Latest news with #CrunchwrapSupremes
Eater
17 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Eater
Consider the Crunchwrap
The Crunchwrap Supreme is a feat of both texture and engineering. To create the Taco Bell classic, which — like Eater — turned 20 years old this year, a large flour tortilla is layered with seasoned beef and thick nacho cheese sauce, a crispy tostada shell, shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, and tangy sour cream before being meticulously folded into its signature hexagonal shape and griddled to hold all the elements together. The tostada shell serves both as a crunchy textural delight and a way to separate the warm and cold elements. And since its debut in 2005, it's quickly become not only one of Taco Bell's most popular items, but also one of the most successful — the chain sold more than 100 million Crunchwrap Supremes in 2024 alone, according to a representative for the company. But it's also, perhaps more excitingly, kind of everywhere. It's become a form factor that independent chefs around the country are obsessed with, stuffing their versions with chili or shawarma or sushi ingredients. A quick scan of Instagram and TikTok will surface thousands of videos of people attempting to make Crunchwraps at home, or experimenting with different fillings and a range of wraps beyond the tortilla. The Crunchwrap Supreme has transcended its fast-food origins, and has become fully subsumed into the greater American dining canon alongside dishes like the Big Mac, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and apple pie. Trends tend to trickle down from fine dining to fast food — just look at the history of the molten chocolate cake. The Crunchwrap Supreme is one of the few, rare examples where a trend traveled the other way, working its way, over the past 20 years, to the menus of beloved independent restaurants. Bryan Weaver, the chef and co-owner of Redheaded Stranger in Nashville, Tennessee, added a few variations on the Crunchwrap to his menu five years ago. 'I'm indebted to Taco Bell,' he says. 'I used to go twice a week with my mom.' Weaver's versions showcase upgraded ingredients like house-made flour tortillas and hot sauce. He also goes rogue from the traditional Crunchwrap setup by leaning on Fritos and crispy rice for the crispy element, instead of a tostada shell. He includes fillings like fresh guacamole and a meaty chile colorado. Another twist? Inspired by costra de queso-style tacos, Weaver's take on Crunchwraps arrive wrapped in a layer of melty, griddled cheese on the outside. Making Crunchwraps with higher-quality ingredients has paid off for Centro, the popular Mexican mini-chain in Minneapolis, says owner and CEO Jami Olson. Each location makes three variations, which are known as Centro Crunches, featuring ingredients like from-scratch queso and cheddar jack cheese in the classic version, braised beef and Chihuahua cheese in the birria version, and crispy fried chicken in the Cool Ranch Chicken Crunch. Chefs around the country have found a lot of success cooking up cultural variations on the Crunchwrap. Though both Redheaded Stranger and Centro's versions of the Crunchwrap are pricier than the version available at the drive-thru (they are $12 and $13.50 to $14.50 respectively, compared to $5 to $7 at Taco Bell), they've proven to be financial juggernauts for both restaurants. Weaver says they are one of the best-selling items on the menu, at 100 a day on average. 'It's by far the busiest station in the kitchen,' he says with a laugh. The Crunches did so well for Centro that the restaurant group sold over $1.4 million dollars' worth in 2024 alone, says Olson. Olson launched a delivery-only ghost kitchen concept called Hippo Pockets, dedicated to making the hexagonal item, and given its popularity, she's now opening the first Hippo brick-and-mortar that will serve an exclusive menu of bubble tea and 11 types of tortilla-wrapped Pockets — including the Minnedelphia, which comes stuffed with steak, mushrooms, bell peppers, and jalapeño cream cheese. Other chefs around the country have found a lot of success cooking up cultural variations on the Crunchwrap. At Night + Market in Los Angeles, Kris Yenbamroong makes a Thai-influenced version where the seasoned beef and nacho cheese are replaced with a spicy krapow chicken and a khao soi queso. Señor Sisig, the beloved Filipino restaurant and food truck in the Bay Area, made a splash when it first opened with its Crunch-a-dilla that came stuffed with lettuce, guacamole, and lots of pork sisig. At Wave Asian Bistro in Mount Dora, Florida, the kitchen team has made headlines for their sushi-inspired version that includes sushi rice, cream cheese, spicy tuna, spicy crab, and avocado and is stuffed into a giant sheet of nori before being deep-fried. Chef Antony Nassif says people drive from all over to experience his $30, 1.5-pound, Lebanese take on a Crunchwrap at his New York City restaurant, Hen House. Nassif wanted to do something 'big and flavorful,' so he stuffed his version with a slow-roasted lamb shawarma, cilantro-garlic potatoes, a full cheese curd blanket, garlic sauce, and lots of tomato salad and cabbage. The fillings are griddled inside of a long and thin village-style bread instead of a tortilla. 'It's very cheffy and easily feeds two to four people, but I've had crazy people come in and crush a whole one.' Olson says Centro first started serving its Crunches during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns in 2020, when diners were looking for 'easy, nostalgic, craveable things.' Many agree that the pandemic helped kick off the nationwide Crunchwrap fervor. In April 2020, recipe developer Farideh Sadeghin posted a video to the Munchies YouTube channel featuring her making a version of the Crunchwrap Supreme in her apartment kitchen. (The video, shot in mid-March before lockdowns, concluded with Sadeghin noting that 'While we're getting through this, you might as well cook some fun stuff at home.') 'That video haunts me in the best way,' she says now. 'I feel like it is the recipe I am most known for.' Nassif, who is Canadian and didn't grow up eating at Taco Bell, admits that he added a Crunchwrap-style dish to his menu after seeing videos on the internet. He's imagined several versions over the years, like a steakhouse-inspired riff stuffed with mashed potatoes and creamed spinach, or a 'Little Italy' one filled with a veal cutlet and marinated peppers. 'It's endlessly customizable,' he says. 'You just take the formula — the way to fold it, put the meat with whatever vegetables you want, with something crispy — and it's a Crunchwrap.' 'That video haunts me in the best way. I feel like it is the recipe I am most known for.' Content creator Pratik Bhakta, who goes by @hungryempire on Instagram, says that whenever he posts a video of him making a Crunchwrap, it does incredibly well. He posted a version featuring Thanksgiving leftovers for the first time back in 2021 and it quickly racked up hundreds of thousands of views even though he only had a small following at the time. Every time he reposts the video, it does numbers. 'So I'm thinking it's time for a 2.0 version soon,' Bhakta says, laughing. Taco Bell is quite aware of the popularity of the Crunchwrap with chefs and home cooks alike. In 2024, the chain released make-at-home Crunchwrap kits that are available at many major grocery stores, and in 2024, even teamed up with three chefs to reimagine the Crunchwrap with international flavors drawing from Indian, Thai, and American Southwestern culinary traditions. As for all the knockoffs? The chain seems flattered. 'The name is trademarked and while we do take steps to protect it, especially when its misuse could lead to consumer confusion or dilution,' a Taco Bell spokesperson said, 'we're also committed to supporting food culture and creativity.' Sign up for Eater's newsletter The freshest news from the food world every day Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Los Angeles Times
20-06-2025
- General
- Los Angeles Times
Taco Bell's Crunchwrap Supreme is turning 20. So I finally tried one, and it's meh!
Twenty years ago this summer, something momentous happened in the annals of Southern California. I'm not talking about Antonio Villaraigosa becoming L.A.'s first Latino mayor in over a century. Or the Lakers rehiring Phil Jackson as their head coach to embark on one final championship run with Kobe Bryant. No, history will look at those achievements as mere blips compared with the debut of Taco Bell's Crunchwrap Supreme. A flour tortilla wrapped around a ground beef tostada and stuffed with lettuce, tomatoes, nacho cheese and sour cream, the item has become essential for American consumers who like their Mexican food cheap and gimmicky — which is to say, basically everyone (birria ramen, anybody?). The Times has offered multiple articles on how to make your own version at home. Celebrity chefs like Matty Matheson have shot videos praising Crunchwrap Supremes while hawking their own takes. Its June anniversary will soon get the star treatment in a national publication for a story in which I was interviewed because I'm literally the guy who wrote the book on Mexican food in the United States. But there was a slight problem that needed to be rectified before I sounded off on the legendary dish: I had to try a Crunchwrap Supreme for the first time. Hell, before a few weeks ago, I had only visited Taco Bell thrice in my life. During the 1980s and 1990s, Southern California underwent momentous shifts. The white middle class was fleeing the state as the defense industry and blue-collar factories collapsed; immigrants from across the globe came in to replace them, jolting the region's politics. Meanwhile, the ideal taco in the Angeleno psyche was transitioning from the hard-shell topped with a blizzard of yellow cheese eaten since the 1930s into the one we all love today: a tortilla — usually corn — stuffed with something and baptized with a sprinkle of salsa. (A quick etymological aside for the kids: Tacos made with non-deep-fried tortillas used to be called 'soft' tacos to differentiate them from hard-shell tacos, which were just called 'tacos.' Now, it's the reverse — progress!) So my childhood wasn't spent at Taco Bell, Tito's Tacos or even Del Taco, whose half-pound bean-and-cheese burrito remains the world's best fast-food item. My tacos were the ones at King Taco when visiting relatives in East L.A., or the Taqueria De Anda chain in Orange County back when it was still good. I had no reason to go to Taco Bell, even as it went worldwide. Nor did it entice me to visit with its half-racist TV ads like the Taco Bell Chihuahua dog or the ones that ended with the slogan 'Make a Run for the Border.' I didn't go to one until the early 2000s, and I can't remember what my cousins and I ordered except it was bland, limp and too salty: A bunch of regret dabbled with nada. I stopped in only twice more: when the Irvine-based company debuted its Doritos Loco taco in 2012, and when I forced the late Times food critic Jonathan Gold to go through a Taco Bell drive-thru for an episode of the hit Netflix show 'Ugly Delicious.' Both times, the experience was like my first. I ordered one at a location in Santa Ana near my wife's restaurant, where I unveiled the dish. While looking as sleek and tightly folded as a dumpling, it was far smaller than I had expected. The tortilla had no flavor; the tostada which supposedly offers textural counterpoint — the whole idea, according to its advocates, like Times newsletter jefe Karim Doumar — was soggy. And once again, Taco Bell's Achilles' heel was its ground beef, which was as pebbly as gravel. I squeezed some of Taco Bell's hot sauce to try and save my lunch, but it tasted like insulin dusted with black pepper. You're better off buying two of Del Taco's half-pound bean-and-cheese burritos for the same $6 price. I am no snob or purist — I think Jack in the Box's hard-shell tacos are magnificent. And I can see the Crunchwrap Supreme working with better ingredients. But the dish is hardly worth the hype. Besides, Mexicans have a far better dish that combines the soft with the crunchy to create something sublime. They're called chilaquiles — ask my fellow columnista Steve Lopez about them sometime. The Black faith community, along with people of faith from across Los Angeles County, marched in solidarity through the streets of downtown L.A. Wednesday for a peaceful interfaith prayer walk for family unity. Gustavo Arellano, California columnistKevinisha Walker, multiplatform editorAndrew Campa, Sunday writerKarim Doumar, head of newsletters How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@ Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on
Buzz Feed
18-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
After Being Roasted Over His Taco Bell-Themed Proposal To Selena Gomez, Benny Blanco Has Finally Defended Himself
Benny Blanco has addressed his Taco Bell-themed proposal to Selena Gomez, and I'm just surprised it took this long. While Selena and Benny may be a polarizing couple to some, there is no doubt that the two are super duper in love. After getting engaged at the end of last year, there's been no shortage in the number of pubic displays of affection from the happy couple — whether it's on the red carpet at the Oscars, or in queso-themed Valentine's gifts. Now, in a new interview with Rolling Stone, Benny and Selena sat down to talk all things romance — including their upcoming wedding. When questioned about their plans for the big day, Benny and Selena said that they're taking things slowly. Explaining Selena's habits, Benny said, 'I think every day she's planned a new wedding in her head. We're very much 'take it one day at a time'-type of people. We're still not over this moment. Literally, while you were talking, she was sitting there staring at her ring.' Selena then clarified that her priority was her music, saying, 'Also, I genuinely feel like this is such a special time that we get to apply it to this album and really just pour our heart into it, and completely translate what we feel and bring it to the world. That's my main focus right now, at least.' The interviewer then questioned Benny about his decision to include Taco Bell in his proposal. And in case you missed it, this was in reference to the pics Selena posted when the two got engaged. Fans did not fail to notice the multiple Taco Bell boxes to the side — which wasn't totally a surprise, given how much Selena loves the fast-food chain. While fans online definitely roasted Benny for using a couple of Crunchwrap Supremes to propose to the love of his life, the Rolling Stone interviewer praised the move, saying that it added to 'how ordinary' it felt 'in the best way'. Benny agreed that he and Selena are 'not elaborate,' and that the Taco Bell represented that. 'I think people think we're like, this thing in Rolls Royces,' he said. 'We literally play, like, N64 and order Dominos,' Benny continued. 'We're just living our life every day. There's not this whole elaborate thing. I think we're very lucky to be surrounded by such great people, and we've still just been enjoying so much. It feels like we got engaged yesterday, but also feels like we got engaged 20 years ago. I've known her since she was 18, and so it's like we got all that stuff out of the way. By the time we're dating, it's like, whoa. My biggest regret is that we didn't get to do this earlier, like we waited this long to be together. But I know it was perfect and it was right.' Selena agreed completely, confirming that, 'Everything happens for a reason.' And you definitely can't argue with that. Was I grossed out by the queso bath on Valentine's Day? Yes. Do I 100% believe these two are soulmates? Also yes. Let me know if you do too in the comments. And if you want to read the full Rolling Stone interview, you can find it here.
