The 10 Best New Taco Bell Items Of 2026 (So Far)

The year isn't even over yet, and 2026 has already proved to be quite a headline-grabbing one for Taco Bell. Sadly, most of those headlines have been reserved for the elephant in the room — the cyclospora outbreak caused by Taylor Farms lettuce. The chain has taken great pains (no pun intended) to address the issue and refocus our attention on the endless fare that it seems to release week after week. Today, we're here to accentuate the positive and celebrate the most delicious of those new Taco Bell offerings. Many debuted at its annual Live Más Live event, while others somehow seemed to appear out of nowhere in stores to deliver surprise yums. Some of this year's best aren't even new and are fan favorites resurrected from the past.

Mashed dusted off its time machine and traveled back to the near past to highlight all these edible and drinkable goodies that are already stirring up food memories that may even last a lifetime. A lot of them arrived for a limited time only, and for those that have already left us, we wish them a speedy return, or at least a return that's faster than Odysseus'.

The old saying goes that bacon makes everything better. Even Taco Bell knows this, and it released a few items this year with bacon bits in tow. While the Crispy Chicken Chipotle Bacon Melt was a solid entry, the better of its 2026 bacon offerings was the limited-time Chicken Bacon Ranch Street Chalupa. That's because there's another saying that no one really says but should: Chalupas make everything better.

While the name Chicken Bacon Ranch Street Chalupa may make it sound as though the ranch sauce leans bacony, they were two separate elements — avocado ranch sauce and crispy bacon pieces — working in unison to form one tasty treat. And while these street chalupas weren't giant, it was fun that two came in an order. With a Taco Bell Chalupa menu item, the shell is always the star, and with a pair of them, you get to enjoy that signature crunch. I'll say it now, just as I said it then — if only four came to an order!

There are so many great fried foods in the world, and the empanada belongs up there in the top tier. How could you go wrong with essentially a hot sandwich where the dough is a super crispy, extremely crunchy, handy hard shell? Taco Bell's first foray into empanadas didn't even bother with the obvious savory route and instead made sweet music with the Caramel Apple Empanada. It debuted at the dawn of the 21st century, and even made a flashy return in 2026. However, the belles of this year's empanada ball were a dynamic duo of Chocolate Fudge and Caramel Empanadas.

While only a select few actually get invited to try new items at Taco Bell's confab Live Más Live, the chain let everyone in on the fun and yum on the day of the event by releasing these empanadas in stores. These fellers have a smaller pocket size than their Caramel Apple forerunner but still packed in a lot of taste. One came in a classic sandy brown crust and was filled with salted caramel. Food influencer EatsByNatt sang its praises, even comparing its greatness to the experience of eating pancakes with syrup. The other empanada featured a chocolate shell housing a rich chocolate fudge. Food reviewer SnachWithZach was smitten, comparing it to a cross between a chocolate Pop-Tart and a chocolate molten lava cake.

Following the Hollywood playbook, Taco Bell knows that every hit deserves a sequel or even a spinoff. The Crunchwrap Supreme is one of Taco Bell's best-selling items, and instead of going bigger on that idea, the chain took this signature item and turned it into a snack-sized option with the cute Crispy Chicken Crunchwrap Slider. The key to this offering was that it employed the chain's quality Crispy Chicken Nuggets to emphasize the "crunch" factor in this Crunchwrap. This mighty little guy came dressed up in two sauce options: Jalapeño Honey Mustard or Creamy Chipotle, and both The Takeout and Tasting Table agreed that the former was the way to go for maximum deliciousness.

While the Crispy Chicken Crunchwrap Slider was the headline grabber when it dropped in March, another item that dropped at the same time shouldn't be overlooked: the Cantina Chicken Rolled Quesadilla. It's basically a revamp of the original Cantina Chicken Quesadilla, but it ups the ante on the amount of chicken and cheese included under the hood. The finishing touch that seals this yummy meal is the Creamy Chipotle sauce lathering up those two elements.

Out of all the hot new items rolled out at 2026's Live Más Live, Taco Bell's Diablo Chicken Nuggets seemed to be the hottest. The magic of Taco Bell's Diablo Sauce was transformed into a dust and sprinkled all over the unique tortilla-encrusted skin of its Crispy Chicken Nuggets. The Diablo Nuggets started raising the temperature at stores in April, and Mashed was all for them from the get-go. Writer Sam Zwick reported at the time that they were "Spicy, but not overpowering, you'll feel the burn without feeling like your taste buds are burnt out. These nuggets are a 10/10 and the dipping sauces push that grade even higher."

Speaking of sauces, there were several options at hand to dunk the Diablo Nuggets into, and the best of them was Zab's sauce. Its full name is Zab's St. Augustine Ranch Sauce, and this hot sauce brings together the varied talents of datil peppers, onion, carrots, garlic, sour cream, garlic powder, onion powder, and habanero pepper powder. Taco Bell first tapped its wonderful flavors for the sauce's debut at Live Más Live 2025, and finally let all customers get saucy with it when it topped a pile of Chicken Ranch Nacho Fries. The fries were nothing special, and luckily the sauce was available to order on its lonesome. I did this myself and paired it with the Diablo Nuggets, noting over at The Takeout, "Zab's Ranch is a perfect partner to chill things out a bit."

Fajita-inspired items aren't an everyday affair on Taco Bell menus, but they have made a splash here and there during the chain's long run for the border. Lest we forget 1987's Steak Fajita, 1988's Chicken Fajitas, the '90s' Fajita Wraps, the early 2000s' Fajita Grilled Stuft Burrito, and 2008's Fajita Steak Melt. For 2026, those familiar seasoned, sizzling grilled onions and peppers found a home atop Nacho Fries and a place within a two-pack of Chalupas, which further came outfitted with either steak or Cantina Chicken.

All three items were certified winners, although the problem with Nacho Fries is that they often quickly run cold and limp. Cantina Chicken is a nice option for those looking for a leaner option, but in my humble opinion, as I expressed in a lovely review over at The Takeout, my pick was the Steak Fajita Chalupa. I noted, "It all combined to make a delicious treat. It was a pleasure to know that when I was done with one, there was another to tackle."

One of Taco Bell's most unassuming items of the year was the Melty Pepper Jack Steak Burrito. Its description is pretty simple: marinated steak, seasoned rice, melty three-cheese blend, reduced-fat sour cream, and a new Pepper Jack Sauce all rolled up in a warm tortilla. It debuted in mid-July, alongside another like-minded item, the Fresca Pepper Jack Steak Burrito, which added lettuce, tomatoes, and crunchy Fiesta Strips under its roof. However, this release coincided with the hullabaloo over that troublesome Taylor Farms lettuce, making the Fresca option almost a risk that many customers didn't want to take.

That left the Melty Pepper Jack Steak Burrito as the safe choice, and for those who indulged, they were rewarded not only with one of the best items of the year, but perhaps the year's best of the best. I randomly ordered one when I was trying out Taco Bell's Crispy Chicken Chipotle Bacon Melt Burrito for The Takeout, and was more taken with it than with my task at hand. I gushed, "The steak was delicious, and elevated even more with the hot and gooey pepper jack cheese sauce it was swimming in." Beyond its terrific taste, one of the best parts of its bestness was its $3 price tag. It's perhaps the most Luxe-urious of all the Luxe Value Menu's finest!

America is all about bigger and better, but that doesn't mean that more of something is always merrier. That doesn't mean less is always more either, but no one would argue that miniaturized things aren't an adorable sight to behold. Case in point is when Taco Bell lent its name and food likeness to the Miniverse for a set of super fun collectible mini toys. While those toys were not consumable, in 2026, Taco Bell still came through to satisfy the eye and the stomach with a mini version of the once-venerable full-size item that hung around from 1984 to 2017.

This Mini Taco Salad's contents weren't anything exactly novel. In fact, the ingredients sounded like the standard roll call of any of its items: seasoned beef, diced tomatoes, shredded lettuce and cheese, beans, and chipotle sauce. However, it was the salad bowl itself that sold me on this item's worthiness — a cutely pinched tortilla shell where all those pieces lovingly hung out together. 

This one first made waves when teased at Taco Bell's Live Más Live 2025, and became a yummy reality when it debuted on the Luxe Value Menu back in January of this year. It retails for just shy of $2.50, and shows no signs of disappearing from menus. In fact, a spiced upgrade is possibly on its way after the Flamin' Hot Mini Taco Salad dropped at Live Más Live 2026. This iteration naturally (or unnaturally) includes Fritos Flamin' Hot corn chips as well as its tortilla bowl rimmed with Flamin' Hot seasoning. Does this mean we are not so far from a mini version of the long-forgotten Taco Bell Seafood Salad? Dare to dream!

Despite what you may think, Taco Bell did not give the world the portmanteau of burrito and quesadilla, aka the "Quesarito." That fun-to-say word has been seen in some frozen food aisles as far back as the early 1980s. Yet, the cheesy term became a hot hush-hush thing to utter at Chipotle by the early 2010s when ordering as a secret menu item. Taco Bell officially joined the fun in 2014 by dropping its take, which essentially wrapped a quesadilla around a burrito full of seasoned beef, chipotle sauce, reduced-fat sour cream, nacho cheese sauce, and seasoned rice. At the time of its release, columnist Ken Hoffman, aka the Drive-Thru Gourmet, called it "a heavy-duty handful with a lot in the 'win' column" (via Kenosha News).

In 2020, the Quesarito became an app-only menu item, before leaving Taco Bell for good three years later. Fans weren't happy, and their demand brought it back briefly as a holiday gift from the chain at the tail end of 2025. It was a sort of Christmas in August, on the 11 to be exact, when Taco Bell brought the Quesarito back for one day only and for the nifty price of a single dollar. While this wasn't exactly the best "new" item Taco Bell released in 2026, it was perhaps its best news item that had fans returning to its doors. However, the sad news came on August 12, when it once again disappeared from stores. For those still mourning, you can always try your hand at making a copycat Taco Bell Quesarito in the comfort of your own home.

Churros are one of — if not the best — Mexican desserts in the game. It's amazing then that Taco Bell didn't even bother getting into that sensationally sugary and salted game until 2012. That was the year it released a dessert menu where everything was $1 or less, including the very same Caramel Apple Empanada that is also on this list. There was cause for celebration in 2025 when Taco Bell collaborated with Milk Bar on Birthday Cake Churros, even if the fiesta was short-lived. That same year, customers in Indianapolis got the first taste of a new innovation — Salted Caramel Churros, which went nationwide in 2026.

In a press release, Taco Bell described its Salted Caramel Churros as "Crispy-on-the-outside, creamy-on-the-inside, churros dusted in salted caramel sugar for a street-food-inspired dessert moment," and it was a moment in time surely worth savoring and eating up. Fans took to social media to voice their approval, with one Reddit user even likening its taste to the smell of a candle store.

The Salted Caramel Churros were essentially one regular-length churro, filled with a creamy interior, and then sliced up into three snackable bites. They were part of Taco Bell's Luxe Value Menu and were a bargain at just $1.99. I tried them myself at a special preview taste test and was instantly smitten, writing at The Takeout, "Each bite, where the lightly salted breading and the luscious cream met in the middle, etched harmonic eating memories. This was a certified home run of a dessert."

Apart from maybe Mike's Hot Honey and Grillo's Pickles, the folks over at Tajín seem eager to collaborate with anyone. I mean, who doesn't want that confluence of chili peppers, lime, and salt seasoning sprinkled on top of anything and everything? Taco Bell tested the waters in 2024 by borrowing the magical spice for a trio of menu items that folks in Orange County, California, got the first taste of: Tajín Crunchy Taco, Tajín Twists, and Tajín Strawberry Freeze. Palates obviously agreed on the results, and the three items landed nationwide in August of this year.

The savory items on Taco Bell's Tajín menu added much-needed heat to the chain's classics, but one of the standout items of the bunch was the Tajín Pineapple Strawberry Freeze. It starts with a pineapple slushy and blends strawberry-flavored syrup and Tajín into the mix. The drink is a thing of beauty — looking like a sunset, with the Tajín chilling out at the bottom. Fast foodie Snach with Zach praised it as one of the best Freeze flavors of the year, describing it in his review as pure "divinity." Beyond this Tajín drink, other strawberry-infused beverages were among customers' favorite fast food drinks in 2026, like the release of Starbucks' Mango Strawberry Refresher.

Taco Bell has released a lot of new items in 2026, and there are still four months to go. This list was created at the beginning of September and took into consideration every item released up until then, whether it was available for a limited time or added to the menu permanently. For this list, "new" items include those that were newly created just this year or ones that may have hit test markets in years past but had their nationwide debut in 2026. Also taken into consideration were beloved old items returning to menus for the first time in a while.

The selections were culled from several sources. First and foremost, items were chosen based on my own delicious experiences with Taco Bell fare I tried for review and personal enjoyment. I also leaned on the work of my colleagues, looking at which of their reviews accentuated the positive. Everyone's a food critic, so I also considered the feedback from popular food influencers and the general public across all forms of social media. Not everything can be a winner, but the ones chosen had something special about them and were thus worthy of inclusion on this list. The final selections are presented in alphabetical order, rather than a ranking. Although if I had to choose my favorite, I'd say the Melty Pepper Jack Steak Burrito.

Static Media owns and operates Mashed, The Takeout, and Tasting Table.