We are living in a golden age of artisanal hot sauces. Thanks to YouTube shows like Hot Ones, these lesser known regional brands are seeing their products gain popularity on a national stage. Taco Bell is doing its part to help bring these sauces into the spotlight by working with brands to create unique condiments for its menu items. It did it before when it offered the Loaded Truff Nacho Fries featuring TRUFF Hot Sauce and are doing it again, but this time with Yellowbird Sauce.

Yellowbird was started in Austin, Texas in 2013 by a couple with a backyard garden and a dream. Today they have a thriving online commerce, and their partnership with Taco Bell stands to put them into the national spotlight. Yellowbird Nacho Fries use the fan favorite Nacho Fries as a base for the toppings that include steak, tomatoes, sour cream, nacho cheese, cheese, and the Yellowbird sauce. Described as a “spicy habanero ranch,” it takes Yellowbird’s Classic Habanero Hot Sauce and blends it with ranch to give it a sweeter, more creamy taste.

Habanero-based hot sauces are always a bit hit or miss for me. They either use too many other flavors to mute the spice or not enough that it’s just a tongue-burning experience. The Yellowbird sauce strikes a wonderful balance that gives you that heat from the peppers, but it never burns in an uncomfortable way. The taste upon the first bite was slightly sweet with a hint of the pepper and a slight heat kick came at the end.

I was able to isolate the sauce enough to get a good taste of it on its own, but overall it got lost by the overwhelming amount of sour cream on the fries. Nacho Fries are in their best form when used as a base for a cheese fry dish. They are hardy and hold up well to the onslaught of ingredients while still bringing their own cumin-forward flavor.

To me, the steak added more of a textural difference to the item than a flavor, but Taco Bell steak has never been amazing. The two cheeses (nacho and shredded cheddar) worked well with the headlining sauce by adding a salty element. Taco Bell tomatoes are essentially decoration by offering no real taste to the dish.

When the titular sauce wasn’t overshadowed, the Yellowbird Nacho Fries were great. I was disappointed to see that the version of the sauce being used in Taco Bell isn’t currently for sale as a standalone item, but I hope that will change. It offers a good habanero flavor without worrying about the overwhelming spice that can come with it. This item is a super limited time (April 27th being the reported last day), so get it while you can. I recommend asking them to go easy on the sour cream when ordering.

Purchased Price: $6.49
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 order) 490 calories, 30 grams of fat, 6 grams of saturated fat, 35 milligrams of cholesterol, 1240 milligrams of sodium, 40 grams of carbohydrates, 5 grams of fiber, 3 grams of sugar, and 15 grams of protein.

Spicy food is pretty new to me. I’ve been too afraid to order fiery food for most of my life, and only recently realized that I actually like the burn of mild-to-moderately spiced food. I’m still never going to order a Super Triple Spicy Ghost Pepper Burger or whatever, but I like me some Wendy’s Spicy Nuggets.

What makes this item interesting — yet another burrito from Taco Bell, oh joy — is that it seems like the spiciness has been calibrated for people like me. You’ve got the salsa verde, which Taco Bell calls “green sauce,” which is spicy, but the presence of rice, grilled chicken, reduced fat sour cream, and a three-cheese blend are all fighting valiantly to cancel out that spice. What I ended up with was a burrito that created a pleasant, light-burning sensation on the tip of my tongue and the roof of my mouth, but did not spread that heat to the back of my mouth.

Other than the perfect spice level (for me, anyway), there isn’t that much to talk about. The other foods that complement the green sauce, save the cheese blend, are all relatively bland, which leads to a bland dining experience. The chicken tastes fine, but lightly marinated chicken is never going to rock your socks off with flavor. The cheese blend could add some flavor contrast, but I tasted very little cheese in my burrito. I’m assuming that means there wasn’t much in my burrito to begin with because cheese has a flavor that would have stood out if it was there in any reasonable quantity. More green sauce would have dialed up the flavor, but then the burrito would lose its “perfect for spice-wimps” level of heat.

Since I have so little to say about the flavor, I spent a little time online seeing what other reactions this burrito has been inspiring. Surprisingly, some eaters noted that it had too much cheese and not nearly enough salsa verde, which does not match my experience at all. Apparently, there may be some quality control issues going on here, which will not shock anybody.

The last thing I want to mention is the fact that this burrito is only two dollars on Taco Bell’s “Cravings” menu. Criticisms aside, this is a pretty hefty burrito for only two dollars; if you’re a somewhat light eater, this could serve as a really cheap lunch. Taco Bell is known for providing cheap eats, and while this burrito is far from perfect, it’s a pretty good deal for what it is.

Purchased Price: $2.00
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 390 calories, 12 grams of fat, 6 grams of saturated fat, 1110 milligrams of sodium, 50 grams of carbohydrates, 4 grams of sugar, and 18 grams of protein.

I’ve never thought about finding out if there are actually seven layers with every 7-layer dip that comes my way. I just blindly shovel tortilla chips with a Tex-Mex rainbow of ingredients on them.

My mind is on this stupid tangent because Taco Bell’s new 7-Layer Nacho Fries technically has eight ingredients smothering a bed of the chain’s Nacho Fries — seasoned beef, black beans, guacamole, nacho cheese sauce, reduced-fat sour cream, creamy chipotle sauce, tomatoes, and shredded cheddar cheese.

I understand that combining the two cheese products will make seven. But, if we’re using Taco Bell math, shouldn’t the Beefy 5-Layer Burrito be the Beefy 4-Layer Burrito since it comes with seasoned beef, beans, sour cream, nacho cheese sauce, and cheese? Yeah, I’ve spent too much time thinking about this.

Also, because I’ve been thinking way too much about 7-layer dip purity, what we have with this Taco Bell menu item aren’t layers like with a dip at a party. It’s more like various colored bloops, gloops, glops, and blops on the fries.

But enough with my seven layers of insanity. How does this new menu item taste? As expected, it tastes great. It also tastes familiar since there’s no new sauce, and it has ingredients that have seen each other so many times in other products.

Since the toppings weren’t in layers, I dipped fries in various ingredients, but that was inefficient. So I thought it was best to mix everything. That resulted in consecutive forkfuls not tasting the same and the least appetizing photo in this review. The somewhat spicy creamy chipotle sauce, nacho cheese sauce, and tomatoes stand out the most. But everything else blends to create a pot of flavor that you’d taste at the end of a Tex-Mex rainbow.

If you’ve been enjoying all of these loaded Nacho Fries varieties, I’m sure you’ll also enjoy all the bloops, gloops, glops, and blops the Taco Bell 7-Layer Nacho Fries have to offer.

Purchased Price: $5.99*
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 610 calories, 39 grams of fat, 8 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 35 milligrams of cholesterol, 1420 milligrams of sodium, 50 grams of carbohydrates, 10 grams of fiber, 3 grams of sugar, and 15 grams of protein.

*Because I live on a rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, things are a bit pricier here. You’ll probably pay less than I did.

What is it?

Taco Bell’s new Cherry Bliss Freeze is for the kind of people who steal all the red Jolly Ranchers out of the bag. You know who you are.

How is it?

As big a sugar fiend as I am, I’m not a huge consumer of sugary drinks. I don’t dislike them, but my reasoning is that if I have a limited calorie allotment for treats, then I’d rather have my fun in the form of cake, or maybe a sundae, as opposed to a liquid. That said, I was excited to try the Cherry Bliss Freeze because it gave me an excuse to do something unusual for me. I also prefer black cherry soda on the rare occasions when I have soda, so I’m already something of a cherry fan.

Circumstances aligned themselves in favor of me liking the CBF: I got it on an unseasonably warm day, and I was feeling pretty thirsty by the time I got it home. It was actually hard to wait long enough to take a photo, because I was that parched.

My first sip, all I could think about was Luden’s Cough Drops. Apparently, they’ve rebranded as Throat Drops because they were never actually cough drops, or something, but you probably know what I’m talking about. The more I sipped, the more it started to taste like fruit punch. Apparently, Taco Bell uses the flavors of strawberry, raspberry, and blackberry in this freeze, so it stands to reason that it would taste like a mix. The final impression it left me with is liquified Cherry Starburst. I think those of us who are into cherry-flavored products will approve of that.

As you would expect, this thing is incredibly sweet. I actually liked it more toward the second half of the drink, as the ice started to melt and the water diluted the flavor a little bit.

Anything else you need to know?

Taco Bell’s promotional images for this depict it as red and purple in color, but what I received was pink. Was this a mistake, or is something else going on here?

Conclusion:

If you like cherry-flavored things, you’re not going to do much better than this.

Purchased Price: $2.99
Size: Small
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 180 calories, 0 grams of fat, 70 milligrams of sodium, 47 grams of carbohydrates, 45 grams of sugar, and 0 grams of protein.

If not for Taco Bell’s new Loaded TRUFF Nacho Fries, I don’t think I would’ve made any effort to try TRUFF’s Original Hot Sauce. Sure, it’s one of Oprah’s Favorite Things, but spending $18 for a six-ounce bottle of black truffle-infused hot sauce that may or may not be worth $18 is a bet my wallet is not willing to open its bifold for.

Other than the sauce, you’ve probably had all the other ingredients together in a burrito or on fries because this is Taco Bell’s Steak Nacho Fries, except the chipotle sauce has been replaced with pricey hot sauce. But if you’re unfamiliar with this combination, it’s Taco Bell’s-could-be-permanent-but-will-never-be Nacho Fries with marinated steak, nacho cheese, cheddar cheese, tomatoes, reduced-fat sour cream, and of course, TRUFF Hot Sauce.

As I drove this home from the second closest Taco Bell location, it filled my car with the aroma of tomatoes. The smell made me wonder if the headlining ingredient had a bit of tomato-ness to it or if I’m going to be surprised by a tray of nothing but diced tomatoes. Thankfully, it was neither.

The hot sauce, which reminds me of claymation movie blood, is not that hot. Well, at least to me. The TRUFF website claims the condiment is between 2,500-3,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU), which is how spicy Tapatio is. But I found it to be as tame as Taco Bell’s Mild Sauce. Maybe the nacho cheese and sour cream take it down several hundred SHUs, or maybe there was not a lot of it on my order because it’s $18 for a bottle of the stuff, and Taco Bell employees can’t be generous with it like they sometimes are with hot sauce packets or ice in beverages.

Thankfully, the lack of heat allowed the light truffle flavor to come through, even with all the other ingredients. The sauce also has a slight sweetness, and the peppers and spices in it make it flavorful beyond just the truffles. Overall, it’s a tasty condiment on these loaded fries.

Is the sauce good enough to convince me to buy an $18 bottle of it? No, but I would be happy if Santa put a bottle in my stocking. Is it good enough that I would order Taco Bell Loaded TRUFF Nacho Fries again? Yes.

Purchased Price: $6.99*
Size: N/A
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 500 calories, 31 grams of fat, 6 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 35 milligrams of cholesterol, 1250 milligrams of sodium, 40 grams of carbohydrates, 4 grams of fiber, 3 grams of sugar (including 1 gram of added sugar), and 15 grams of protein.

*Because I live on a rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, things are a bit pricier here. You’ll probably pay less than I did.