Being a regular Taco Bell customer can be a rollercoaster of emotions. No other major fast-food chain shakes up its offerings so frequently, constantly adding new menu items while abruptly dropping others. One day, your favorite order will be right there waiting for you. The next day—poof!—it’s gone, with no indication of when, if ever, it’s coming back. Just ask fans of the Enchirito or Mexican pizza, two beloved foodstuffs that Taco Bell unceremoniously dumped over the years.
With every breakup, however, there remains a glimmer of hope for a joyous reunion someday. Both the Enchirito and Mexican pizza eventually came back, albeit only briefly in the former’s case. And that’s what lovers of four bygone Taco Bell delicacies can now look forward to with today’s launch of Taco Bell’s new Decades Menu.
The prolific Mexican chain has returned one popular item from four decades. These limited-time comebacks include the Tostada, an original item from Taco Bell’s first menu in the early 1960s; the Green Sauce Burrito, which was popular in the 1970s; the much-missed Meximelt from the 1980s; and the Gordita Supreme, which rose to prominence in the 1990s. A fifth item, the early-aughts sensation Caramel Apple Empanada, will eventually join the group of returning throwback faves next month.
Curious how well these specters of Taco Bell past would resonate with contemporary tastes, I rambled on down to my nearest Taco Bell to try each one. Here’s how they tasted, each ranked in descending order, beginning with my least favorite and counting down to the one nostalgic bite that still holds up.
’60s Tostada
Nutrition: (Per 1 Tostada)
Calories: 170
Fat: 7 g (Saturated Fat: 2.5 g)
Sodium: 420 mg
Carbs: 20 g (Fiber: 5 g, Sugar: <1 g)
Protein: 6 g
The Tostada was one of the original Taco Bell menu items, dating back to 1962. And it’s clear from the makeup of this very simple preparation that the chain didn’t hit its creative streak until many, many years later. Refried beans are smeared atop a crispy, fried tortilla, then topped with a tangy red sauce and shreds of lettuce and yellow cheese. It was the cheapest of all four “Decades” items at just $2.49.
The look: Very basic. The combination of brown, yellow, and light green ingredients, with just a hint of reddish-brown, didn’t do much to inspire an appetite. It looked like something you might slap together when the cupboard was close to bare. I was most encouraged to get this one over with and move on to the other, more tantalizing options.
The taste: Pretty square—especially for a circular-shaped food. The yellow-corn tortilla was perfectly crispy and held up under the weight of all the toppings. The beans were creamy, the sauce was plentiful and mildly zesty, and the shredded lettuce added a second layer of crunch. The cheese was so mild it was hardly noticeable. It’s easy to be underwhelmed by it all. This was unquestionably the easiest of the four to replicate at home, and probably not worth the schlep on its own. Reputedly, the ’60s were a simpler time, and this middling tostada is proof of that.
’90s Gordita Supreme
Nutrition: (Per 1 Gordita)
Calories: 280
Fat: 11 g (Saturated Fat: 4.5 g)
Sodium: 560 mg
Carbs: 31 g (Fiber: 3 g, Sugar: 5 g)
Protein: 13 g
The ’90s was certainly more my decade than any of the others, so I was expecting to feel a bit more nostalgic from digging into this Gordita Supreme, which features ground beef, lettuce, diced tomatoes, sour cream, and a blend of mozzarella, cheddar, and Monterey Jack cheeses, all stuffed into warm flatbread. Maybe that’s just the teen angst coming back, but I was pretty nonplussed with the whole experience. Another reason for the disillusionment. This item cost the most of all four at $3.99.
The look: More colorful than the tostada, anyway, with pinkish red tomato cubes popping out from an ample heap of lettuce and cheese shreds. The flatbread looked stone white and doughy with brown marks along the edges like it spent at least a little time warming up on the griddle.
The taste: Rich and creamy. The flavor of the well-seasoned ground beef, combined with the cold sour cream dressing, rose to the forefront, while the flatbread provided a soft and chewy vessel for the whole mixture. It’s a perfectly fine, taco-like thing, but still rather unremarkable, especially compared to two others.
’70s Green Sauce Burrito
Nutrition: (Per 1 Burrito)
Calories: 370
Fat: 10 g (Saturated Fat: 4.5 g)
Sodium: 1,040 mg
Carbs: 55 g (Fiber: 9 g, Sugar: 4 g)
Protein: 13 g
Many Americans remember the 1970s for its bell-bottom trousers, disco dancing, and Jell-O molds. Taco Bell has chosen to commemorate the decade with something more palatable than any of those things—a zippy green salsa made from green chilis, tomatillos, jalapeño peppers, and other spices, which gives this Green Burrito its name. The viridescent item cost me $2.69.
The look: Literally full of beans. The thing was so stuffed with the smooshed legumes that it was hard at first to spot the other ingredients. A speck of diced onion here, a strand of melty cheese there, and a faint glimmer of green sauce were the only visual cues giving this overwhelming mass of brown any sort of character. It’s certainly the least visually appealing of the four.
The taste: Surprisingly tangy. That sauce, while largely hiding in plain sight, packed a delightfully flavorful punch. It was bright, fruity, and moderately spicy, giving this otherwise bland wrap an eye-opening kick. I’d happily take a side of that green sauce with any entrée, any time. Even so, there was one throwback item that I liked even more.
’80s Meximelt
Nutrition: (Per 1 Meximelt)
Calories: 250
Fat: 13 g (Saturated Fat: 7 g)
Sodium: 720 mg
Carbs: 21 g (Fiber: 3 g, Sugar: 2 g)
Protein: 13 g
A mainstay of the Taco Bell menu for three decades before its demise in 2018, the Meximelt is one of the “most requested comeback items,” according to the chain. And it’s easy to see why. One Taco Bell fan site described it as “cross between a Fresco Soft Taco and a quesadilla,” featuring seasoned beef, pico de gallo, and blend of mozzarella, cheddar, and Monterey Jack, all tucked inside a flour tortilla. The much-missed item cost me $2.99.
The look: Molten. Peeling back the tortilla revealed a tantalizing cheese pull that fused together the meat and all the trimmings within. It was a messy, but colorful conglomeration, with pops of red tomato and flecks of green seasonings amid the lava-like flow of yellow cheese.
The taste: Craveable—and I don’t use that term lightly. From the first bite, it was the obvious winner. The Meximelt packed the same tasty ground beef and three-cheese blend as the Gordita, but the flavors just meld so much better when the cheese is all melted and gooey. That, in tandem with the zesty pico, put this item over the top. The Meximelt also left me with a pleasant, savory aftertaste that lingered and made me actually want to order a second round.
One thing that might make it even better: a dose of that excellent green sauce from the burrito. Hear me out, Taco Bell innovation team: Green Meximelt—now that’s something to bring all the generations together.
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