A few weeks ago I got an e-mail from a public relations firm inviting me to visit Taco Bell’s corporate headquarters and test kitchen to meet with the team that developed the Volcano Sauce and to tour their facilities. I immediately thought this was a cruel, sick joke until they actually sent me confirmation of my flight. I wasn’t sure what to think. Taco Bell wanted to fly me all the way to California, take me out to dinner, shack me up in a hotel for the night, then tour me through their corporate headquarters? That sounded great to me. I was in.
My first flight was a 39 minute flight from Detroit to Chicago in one of the smallest planes I have ever seen. After that, it was a straight shot from Chicago to the John Wayne Airport in Orange County. I hopped on the shuttle to the hotel and as we were pulling in, I noticed this corporate Mexican hacienda:
I kind of assumed Taco Bell’s corporate office would be an enormous building, but this was practically a city. What’s inside of the building, you ask? Well, lots and lots of Taco Bell. Seriously, Taco Bell is everywhere. It’s kind of surreal. All the workers I saw at lunch had Taco Bell bags filled with food. I figured they would want to venture out and eat something that doesn’t have to do with their daily work, but no. They all eat Taco Bell. Another thing that surprised me is that the majority of their workforce isn’t a bunch of grossly overweight slobs who pack on the calories from Grilled Stuffed Burritos and Crunch Wrap Supremes. Their employees seem to be young, in shape, and not bad looking at all. There’s even a workout facility on the main floor. While exercising after eating a full meal of Taco Bell is the closest thing to Hell that I can imagine, I was impressed. Oh Taco Bell, how you surprise me. It didn’t end there…
We started with a brief history of the company in the “history” room. This room consists of a time line of Taco Bell’s history, complete with food models of the different menu items served throughout the years. Taco Bell was started by a white guy named Señor Glen “Pancho” Bell in 1962 and began franchising the brand by 1964. I was surprised to learn that the brand was sold to PepsiCo in 1978 and combined with KFC and Pizza Hut to form the Yum! brand. That’s some serious cashflow right there.
We then moved on to to the test kitchen where all of the magic happens. This is the only test kitchen for Taco Bell in the entire country which surprised me a bit. This was a pretty large area, but the kitchen is basically set up like any Taco Bell you would normally visit. We met two women (remembering names is not one of my strong suits) who control most of the food and marketing innovation for the company. They walked us through the development of the volcano sauce and other temporary or test items. I’m not going to type out all the details, but I will tell you that a hell of a lot of thought goes into those tacos and burritos you eat.
They explained to us that the Volcano sauce was developed to appeal to people who like a little kick and people like me who enjoy a good burn. They tested many different ingredients including hot sauce, spicier meat and spicy cheese, but ended up going with the cheesy hot sauce. We didn’t get much insight on what actually goes into the sauce, but they did mention most of the heat comes from red jalapeno peppers. The Volcano sauce is a politely spicy nacho cheese which I previously thought was the fire sauce mixed with the nacho sauce. I stood corrected when they told us that the Volcano sauce is twice as hot as their fire sauce, which makes sense because Taco Bell’s fire sauce is about as hot as ketchup. You’ll want to just eat it as is because Taco Bell does not really offer anything hotter. I only wish they offered the sauce in a sauce pack. I’d be stocking up on them for eating at home.
Taco Bell has been introducing temporary items, what seems like monthly, for the past few years. This always struck me as a genius idea because if something really catches on they can make it a permanent menu item. They introduced the Crunch Wrap Supreme a while ago which seemed more like a bet between Taco Bell executives than an actual menu item.
“Greg, there’s no way people will eat a tortilla folded up with taco parts and nacho cheese inside of it”.
After becoming a hugely popular item, Taco Bell decided to keep it on the menu. Apparently this is the second most popular menu item now, only trailing the hard taco. This leads me to wonder what the hell is the matter with people? About a year ago the Volcano Taco came out to great reception from customers, including myself. For some reason, the Volcano sauce was removed and customers began doing what all betrayed consumers do now, the modern day version of taking it to the streets. They created Facebook groups. Needless to say, Taco Bell was forced to bring Volcano Sauce back as a permanent item.
You wouldn’t believe what Taco Bell tastes like when prepared by someone who knows what they’re doing. Gone was the one bite of too much meat, followed by a second bite of too much rice. Everything was evenly distributed and delicious. The new Volcano Double Beef Burrito is delicious, but I still think they should have used a red tortilla that closely resembles Ronald McDonald’s hair color. To top it off, we washed down the Volcano sauce with the new, delicious Pina Colada Frutista Freeze.
We were allowed to ask as many questions as we wanted, and got what seemed like honest answers.
Oh, and we got to make our own Taco Bell creations. Like an idiot I ate breakfast before the event, or I would have eaten through the entire test kitchen. Look out for the John Moors original Volcano Quesadilla. It might be the greatest Taco Bell food item ever.
All in all, the trip was a great time and I can’t thank Taco Bell enough for the opportunity. The Bell has always represented a delicious alternative to McDonalds and Burger King, so they will always have a place in my heart.
The Test Kitchen
Volcano Taco Tasting
Volcano Sauce
Volcano Double Beef Burrito
The Current Volcano Menu
Pina Colada Frutista Freeze
I know taco bell sells thinngs in grocery stores–do they sell volcano sauce?
Kraft handles their products sold in grocery stores. They said they don’t know which products they plan to sell.
Hey there. I am new to your blog but totally hooked. This is so cool that you had a chance to go to the test kitchen. I cannot imagine the things I would try to create. I think my imagination would be running wild!
Thanks, Christy. It was very cool, although I was so full from breakfast and from eating Volcano burritos that I only got through one experimental item. Disappointing!
Very cool John. Looks like all of you had a good time out there. Taco Bell is hands down the best at launching new menu items and the marketing around them so I am sure that it was cool to literally open the kitchen doors. I hate to say it, but I have yet to try Volcano anything….
[...] basically off my radar until I read the about how they opened their test kitchen for WIBIA friends, Epic Portions and Grub Grade. Since then, Taco Bell has been on my mind and sounding pretty good…your plan [...]
[...] and see other photos check out Grub Grade, Endless Simmer, Pleasure Palate, Fast Food News, Epic Portions, Scott Roberts and Food Beast. Thanks to all those terrific bloggers who were a pleasure to [...]
[...] Simmer Epic Portions Fast Food News Food Beast Grub Grade Scott Roberts So [...]
Taco Bell Corporate,
I am writing you out of deep concern. I am working on a project here locally and am very busy presently and I do apologize for taking so long to let you know of this issue. First off, I have never been so disgusted in my life as I was after this visit. I visited the Taco Bell the week previous and the employee whom handed me my food left out a Beef Gordita. I called him and he stated he would have my information down as I would not be able to return that night. I came back through the night of the purchase incident and told the girl working the drive thru of this. She said let me speak to my manager. A woman by the name of Keisha came to the window and said “You really think I am going to fall for this and give you free food”. I asked her what she was talking about. She proceeded to tell me “You aint talked to nobody, another asshole looking for a free meal”. I was appalled. NEVER in my life have I heard anything like this. The girl handed me the food and I asked if the Gordita that was missing was in the bag, which it was not, Keisha came to the window herself and threw it at me. I drove off and came home. I looked over the food which was stomach turning, and called the manager. Keisha picked up and I told her the food was falling apart. I currently have proof and pictures which I took of this. She laughed and said “fuck you” and hung up the phone. I called back and Johnette picked up the phone. She apologized three times and said she would make it right. She was a god send in this situation. She did the right thing in my opinion; I have never heard anyone speak to someone like this, especially a member of management. She said she would personally remake all the food that was falling apart and had spit and what looked to be human hair in it. I gave Johnette the food and asked her to inspect it. She agreed she would take it in the back room and look over it. Keisha never gave me the common decency of apologizing about this. I remain deeply upset and dissatisfied that someone treated me like this for absolutely no reason at all. NEVER is it acceptable to treat a customer like this and if it wasn’t for Johnette, this would have been a complete disaster. I ask your help in pulling surveillance and investigating this. I am turning over the pictures to the appropriate sources to be investigated as well. I ask for your help in seeing that this never happens again.
A concerned customer,
David
i wanted to make a complaint to the gardendale alabama store,me and my wife eat there often, we were broke tonight with no gas in our car,we scraped up 8 dollars in change and chanced getting to taco bell 5 miles away,my wife ordered me a big beef burito and her a taco salad and 2 xtra taco’s, when she got home the big beef burrito wasnt in the bag, we were absolutely frustrated that there wasnt enough for the 2 of us and sure couldnt make it all the way back on gas to straighten it out.this really made us so angry and there was nothing we could do, our only hope now is that taco-bell can make this up or youll have 1 less customer.thanx!
I ate a Nacho Supreme on Thursday, Nov. 12 at about 4:30 pm. By about 6:30 I was experiencing diarrhea and by 9:30 had fever with chills. I had diarrhea thru the night along with severe stomach cramps. After vomiting about 4AM I started to feel human. I have never been so sick in my life. Will never eat at Taco Bell again especially the Taco Bell in Kingdom City, Missouri.
hey taco bell how about a small taco salad. the only new product needed to test would be some small shells.
Custemer service socks, you should train the employees again, relly bad experience on 01/11/10
russells point ohio store,,, the manager is a rude stupid person , i had to go back and DEMAND my money back,, while the whole time the manager is yelling at me , wanting to know what i ordered,,, at this time just wanted my money back,, this was the second day in a row that my order was wrong again!! i stated to her , just give me my money back and i wont be back, she says:: dont come back to my store!! rude, unprofessional, what a crock ,, and taco bell is suppose to be so great,, i say WRONG,, I’LL NEVER GO BACK TO ANY OF TACO BELLS STORES,,, im 50 yrs old , and when i get disrespected such as i did,,, ALL DONE AND I WILL TELL EVERYONE I KNOW ABOUT THIS INCIDENT,WE ALL ARE TIRED OF BEIN SCREWED, START TRAINING YER EMPLOYEES HOW TO TALK TO PPL,, U SUCK!!!
My husband and I purchased some Taco Bell Bucks from the Taco Bell in Buffalo Grove, IL for Christmas, 2009. My son decided to use those Taco Bell Bucks to order a meal on 2.24.10. When he got to the drive up, he asked if he could use them and was told “No” with no explanation. Later I called and tried to talk to the manager about why these were denied and of course, she could not understand me and would not answer my question outright. I then asked for the Corporate Office number and she had no problem understanding my question at that point. I then called the Corporate Office and after the customer service rep asked me the zipcode of the Taco Bell and I told her, she told me it was privately franchised restaurant and they make their own decisions. What??? They had no problem taking the money for the Taco Bell Bucks!! Nowhere on the Taco Bell Bucks did it say that. Even though they were only worth $10.00, I don’t appreciate giving anybody money for nothing. Needless to say, the customer service rep told me that someone will get back to me within 3 days. Hopefully they will. The foods not bad, but this crossed the line. If I don’t get any satisfaction from calling the Corporate Office, I will go in and see the manager again and ask for my money back because, as a customer, I got ripped off!!
This is getting ridiculous…
Just decided to let you that I had the worst dried up chicken tacos and chicken salad at one of your stores tonight in Carson City, NV, located on the South end of town.
Not only was it bad, but when I called to tell them the chicken was dried up they hung up on me.
I will never go back to a Taco Bell after this. Del Taco will get all my business in the future.
Your store manager on my bill is a Brandy Sanchez. You can thank you for this e-mail.
Ridiculous and funny! This stuff is comedic gold!