Taco Bell, along with Jack in the Box, have done the heavy lifting in pulling fast food chains towards more inventive fare. They had the Doritos Locos taco. Their breakfast menu changed the fast food breakfast game. In short, they’re always looking to push the envelope and see how far people can go. Sure, some of that is pandering towards millennials and looking for that perfect Instagram/Snapchat worthy food, but there is a certain nobility in going crazy and seeing what tastes good, as opposed to ideas that need to be sent to the glue factory. There is no Whopperito, without Taco Bell, and do we want to live in a world without the Whopperito? Instead of going upmarket and seeking to cater to a more health conscious clientele, Taco Bell doubles down on what they know best.
That being said, I was happy to see commercials for the new Cheesy Core Burritos, giving me an excuse to head to Taco Bell and get some solid #content for the blog. The Cheesy Core Burritos come at three price points, depending on your choice of protein: $2.29 (ground beef), $3.09 (chicken), and $3.29 (steak). You can also get a box for $6.39 which includes a Cheesy Core Burrito, Doritos Locos Taco, crunchy taco, and soda. I opted for the ground beef individual burrito, since I was eating two… and going to Burger King after this. In the interest of full disclosure, I also ordered a crunchy taco, which was delicious but completely unnecessary (Taco Bell also has a new Diablo sauce, which seems to have replaced fire. I’m not a fan. It tastes bitter.).
Taco Bell describes the Crunchy Cheesy Core Burrito as “a warm melted 3-Cheese blend, warm Nacho Cheese sauce and Crunchy Red Strips. With a melty, cheesy center surrounded by Seasoned Beef, Premium Latin Rice, Reduced-Fat Sour Cream and a flavorful Red Sauce.” Yes, they did capitalize all those words. My first reaction upon picking up the burrito was realizing that it was pretty hefty. Then I looked at all the food in front of me and realized I’d committed to consuming way too much in such a short time span. Never say I’m not dedicated.
Anyway, this looked and was sized like a normal burrito you could get at any normal Mexican place, i.e. not an enormous way too big for one sitting Chipotle burrito. A sensible portion. My first bite was all tortilla, which is a terrible first impression, but also typical of Taco Bell burritos so it wasn’t surprising. The Crunchy Cheesy Core Burrito also had the common issue of improper distribution of ingredients. It actually felt like two different burrito experiences: half had all of the toppings, and the other half was just tortilla. I’m not sure if this meant that the tortilla was too big, or just a poor wrap job, but I wouldn’t have been pleased if this was my main food of a meal.
Moving on to the actual taste, when I took one of those bites with all the fillings, it was good! The red chips are the differentiator between this and the Spicy Cheesy Core Burrito, and they make a huge difference. Because a burrito can run into the problem where everything has the same general texture, having the chips to provide crunch breaks up the monotony and works really well. I also made sure to eat this first, so the chips would not get soggy. If you are a slow eater, soggy chips will be a problem towards the end of the Crunchy Cheesy Core Burrito experience. The problem may have been exacerbated because I paused between every bite to take notes.
As for the rest of the burrito, there was a lot of cheese and rice in here. Rice is a natural filler, and it was fine, if a little bland. I like rice in burritos though, so as long as it doesn’t taste bad, then I’ll view it favorably. For the cheese, I really only tasted the Nacho Cheese. As someone who is a fan of Nacho Cheese and thinks it should appear in more menu items, I liked it. I’ve never had it in a burrito before, but now that I’ve experienced it, I would not be opposed to seeing it again. The cheese gave the most flavor to the burrito because it’s in every bite. It also dominated because it seemed to be light on ground beef. I couldn’t get many composed bites because there was ground beef at the top, and at the bottom, but not really in the middle. As mentioned before, bites with all the ingredients were good! There were just too few of them.
There was sour cream. I’m not sure why, and I don’t think it was necessary. I also made no note of the “flavorful” red sauce, so I have no comment.
The Crunchy Cheesy Core Burrito is basically a standard Taco Bell burrito with extra cheese, so if you’ve eaten one before, you already know if you’ll like this or not. Taco Bell isn’t exactly reinventing the wheel by stuffing some more cheese and some chips inside a burrito, but I’m not complaining; it hit the spot. While I wouldn’t say one of these made me full, if you order the box or get some more items to go along with it, I think you’ll be happy. The only real complaint is the composition of the burrito, but that’s a general risk when ordering a burrito.
Fast Food Connoisseur 
I grabbed one of these shortly after they released, and was wholly unimpressed.
My local T-Bell usually does a good job of ingredient distribution (especially in burritos) but this was a mess. If there was a cheesy “core” it was nowhere to be found and rather just kind of made the burrito extra cheesy. Consider it a minor complaint, but it didn’t make me want to stray from my normal chalupa/crunchwrap order combination.
They also gave me a regular taco in place of the fiery Doritos Locos Taco. That did not please me, I felt duped by that box. I’ll also note that some places up here still carry the Fire sauce and not the Diablo sauce, so I always stock up on Diablo when I see it. You should see my fridge.
Did you get the crunchy or spicy? I liked crunchy more but thought the spicy had a better defined cheesy “core.” The Taco Bell I went to yesterday had both Fire and Diablo, which I hope is a regular thing.
[…] now we’re focused on the Spicy Cheesy Core Burrito (see the Crunchy Cheesy Core Burrito review here). Pricing is the same for the Spicy Cheesy Core Burrito as it is for the Crunchy Cheesy Core […]