ads and when it doesn't have that that's an issue there four out of ten I'm going to be giving the
crispy melt taco from Taco Bell a 5.8 out of 10 could certainly have a little bit of improvement
there and if it does it would certainly get bumped up a few points to uh a higher rating that's all
that I have for you thanks for watching and until next time I'm your host the report of the week