Taco Bell's Has 2 New Menu Items That Feature A Gigantic Cheez-It
In a press release, Taco Bell announced the debut of a duo of new products made in collaboration with Cheez-It, the iconic orange cracker that celebrated its 100th birthday last year (via Smithsonian Magazine). The chain's new Big Cheez-It items are anchored by a larger-than-life Cheez-It, which is 16 times the size of the average cracker (but still made with 100% real cheese).
This is hardly the first time that Taco Bell has joined forces with a popular packaged food brand. There has been an endless font of snack food collabs throughout the years: from Kit-Kat-stuffed quesadillas to Cheetos-filled burritos (via E! News). In 2012, the fast food chain teamed up with Frito Lay on the first iteration of the ultra-popular Doritos Locos Taco: a riff on its classic hard shell taco made coated with a layer of Doritos' Nacho Cheese seasoning, per Fast Company. The hybrid menu item was an instant hit for the brand, which Brand Eating reports sold over 450 million tacos within the first year of launching and over 1 billion tacos (including a Cool Ranch Doritos Locos flavor, which Delish shares has since been discontinued) within three years.
With a history of such snack food mashup successes, it comes as no surprise Taco Bell has decided to innovate again in partnership with Cheez-It — but unlike the Doritos Locos Taco, the two new menu items are (for now) only available in limited quantities, for a limited time, at a single Taco Bell location.
The two new items are available exclusively at one Taco Bell location
The taco chain may be hoping to recapture some of that Doritos Locos sales magic with its latest menu innovation. The first in a duo of jumbo Cheez-It-centric products is the Big Cheez-It Tostada, which swaps the crunchy corn tostada base for the oversized cracker (like the standard tostada, the Cheez-It Tostada is topped with beef, diced tomatoes, shredded cheese, lettuce, and sour cream) for $2.49 (via Taco Bell).
Or, for $4.29, customers can dig into the Big Cheez-It Crunchwrap Supreme, which features beef, nacho cheese sauce, lettuce, sour cream, tomatoes, and the Big Cheez-It wrapped in a grilled flour tortilla. The Cheez-It Crunchwrap is available exclusively for customers who order through the Taco Bell mobile app or website.
Unfortunately for Cheez-It enthusiasts outside of California, both Big Cheez-It items are currently only available at a single Taco Bell location in Irvine, for two weeks only (or while supplies last). While there's no word on when — or if — the supersized Cheez-It items will arrive in Taco Bell locations nationwide if the previous snack food menu items are any indication this latest launch is bound to be a success.