Brace Yourself For The Possible Disappearance Of The Mexican Pizza

I know what you're saying aloud as you read this: "I'm tired of hearing about the Mexican Pizza!" Well, I feel you. We've covered all the news surrounding this beloved Taco Bell menu item exhaustively, from the moment it was first taken off the menu, to its triumphant return, learning along the way that Dolly Parton and Doja Cat are such fans that a Mexican Pizza musical is in the works. It's rare to see such commotion around a single fast food product (rare, not unheard of), and it turns out that this story is far from over.

Once the Mexican Pizza finally returned to Taco Bell for good nationwide on May 19, I thought we'd finally seen the dust settle. I mean, it seemed pretty definitive. But now, another twist: it's starting to look like the Mexican Pizza is going away again. Temporarily, at least.

It all started with this mysterious recent tweet from Taco Bell:

At this time, we are postponing Mexican Pizza: The Musical. We hope to reschedule to a later date, complete with the joy and celebratory spirit in which it was originally created.

— Taco Bell (@tacobell) May 26, 2022

The company announced that it was postponing Mexican Pizza: The Musical, starring Dolly Parton and Doja Cat, for unspecified reasons. The tweet reads, "At this time, we are postponing Mexican Pizza: The Musical. We hope to reschedule to a later date, complete with the joy and celebratory spirit in which it was originally created."

Okay. The world's currently a tumultuous place, and logistics for anything are a nightmare right now. Stuff gets canceled or postponed for a thousand reasons—and in fact, some outlets are directly attributing the decision to the current awful news cycle. I get it. I sort of ignored the tweet altogether—until we stumbled on a thread from Reddit titled "welp bye mexican pizza." Uh oh.

The thread displayed a screenshot that the poster claimed was of an internal Taco Bell email, and it had a pretty big announcement.

As you heard from us just a few days ago, the response we've been seeing to Mexican Pizza is tremendous and historic. We couldn't be more impressed by how our restaurant teams have rallied around each other and served our customers to deliver a great experience.

Because of the incredible love for Mexican Pizza, we have begun selling out across the country. We will communicate this to our fans later this week. The Mexican Pizza will return later this year; you'll hear more from us as that date approaches.

We know seeing this product leave temporarily again so soon will be hard for some fans, but this is also an opportunity to continue fueling the Mexican Pizza love while ensuring you and your teams are set up for success in the week ahead.

The language and voice within this email seems pretty legit to me, in that it sounds like all the other corporate emails from Taco Bell I've ever seen. But again, it's just a screenshot within a Reddit post. Though Reddit can often be a pretty reliable source for fast food news, it wasn't enough information to go on. So I headed to my local Taco Bell to order a delicious Mexican Pizza for lunch and check with the employees to see what's up.

After placing my order, I asked my cashier if he knew whether the Mexican Pizza was leaving.

"I don't know for sure, but I hope not!" he said. "I really like it. I usually order it with steak or chicken." (Noted. I should try that sometime.)

I flagged down another employee and asked her the same question. She motioned for me to hold on, and I heard her run to the back to ask her manager.

"It will be here from one more week and it'll be gone temporarily," she said upon her return. I guess that screenshot from Reddit could be the real deal, huh?

But the Taco Bell employee added one more detail that, while uncertain, seems to offer fans a glimmer of hope.

"If we stop selling it in person, check the app," she told me. "You might still be able to get it through there."

I'm guessing since the demand for the Mexican Pizza has been so high since its return last week, it's been a strain on Taco Bell's supplies. Not just the ingredients in the Pizza itself, but also its extensive packaging, which the brand admits factored into the decision to remove it from the menu in 2020.

Something similar happened with the Popeyes chicken sandwich back in 2019, when the chain had to hit pause and stop selling the new menu item just to recover inventory. Of course, the chicken sandwich has long since returned, even branching out into new varieties along the way, and that 2019 shortage is but a distant memory. But we're right in the thick of it with the Mexican Pizza, so brace yourselves.

If you're a Mexican Pizza fan, you'd better get one while you still can. New Reddit threads are popping up that indicate the Mexican Pizza has already sold out at some Taco Bell locations. We'll keep an eye on when they might return, whether it's weeks or months from now. Thanks to the Mexican Pizza, we've learned the hard way that we can never take our favorites for granted.