Are Costco's Mexican-Inspired Layered Pizzas A Taco Bell Copycat? 

Taco Bell's Mexican pizza is the stuff of fast food legend. When the chain discontinued the fusion dish in November 2020, it inspired a years-long campaign that led to a petition being signed by over 200,000 people. The campaign even gained the support of Dolly Parton. Thankfully, Taco Bell finally brought the beloved pizza back to menus in 2022. Still, some say that Taco Bell's new Mexican pizza tastes different, and we're constantly plagued by rumors that the Mexican pizza might disappear again. If we've learned anything from this saga, it's that we can't always rely on Taco Bell to supply our cravings for Mexican pizza. This brings us to Costco. 

A Mexican-inspired layered pizza that looks suspiciously similar to the Taco Bell favorite has appeared in the Costco freezer aisle in the past few months, sparking speculation that this new product is a copycat of Taco Bell's popular menu item. The possibility of a Mexican pizza that can be bought in bulk and stored in the freezer is nothing short of game changing. Unfortunately, Costco's Mexican-inspired layered pizza isn't quite cutting it for Taco Bell fans. The consensus among them seems to be that Costco's new pizza is no substitute for Taco Bell's beloved Mexican pizza. According to some reviewers, the Costco pizza is more akin to a decent tostada than the iconic Taco Bell item. 

Taco Bell's pizza may look like a simple combination of fried tortillas, refried beans, melty cheese, spiced sauce, and ground beef, but this humble fast food item possesses a certain magic that has inspired essays, eulogies, and even a Mexican pizza musical starring Dolly Parton. All of this is to say that Taco Bell's Mexican pizza is not so easy to imitate.

Costco's Mexican-inspired layered pizza, produced by the brand Dos Banditos Foods, differs from its counterpart in several key ways. It replaces the three-cheese blend with cheddar jack and uses regular red enchilada sauce in place of Taco Bell's Mexican pizza sauce. Perhaps most significantly, the Costco version uses corn tortillas instead of fried flour tortillas. 

Even if the Costco version used the exact same ingredients as Taco Bell, it probably wouldn't be an adequate replacement. As fans of Taco Bell's pizza have pointed out, many companies have created Mexican pizza copycat products over the years, and none have come anywhere close to the real thing. This could be because it's almost impossible to achieve the signature crispy texture of Taco Bell's Mexican pizza in a frozen product, or because the magic of a Taco Bell Mexican pizza simply can't be recreated by another company. No matter how you slice it, it seems we'll have to keep depending on Taco Bell to meet our Mexican pizza needs for the time being.