The Legendary Meximelt That Made Everyone Cry When It Left
Losing a favorite food is like losing a piece of your soul, and nothing proved that more than when Taco Bell pulled the Meximelt from menus in 2019. This beloved item stayed reliably on the menu for three decades until it suddenly vanished, and its departure was so shocking that it immediately prompted online petitions to resurrect the classic. The Meximelt was a genius creation – a flour tortilla filled with ground beef, pico de gallo, and a three-cheese blend, designed as a cross between a soft taco and a quesadilla. What made it extra special was that quick trip through the steamer that produced melty, beefy perfection every single time.
The Meximelt has become one of Taco Bell’s “most requested comeback items,” and fans are still fighting for its return. Taco Bell gave it a brief appearance in October 2024 as part of its Decades Menu, but it still doesn’t compare to the luxury of being able to order a Meximelt any time you want. The pain runs deep – one Reddit user wrote they were “still enraged” about its removal. Long live the Meximelt indeed.
Nacho Fries – The Ultimate Love-Hate Relationship
Here’s something that’ll blow your mind: Nacho Fries are the “most successful product launch in the company’s history,” yet Taco Bell keeps playing hard to get with them. Between 2018 and 2024, Taco Bell has brought back and later removed Nacho Fries from its menus 10 times. It’s like they’re deliberately trying to break our hearts.
Despite being Taco Bell’s best-selling item every year, these essentially regular french fries seasoned with a mysterious “Tex Mex” blend are not always available for purchase. Some say it’s a way to generate “buzz” around the restaurant, hopefully influencing people to frequent the restaurant during particular time frames, while others argue that nacho fries were always meant to be a “limited time promotion.” Either way, fans are left constantly checking the app, hoping they’re back.
The Beefy Crunch Burrito That Started a Movement
The Beefy Crunch Burrito returned briefly in 2023, a full 12 years after it was discontinued, after a majority of voters pushed Taco Bell to give it a limited-run return. This wasn’t just any burrito – it was peak Flamin’ Hot era magic. A flour tortilla stuffed with seasoned beef, rice, nacho cheese sauce, sour cream, and for the crunch – Fritos Flamin’ Hot corn chips.
There’s even a grassroots campaign called the Beefy Crunch Movement, which rallies its 66,000-member-strong Facebook community in demanding the return of Taco Bell’s discontinued Beefy Crunch Burrito — and it has been since 2011. That’s the kind of dedication that shows just how much this item meant to people. Unfortunately, after that brief 2023 comeback, it vanished again, leaving fans to continue their decade-plus fight.
The Volcano Menu’s Fiery Rise and Fall
When Taco Bell introduced the Volcano menu in 2008, its demand surged, featuring dishes like the Volcano Burrito, Volcano Taco, and other spicy flavors. The Volcano Burrito was originally introduced back in 1995 and was billed at the time as “the spiciest burrito ever,” served as a promotional tie-in for the sci-fi film “Congo.”
The menu was pulled off in 2012 due to the company’s vision to introduce new products, but consumer demand brought back the lava sauce temporarily, and the comeback of the volcano menu in 2023 created hype among the audience before the restaurant once again disappointed customers and got rid of the menu. This is mainly due to the fact that there are fewer customers buying these items. Still, the fiery fans haven’t given up hope for another volcanic eruption.
The Double Decker Taco’s Simple Genius
Sometimes the best ideas are the simplest ones, and the Double Decker Taco proved that perfectly. There’s a joy in the silly design that was worth paying for, or at least it was until the Double Decker Taco was discontinued and came back for only a brief stint in 2024. The concept was brilliant in its simplicity – a hard shell taco wrapped in a soft tortilla with refried beans acting as the glue between them.
One frustrated Redditor summed up everyone’s feelings: “There is absolutely no excuse for keeping the double decker taco off the menu. They obviously have a soft shell and beans all of the time. They don’t even have to bring in extra products to make it.” The logic is flawless, yet here we are, still Double Decker-less most of the time.
The Caramel Apple Empanada That Played with Our Hearts
The caramel apple empanada is one of Taco Bell’s most beloved offerings, so it’s a mystery why the restaurant keeps pulling it off the menu – perhaps playing on hungry folks’ alternating excitement and disappointment, waiting just long enough for customers’ empanada grief to peak before bringing it back and watching the numbers go up.
Up until 2019, you could get a flaky pastry filled with apples doused in sweet caramel sauce for only $1, but the Caramel Apple Empanadas came back as part of Taco Bell’s “Decades Menu” in 2024, and thanks to fans’ outpouring of love for the dessert, there may be hope we see the menu item again soon. However, when it returned in November 2024, it had nearly tripled in price to $2.99, leading one fan to note on Reddit: “We’ve literally begged for them for years, they knew they could name their price.”
The Bell Beefer – Taco Bell’s Forgotten Burger
Taco Bell once sold burgers too, with its Bell Beefer, essentially a taco served on a bun with ground beef topped with lettuce, onions, cheese, and tomatoes that gave this item a Sloppy Joe feel, which seems strange for a Tex-Mex joint but worked for many. The Bell Beefer is actually one of Taco Bell’s oldest items, and originally may have been an attempt to offer something that could help Taco Bell compete with other popular fast food places like McDonald’s.
Later, in the 1970s, it was known as the “Bell Burger” before eventually being removed from the lineup entirely. The Bell Beefer may be an older item, but its fanbase remains strong — there’s even a Facebook page named after the commonly shared desire for the Beefer’s return. Considering how willing Taco Bell has been to experiment with quirky food items in recent years and its habit of bringing back much-missed items for brief victory laps, it’s surprising the Bell Beefer is yet to reappear.
The Loaded Grillers That Grilled Our Hearts
There were three main variants of the loaded griller: the Beefy Nacho Griller, Chipotle Griller, and Loaded Potato Griller, first introduced in 2012 and featured on the dollar menu, which meant customers got excellent bang for their buck and could easily scarf down all three in one sitting while enjoying three distinct griller flavors.
In July 2020, Taco Bell removed all loaded grillers from its menu. Anyone who favored a panini-style sandwich loved the Loaded Grillers from Taco Bell, thanks to the tortilla being toasted on a grill press. The combination of that crispy exterior with the warm, melty interior was pure comfort food perfection, and fans are still mourning their loss.
The Enchirito – When Enchilada Met Burrito
Who knew a burrito mixed with an enchilada could be so good? Taco Bell did, which is why the Enchirito was originally on the menu until the ’90s when it took a break and then left for good in 2013, featuring ground beef, cheese, and refried beans in a soft tortilla doused in red or green sauce, olives, and extra cheese.
After being voted the item customers wanted back the most, Taco Bell listened and kept it on the menu for a bit in 2022, and it later made another brief stint in 2023. The cheesy Enchirito made a brief return in 2022 when fans voted on what discontinued item should come back, after the former menu item vanished back in 2013. It’s the kind of hybrid that makes you wonder why more restaurants don’t get this creative.
The Gordita Supreme’s Fluffy Perfection
The Gordita Supreme featured a warm flatbread that encased ground beef, shredded lettuce, a three-cheese blend, and a no-longer-available fiesta salsa, with real ones knowing to substitute grilled chicken for the ground beef. Over the years, Taco Bell shifted its emphasis from the Gordita to the Chalupa, prioritizing the Chalupa’s fried shell over the Gordita’s baked, fluffy, pita-like counterpart, and while you can still get a Gordita in the form of the Cheesy Gordita Crunch, those prime food court days of a Baja Gordita are sadly over.
The Gordita was something special – that pillowy flatbread had a texture that was completely different from anything else on the menu. It wasn’t just a tortilla, it was an experience, a soft embrace for all those delicious fillings inside.
The Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Taco That Vanished Too Soon
While you can still get Flamin’ Hot Cool Ranch Doritos Tacos or keep it simple with Nacho Cheese Doritos Locos Tacos, the Cool Ranch version left menus in 2019. Last year, Taco Bell launched a contest and the Beefy Crunch Burrito beat out the Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Tacos to come back for a limited time.
The Cool Ranch flavor was that perfect balance of tangy and cheesy that made every bite interesting. It wasn’t as aggressive as the Flamin’ Hot version, but it had enough personality to make you crave another one immediately after finishing the first. Sometimes the middle ground is exactly where you want to be.
The Grilled Steak Soft Taco’s Premium Appeal
Taco Bell used to offer its soft taco stuffed with grilled steak, which was a great alternative to ground beef and quite tasty, featuring a lime sauce that went on the meat, cheese, and tomatoes that was later switched to an avocado ranch – either way, the Grilled Steak Soft Taco was simple but solid and one fans would love to enjoy again.
There was something about having actual grilled steak at Taco Bell that felt like a little luxury. It elevated the whole experience from fast food to something that felt almost restaurant-quality. The steak had char marks and everything – you could taste the difference, and that lime sauce was the perfect bright complement to the rich meat.
The Black Jack Taco’s Halloween Mystery
In 2009, somebody at Taco Bell looked at a taco and decided that the best way to celebrate Halloween was to dye the shell black, and this culinary delight – launched in mid-October and running through December 27 of that same year – consisted of a black taco shell filled with beef and pepper jack sauce.
While Taco Bell went as far as to give the Black Jack Taco away as a freebie after nightfall on Halloween, it doesn’t seem to have caught on as a favorite with customers, proving to be a one-hit wonder that hasn’t returned for spooky season since. Maybe it was too weird, maybe it was ahead of its time, or maybe people just weren’t ready for black food. Either way, it was definitely memorable – which is more than you can say for most limited-time offers.
The story of Taco Bell’s discontinued items is really a love story between a brand and its most passionate fans. Taco Bell’s fan base is arguably the most passionate among all fast food spots, from the chain’s iconic TV ads in the ’90s to our collective love of a late-night taco run, securing a special place in many hearts and stomachs. Every time something gets pulled from the menu, it’s like losing a friend – but sometimes, if we’re lucky and loud enough, that friend comes back for a visit.
