Taco Bell Goes Rolling And Bowling With New Items Revealed At Live Más Live 2025

In 2024, Taco Bell had so many new foods and drinks coming out in that calendar year, it couldn't hold back all that delicious news to itself, and decided to throw a big party to reveal them all. Over Super Bowl weekend in Las Vegas, Taco Bell held the first ever Live Más Live event, where not only were these new menu items talked and touted about, but for those lucky to be there in person, they could be some of the first eaters to try them too. In 2025, Live Más Live lives again, but this time the event was held on Taco Tuesday, in Brooklyn, New York, hosted by Ashley Park, and Taco Bell's CEO Sean Tresvant, chief food innovation officer Liz Matthews, and CMO Taylor Montgomery teased a lot to come in 2025, and even more stuff cooking in the test kitchen for the years to come. I'm already counting down the days until whenever the Mexican Pizza Empanada arrives!

On-site at the event, there were 14 or so items to sample. Some are already coming in hot into stores, and many in the months to come. The Takeout took in this flamin' hot event, tried everything Taco Bell had to offer, and lived to tell about it. So, which new menu items coming to a Taco Bell in 2025 should you get amped up for, and which ones may perhaps dampen your spirits? Read our chew & review and sip & say to see where the truth lies.

Move over Subway, because pretty soon eaters are going to ditch your footlongs for the ones being served up at Taco Bell in the form of the Rolled Poblano Quesadilla. This one looks like a flattened, elongated burrito, with a nice layer of pressed grill marks on the outside.

On the inside, this Rolled Poblano Quesadilla will come with slow-roasted chicken or marinated steak. Live Más Live treated its guests to a taste of the carne asada steak one, and one quick bite of it cemented its awesomeness. The poblano has a great charred texture and peppery taste, almost in a blistered shishito pepper kind of way. The next two standouts in terms of flavor within this rolled quesadilla were the tender pieces of steak and the healthy amount of cheese smothered within. It added up to a literal handful that any eater will be happy to have on and in hand.

I'm sure the slow-roasted chicken version will be solid as well, but hard to top the steak one I tried. In general, I love the idea of a rolled quesadilla. No matter what shape a quesadilla is, it's most likely going to be a winner. Can we ask for a parallelogram quesadilla in 2026?

Bowls are big business at other chains, and Taco Bell is rolling out one that resembles a pseudo-salad with its Mini Cantina Chicken Roasted Corn Bowl. Taco Bell's lean Cantina Chicken line has proven to be a success that 2025 has already seen a variation on with Caliente sauces, and soon this bowl.

The ingredients of this bowl were displayed in a beautiful compartmentalized way. This decently sized bowl plays host to the aforementioned chicken, red rice, sour cream, pico de gallo, shredded cabbage, shredded cheese, and a pile of saucy looking creamed corn. I was excited to hit up that corn on looks alone. It was really cold and had a nice creaminess to it. What it didn't seem to have a is much flavor. None of the elements did on their own, even when mixed together, but it still made for a refreshing salad that won't be likely to leave you feeling bloated. There was a supplied packet of Avocado Verde Salsa, and when added to the bowl mix, sealed the deal that this is a potential solid menu item for years to come.

But, this isn't exactly going to replace the bygone Taco Salad, which went extinct in 2017. The good news on that front though is that the Taco Salad may resurface in the form of a Mini Taco Salad, with salsa verde and lime.

The ingredient that seems to be the glue of each and every Taco Bell food menu item seems to be cheese. Taco Bell has spread the cheesy love all over the place, within hard shells and tortillas, and more recently crisping up the outside of these breaded delivery mechanisms. Well, how does the sound of an entire shell made of cheese sound? On paper the new Quesocrisp Taco sounds silly delicious, and in actuality, it's just seriously delicious.

If you're ever enjoyed the crunchy goodness of Parmesan crisp snacks the last few years, you'll have an idea of what this shell would be like. It has both an airy yet wholly crunchy texture to it, and is usually super salty. Taco Bell's cheese taco shell is a mammoth sight to both behold and actually hold, and thankfully is light on the salt intake. It held up quite well after several crunches, and the colder veggies on the inside help to balance out its savoriness.

Most of the time, when a shell breaks, it's not with salvaging, but with the Quesocrisp Taco, I didn't want to lose or miss a single bit of its cheese shell. It's actually so good it doesn't even need the interior contents, but is a less guilty item to munch on with them in tow.

Desserts at Taco Bell can be a bit of a mixed bag, as the tastes tend to be outlandish by design, and sometimes overly saccharine sweet to have even more than a few bites of. I felt that way when I tasted the Salt & Straw take on Choco-Taco that dropped at Live Más Live in 2024. When I approached the upcoming Ube Strawberry Cookie, I did so with caution. By the looks of it, this cookie looked a bit gimmicky with its deep purple cookie shell, and lighter purple filling that's dusted with a healthy amount of another shade of purple sugar crystals.

Looks aren't everything, and taste is, and luckily this one not only would satisfy Grimace, but any human who takes a bite of it. To be honest, I'm not sure I sensed any strawberry in its flavoring, but the ube surely stood out in the multi-textured delight. It's basically a Chipwich with no ice cream, and therefore there's no worry of it being a melty mess. The cookie and cream are a soft delight, and the sugar crystals add a fun pit of grindy crunch for the teeth to enjoy.

The Beefy Crunch Burrito has been a fan favorite ever since it was introduced in 2010, and we've seen it come and go from Taco Bell's menu the intervening years. That burrito included beef, Flamin' Hot Fritos, sour cream, rice, and nacho cheese sauce, wrapped up in a warm tortilla. The 2025 twist on that burrito includes all the same elements, but this time around, the rice is also tricked out with a flamin' hot seasoning. It also gets a new name that plays up its double dose of hotness — Flamin' Hot Burrito.

So is this hot stuff or a hot mess? I didn't actually find it all that "flamin'." It does have a bit of heat, but I wouldn't exactly say it set my mouth on fire. The burrito in general didn't really enliven my palate either. It was too heavy on the rice, and the grains' wetness basically buried any hope of maintaining the beloved crunch of the Fritos. The interior is a curious shade of red to gawk at, but basically this is a look, but do not bother to touch menu item.

Taco Bell never wants to stop having a blast with its own Mountain Dew flavor Baja Blast. Last year marked its 20th birthday, and all kinds of flavorful fun commenced, including a Baja Blast Dream Freeze and slices of Baja Blast Pie. As CMO Taylor Montgomery was teasing a new product to celebrate its 21st birthday, I was expecting something alcoholic would be unveiled. Turns out the mixologist had something different in mind, and is unleashing the first ever variation of Baja Blast at Taco Bell, which will only be available for sale at the chain — Mountain Dew Baja Midnight.

Mountain Dew Baja Midnight looks like a witches brew, a pale shade of purple, in a translucent bubbly soda. This drink leans on the typical Baja Blast lime flavor, but strokes toward midnight with a dash of passion fruit flavoring. I wouldn't exactly say I had a "blast" drinking it or was blasted away by this new flavoring, but it had a nice tropical blend to it that made it easy to drink, and paired well with all the Taco Bell menu items I tried. The Baja Blast enthusiasts will probably be enthusiastic about this one, but for me, I still prefer my Mountain Dew in more of a daytime green color.

Taco Bell gave the world a hexagonal burrito by the name of Crunchwrap in 2005, and proved its worth in a short amount of time that it found a permanent home in the menu the following year. Two decades later, the handful menu item is being downsized for those with smaller appetites, in the form of a slider — the Steak and Queso Crunchwrap Sliders. Get your mind off of White Castle, as this is no bunned slider, and is literally just a miniaturized version of a big daddy Crunchwrap.

Included under the carefully folded Slider is grilled marinated steak, chipotle sauce, pico de gallo, cheddar cheese, and a mini tostada wrapped up in grilled flour tortillas. Two come to an order, and are accompanied with a side of Green Chile Queso. At such a small size, the breading mostly dominates its bite-size, leaving those scant amounts of ingredients within to not make so much of a mark. Still, the tortilla is a good plain base to dip into the queso to make its smoky cheese flavor shine through.

Miniature foods are fun, and since I had so much fun eating the Rolled Poblano Quesadilla, can I request a "slider" version of it? Too soon?

Live Más Café is a new drink-loaded concept by Taco Bell, currently with one location near San Diego. The idea is to expand with more locations, and a mock version of Live Más Café was set up at Live Más Live to show off its goods. While there were four offerings to sample, the one that drew my eye and called my name to taste first was the Mexican Mocha Iced Latte.

This drink looked more like a milkshake, with its whipped cream heavy top, and brown liquidy bottom, with ice cubes butting up against the plastic cup. Before slurping down the latte, I took my time to encounter that creamy top, which doubled its yum with syrupy drizzles of chocolate strewn about. By the time I got to the latte itself, I was already sold on the drink, but the milky espresso came through with its end of the bargain, making this a winning beverage from top to bottom.

Next I tried Live Más Café's Dragonfruit Berry Limonada, which by name sounded like a mouthful, and by looks, appeared to be a fruity dream. The liquid had a light yellow hue to it, and the dried pieces of dragonfruit were lovely accent marks that dotted the top of the drink.

One sip of this drink and I was hooked. It was super refreshing, and honestly, one of the best lemonades I have probably ever tasted. In a day I needed to reserve space in my tummy in order to try so many things, I had no issue making an exception for lining it with the Dragonfruit Berry Limonada, which went down with such ease. It's a shame I'd have to fly to San Diego if I ever wanted to have another taste of it in the near future.

After falling hard for the sweet passions of the Dragonfruit Berry Limonada, I almost expected to be wooed all over again by the next Live Más Café drink up — the Strawberry Passionfruit Agua Refresca. Lightning sadly didn't strike twice.

Everything about this drink seems to be all about hints — hints of strawberry, maybe some passionfruit, and more so of green tea. The sum of those parts didn't really add up to anything more than a more adult version of one of those watered-down boxed juice drinks geared for kids. Ultimately, it's an OK drink, and probably low in sugar is my guess, but it won't exactly add "más" to your life.

The Live Más Café logo is a nice looking logo, and for those of us not familiar with it, it can be seen adorning the slim and tall can of its Dulce de Leche Coffee. Inside resides 11 ounces of creamy and rich coffee, infused with ginseng, guarana, and vitamin C, and packing 130 milligrams of caffeine.

It's an easy sipper, sure to add pep to anyone's morning, afternoon, or evening. Now that I know cans are in the Live Más Café wheelhouse, is it too much to ask for one filled with Dragonfruit Berry Limonada?

In 2025, Taco Bell is upping the ante with many sauce collaborations to spice up orders of the returning Crispy Chicken Nuggets and the dusty Nacho Fries. Out of the seven I briefly tried, I couldn't shake the memory of Zab's Hot Ranch sauce. It hits the perfect combo of heat and milky creaminess to deliver a universal condiment sure to spruce up any menu item.

All the other sauces had some sort of merit, but I didn't exactly scream for more of them. The Weak Knees Fire one started off with a sweet taste before turning pungent, and inducing head sweats. The Caliente one, which is currently heating up the Cantina Chicken line, has a nice hint of lime to it. The Pag sauce was also mighty hot, but had a grainy texture that seemed a bit distracting. The Hatch Chili Buttermilk Ranch mined similar territory to Zab's, but wasn't quite as good. Mike and his Hot Honey are on everything, and in 2025 that will include a Diablo sauce version that I wouldn't exactly say was heavenly.

I wanted to close out my 2025 Live Más Live on a high note, but turns out I ended on a super hot note! A fellow taster told me the Purple Chile Sauce that you had to sign a "waiver" to try wasn't all that spicy. I'm no pushover when it comes to spice, but this purple one proved to be an actual flamin' hot knockout. Please proceed with caution on this one people, as I had to proceed directly back over to the mock Live Más Café to have one last Dragonfruit Berry Limonada to cool things down for the night.

As a veteran of Live Más Live 2024, I had expectations going into the 2025 version, but mainly about bracing my stomach for the eating and drinking onslaught to come. The Slide-hype show at the beginning of 2025's event, which previewed all the items to come, was both mouth and eye-watering. To my surprise, the taste test that followed wasn't as gut-busting of an event as I thought, but was still one of the best dog and pony food and drink release shows of the year.

There were some obvious standouts in the food and drink departments. The Carne Asado Poblano Rolled Quesadilla was exemplary in its deliciousness, followed closely behind by the triangular triumph of the Quesocrisp Taco. I like the idea of Taco Bell going bowling, and the Mini Cantina Chicken Roasted Corn Bowl has potential. Will there one day be an offshoot called the Taco Bowl?

As for the drinks, I really liked what I sampled from the baristas of Live Más Café. The Mexican Mocha Iced Latte is truly a treat, and the Dragonfruit Berry Limonada is a revelation that I loved so much that I'm ready to franchise my own Live Más Café to open in my apartment. Great show Taco Bell. I can't wait to try these items again throughout the year, and am already salivating at the prospects of Live Más Live 2026.