Taco Bell cooks up its biggest, cheesiest chalupa in years
Taco Bell's chalupas just got a whole lot cheesier.
Starting Sept. 12, Taco Bell is upgrading its menu with the Toasted Cheddar Chalupa. The news was announced by the fast-food chain’s Twitter account and online newsroom Wednesday.
According to Taco Bell’s press release, it is “the largest international release of a menu item from Taco Bell since the Naked Chicken Chalupa in 2017.”
Like the name suggests, this new Chalupa features a shell that’s covered in six-month aged cheddar cheese and gets toasted for a cheesy flavor. The advance word on it is pretty positive. Madison Flager, the Lifestyle Editor at the popular foodie web site Delish.com, wrote of the new offering, "I tried the chalupa at the Taco Bell Hotel & Resort last month, where it was tested, and honestly, it was the best thing I ate while there."
“At Taco Bell, we get excited by the ‘what if’s’ we can dream up and bring to life for our fans - and the Toasted Cheddar Chalupa is an example of just that. We know cheese makes everything better, and baking aged cheddar into the shell of an already iconic product is a game changer our fans will love.”
The Toasted Cheddar Chalupa will be available in participating stores in the U.S., Canada, Aruba, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama and Puerto Rico because “the love of cheese is definitely universal,” according to the 7,000 store chain.
Much like Taco Bell’s classic Chalupa that was first introduced in 1999, the Toasted Cheddar Chalupa can be filled with a customer’s protein of choice, including seasoned beef, chicken or steak. It’s also accompanied with shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, grated cheddar cheese and reduced-fat sour cream.
The Toasted Cheddar Chalupa has a starting price of $2.49. It will also be available in Taco Bell’s $5 Box combo, which comes with two Crunchy Tacos and a medium soda.
Taco Bell fans in Charlotte, North Carolina will get extra love starting Sept. 12 with a limited test run of the chain’s Bacon Club Toasted Cheddar Chalupa. According to the press release, this exclusive menu item will have the same new cheddar shell, lettuce, tomatoes and grated cheese, but instead, it will be covered in avocado ranch sauce and bacon bits. All these fixings will cost North Carolinians $3.29.
Previous Chalupa innovations from Taco Bell include the Baja Chalupa flavor change in 2000, the Double Chalupa size increase in 2017, and the Naked Chicken Chalupa that featured a fried chicken shell that same year.
Word of the Toasted Cheddar Chalupa comes days after Taco Bell’s announcement that it is getting rid of nine menu items on Sept. 12.