For being their titular item, I rarely find myself craving Taco Bell’s tacos. While I’m a lover of their items, the standard crunchy taco has always felt skimpy. A paltry line of beef, a cascade of limp lettuce, and a sprinkling of unmelted cheese – it’s forgettable.
So thankfully, the Bell has pumped them up for their latest iteration. Taco Bell’s Double Stack Tacos bulk up their classic standard tacos by wrapping the corn exterior with a flour tortilla, slathered in sauce and cheese. With an extra layer, each one is hefty – especially for a $1 item. Two of these could make a comfortable meal, something that can’t be said for the Bell’s un-enhanced tacos.
First up is Cool Habanero. The taco is the same as you’d expect, but with a generous hit of sour cream. Around it is wrapped a flour tortilla with a spray of habanero sauce, alongside melted cheese. The intention is for the sour cream to counteract the spice, though the balance isn’t quite there. There’s more sour cream than habanero by a healthy margin, and the sauce isn’t all that potent. As a full bite, it came off blander than most Taco Bell items.
The Nacho Crunch Double Stack adds a layer of red tortilla strips to the basic taco, then surrounds it with a duet of nacho and shredded cheese. If you’ve lost count, that gives this one item three different forms of tortilla – and three total servings of cheese. Predictably, it tastes like tortilla and cheese.
The meat and lettuce are lost in this fatty carb bomb, smothered in gooey yellow. It’s puzzling why this option dodges the habanero sauce of the other two tacos, which would’ve given this a needed a kick of flavor.
Most interesting of the trio is Spicy Sweet, featuring a sweet chili sauce unique to the item. The red sauce has a loose texture, saturated with chili flakes. It’s very sweet, but was applied conservatively across the meat. While the first bite was initially heavy on sugar, it was countered by the savory beef.
Once the habanero sauce broke through, all three flavors really clicked. The sweet chili sauce has a light heat of its own, and a bit of a fruit jam flavor. This tasty blend is spread a bit thin, though. Between the lettuce, corn tortilla, flour tortilla, and double helping of cheese – the serving of meat and sauces feels underwhelming.
Overall, the Double Stacked Tacos are mostly notable for their price. The Nacho Crunch and Cool Habanero tacos are cheaper and bulkier than their counterparts – making them a solid pickup. Spicy Sweet is the real highlight though, and is definitely worth a try.
(Nutrition Facts – Cool Habanero – 350 calories, 180 calories from fat, 20 grams of fat, 8 grams of saturated fat, 0.5 grams of trans fat, 40 milligrams of cholesterol, 630 milligrams of sodium, 30 grams of carbohydrates, 4 grams of dietary fiber, 3 grams of sugar, and 13 grams of protein. Nacho Crunch – 380 calories, 170 calories from fat, 19 grams of fat, 6 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 35 milligrams of cholesterol, 650 milligrams of sodium, 39 grams of carbohydrates, 5 grams of dietary fiber, 2 grams of sugar, and 13 grams of protein. Spicy Sweet – 340 calories, 160 calories from fat, 18 grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 35 milligrams of cholesterol, 640 milligrams of sodium, 32 grams of carbohydrates, 4 grams of dietary fiber, 6 grams of sugar, and 12 grams of protein.)
Purchased Price: $1.00 each
Size: N/A
Rating: 5 out of 10 (Cool Habanero)
Rating: 6 out of 10 (Nacho Crunch)
Rating: 8 out of 10 (Spicy Sweet)
Pros: Very hearty for the price, while delivering classic Taco Bell flavor. Spicy Sweet variety is unique, and nails the sweet/savory/hot mix. Spices up otherwise boring tacos.
Cons: Cool Habanero needs more heat. Nacho Crunch should be Haberno Crunch. All three could use more meat.
If they need more beef, order extra. It costs all of $.50. Spicy sweet is better with chicken though.
I think these tacos, even more so than most TB items are going to vary drastically on how well they’re put together. I’ve tried them myself and seen/read a number of reviews and the ratio of sauce really effects the outcome. I thought the nacho crunch was a total dry bummer, but mine also had very little nacho cheese and was generally bland. Spicy sweet was the real deal, but mine did have enough of each sauce and I found it both surprisingly spicy and fun to eat with the sweet kick.
Agree with Sean on this. For example, the bit about, “Cool Habanero needs more heat”: The first time I had the Cool Habanero, it really had some kick. The next two times, it was pretty disappointing.
(The only other one I’ve tried is the Spicy Sweet. Which is actually an interesting taste, and I kinda understand why people like it. Just not for me.)
Totally. The habanero sauce is actually pretty damn hot but too much sour cream can wash any flavor out – gotta achieve that perfect balance!
Was going to say the same thing. I’ve had the cool habanero and spicy sweet a few times each, and their quality changes pretty drastically depending on how much of each ingredient is there. Cool habanero is great when there’s enough habanero sauce and not too much sour cream, as too much sour cream takes away from the habanero sauce. Spicy sweet is great if they’re not heavy handed with the sweet chili sauce. Too much of it just overwhelms everything else and makes the taco very sweet. And of course they need enough beef, no one wants to eat a taco with more more lettuce than meat.
Overall I do like them though, especially the cool habanero.
I didn’t care for the SpicySweet at all. The sauce itself is pretty good. I think its similar in flavor to Chick-Fil-A’s Polynesian sauce that has a bit of kick to it at the end. But putting that on TB’s pretty salty beef and shell, the flavors really clash. It was almost like I had a jolly rancher in my mouth while eating a taco. The other two flavors are fine and pretty much taste like everything else TB has to offer. Nothing ground breaking there but for the price of a dollar, they’re a go to item while they are there.
These reviews line up with my feelings. Spicy Sweet was the only variety that was not generic, to be honest. They really should have done the other two in some sort of fusion style like Spicy Sweet.
As a once-in-a-blue-moon sorta Taco Bell guy, I do recommend these. At $1, they are a nice deal, providing much more than a regular Taco Bell taco at $1.29 in my area. For me, they are like combining a taco and a quesadilla–and as a big quesadilla and cheese guy, I thoroughly enjoyed that. As to the versions, I surprised myself and enjoyed the nacho crunch version the most: it seemed like the most “pure” version of a taco quesadilla, with nice cheesy ooziness. While I thought that I would like the sweet and spicy version the most and can understand why people would like it, I found the presence of sweetness in the taco, along with the beef and cheese, as somewhat odd–I’m not sure that this juxtaposition works for me. And while I thought that the cool habañero version was fine and while I like sour cream, for me, the sour cream cooled the rest of the taco down, both temperature-wise and as to flavor–although still fine.
In the end, regardless of flavor, I enjoyed these and will be back for more. 2 for me can make a nice light Saturday afternoon lunch, while out doing errands. (And calorie-wise, 2 should be the limit.)
The Spicy Sweet was the weirdest sauce ever on a Taco Bell taco, IMHO. I could picture dipping some Mickey D’s nuggets in that sauce easily, but it was just so odd and overwhelmimgly sweet in my taco I was gagging. I couldn’t even finish it.