Jumpstarting a Stalled Breakfast Engine
It's been over two years since Taco Bell debuted their breakfast menu with arrogant fanfare and the ambition to dethrone what was then a financially struggling McDonald's. Fast forward to today and McDonald's is riding high on the strength of their all-day breakfast menu while the Bell is seemingly sputtering in neutral, never having gained traction with any truly exciting items. That may finally change with the cheesy, eggy, meaty Breakfast Chalupas that, along with a few other new introductions, finally deliver what made so many of us excited about Taco Bell breakfast, conceptually, in the first place. We'll unpack what makes the chalupas work towards the end. For now, let's review some of the big mistakes that have held Bell back for so long.
I don't know about anyone else, but when I heard Taco Bell would be offering breakfast, I envisioned a menu with a real Tex-Mex flair: a take on Huevos Rancheros, Steak and Eggs with Tex-Mex seasonings, Breakfast Burritos loaded with bell peppers, onions, tomatoes or salsa. In other words, I expected a real unique value proposition. But the breakfast burritos and crunchwraps that were offered were plain-jane affairs filled only with cheese, eggs, and bacon with no Mexican flavorings at all. And since these were sealed items, there was no way to even get taco sauce into them; you'd have to drizzle it over top, making eating in the car out of the question. And does taco sauce really even fit with a burrito filled only with eggs, bacon, and cheese? But an even bigger mistake was training the largest spotlight on the now deservedly-defunct waffle taco.
The Idiotic Waffle Taco
It must have seemed cutely brilliant to some Taco Bell executive to take the classic waffle and then taco-ize by bending it in the middle and filling it with eggs and breakfast meats, but this thoughtlessly thrown-together item failed in almost every way. The waffle was so thick-walled that it left little interior space for fillings, and so rubbery that it required constant hand pressure to keep it from splaying open and spilling out its contents. If you ever wanted to adjust the flavoring by, say, pouring on additional maple syrup, you had to carefully place it back in its holster to avoid a mess.
The idea of supplying syrup for the customer to pour over the taco was also unworkable. McDonald's McGriddles wisely bake their syrup flavor right into the pancakes, which saves customer labor but is also simply more practical. For if you tried to pour syrup onto the waffle taco, the syrup had nowhere to go, since the egg filling and especially the folded sausage that lined the bottom formed an impermeable barrier, causing the syrup to run off towards the ends and spill out onto the tray. Even the waffle itself was less porous than you would think, only partially soaking up syrup and mainly directing it out like an irrigation conduit, making for a sticky and unsightly mess. All this trouble for a weird portmanteau of waffles, on the one hand, and eggs and bacon (or sausage) on the other. Does anyone really want to eat this mashup drenched in pancake syrup anyway?
The Long Road Back Begins with the Breakfast Quesalupa
The new Breakfast Quesalupas are different; they just work. Served fresh and consumed in the restaurant, its fried shell warms the hands, immediately creating a nourishing breakfast mood. As you can see in the picture below, the melted cheese within the shell stretches invitingly. The plentiful scrambled eggs within are warm and custardy, the fried potatoes add substance and, in the sausage version, the juices from the patty mingle throughout to unify the flavors. Because this is an open-faced item, it's easy to drizzle taco sauce over it, making the flavor more complex. This is down-on-the-farm taste with a south of the border twist, just what we were expecting from Taco Bell breakfast in the first place.
Challenges Remain
In future episodes we'll be discussing some other new on-target breakfast offerings like the California Breakfast Crunchwrap, as well as some additional failures like the biscuit taco, the problems of which ought to be evident just from the name. But ultimately, Taco Bell breakfast faces challenges that go beyond the inherent properties of the menu items. The first is a lack of momentum. In other words, Taco Bell's current unpopularity at breakfast make it difficult for it to compete. As the photo towards the top shows, Taco Bell is nearly empty at the peak breakfast hour of 7AM. With so few customers, it can't justify keeping a large staff on hand, so service tends to be slow. While my Breakfast Chalupa was piping hot from fresh preparation, it took four minutes to be ready from the time the order was placed. Because service is slow, it can't attract many drive-thru customers, but because its lack of business can't justify a larger staff, it can't even open for sit-down customers until 7AM, offering only drive-thru service between 6 and 7. And so it remains caught in a Catch-22 cycle of self-fulfilling prophecies. It can't get customers because the service is slow but it can't improve service because there aren't enough customers to pay for it. Meanwhile its best item, the Breakfast Quesalupa, is really at its best when fresh and isn't suitable for drive thru customers because it's extremely messy to eat.
Conclusions
What Taco Bell breakfast really needs is something that is as convenient to eat with one hand as an Egg McMuffin but also every bit as delicious. Could that elusive item be the truly outside-the-box California Breakfast Crunchwrap? Find out when we discuss that next time.
It's been over two years since Taco Bell debuted their breakfast menu with arrogant fanfare and the ambition to dethrone what was then a financially struggling McDonald's. Fast forward to today and McDonald's is riding high on the strength of their all-day breakfast menu while the Bell is seemingly sputtering in neutral, never having gained traction with any truly exciting items. That may finally change with the cheesy, eggy, meaty Breakfast Chalupas that, along with a few other new introductions, finally deliver what made so many of us excited about Taco Bell breakfast, conceptually, in the first place. We'll unpack what makes the chalupas work towards the end. For now, let's review some of the big mistakes that have held Bell back for so long.
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| The Chantilly Taco Bell at 7AM is not a bright, festive, or merry place. There were no retirees jovially discussing politics nor couples reading the morning paper. U2's "Mysterious Ways" was jamming on the sound system, however. |
The Idiotic Waffle Taco
It must have seemed cutely brilliant to some Taco Bell executive to take the classic waffle and then taco-ize by bending it in the middle and filling it with eggs and breakfast meats, but this thoughtlessly thrown-together item failed in almost every way. The waffle was so thick-walled that it left little interior space for fillings, and so rubbery that it required constant hand pressure to keep it from splaying open and spilling out its contents. If you ever wanted to adjust the flavoring by, say, pouring on additional maple syrup, you had to carefully place it back in its holster to avoid a mess.
The idea of supplying syrup for the customer to pour over the taco was also unworkable. McDonald's McGriddles wisely bake their syrup flavor right into the pancakes, which saves customer labor but is also simply more practical. For if you tried to pour syrup onto the waffle taco, the syrup had nowhere to go, since the egg filling and especially the folded sausage that lined the bottom formed an impermeable barrier, causing the syrup to run off towards the ends and spill out onto the tray. Even the waffle itself was less porous than you would think, only partially soaking up syrup and mainly directing it out like an irrigation conduit, making for a sticky and unsightly mess. All this trouble for a weird portmanteau of waffles, on the one hand, and eggs and bacon (or sausage) on the other. Does anyone really want to eat this mashup drenched in pancake syrup anyway?
 |
| The hubristic ad for Taco Bell Breakfast in March 2014. Note that the Waffle Taco, spotlit at left, requires the lateral support of the Breakfast Burrito and the Cinnamon Delights to keep from sprawling outward. |
The new Breakfast Quesalupas are different; they just work. Served fresh and consumed in the restaurant, its fried shell warms the hands, immediately creating a nourishing breakfast mood. As you can see in the picture below, the melted cheese within the shell stretches invitingly. The plentiful scrambled eggs within are warm and custardy, the fried potatoes add substance and, in the sausage version, the juices from the patty mingle throughout to unify the flavors. Because this is an open-faced item, it's easy to drizzle taco sauce over it, making the flavor more complex. This is down-on-the-farm taste with a south of the border twist, just what we were expecting from Taco Bell breakfast in the first place.
 |
| It's still a little messy, but it's also positively symphonic. Gently melted cheddar, spicy sausage, tender eggs, a crisp-chewy shell combine with the tangy counterpoint of taco sauce for a stomach-warming handful of satisfaction. |
In future episodes we'll be discussing some other new on-target breakfast offerings like the California Breakfast Crunchwrap, as well as some additional failures like the biscuit taco, the problems of which ought to be evident just from the name. But ultimately, Taco Bell breakfast faces challenges that go beyond the inherent properties of the menu items. The first is a lack of momentum. In other words, Taco Bell's current unpopularity at breakfast make it difficult for it to compete. As the photo towards the top shows, Taco Bell is nearly empty at the peak breakfast hour of 7AM. With so few customers, it can't justify keeping a large staff on hand, so service tends to be slow. While my Breakfast Chalupa was piping hot from fresh preparation, it took four minutes to be ready from the time the order was placed. Because service is slow, it can't attract many drive-thru customers, but because its lack of business can't justify a larger staff, it can't even open for sit-down customers until 7AM, offering only drive-thru service between 6 and 7. And so it remains caught in a Catch-22 cycle of self-fulfilling prophecies. It can't get customers because the service is slow but it can't improve service because there aren't enough customers to pay for it. Meanwhile its best item, the Breakfast Quesalupa, is really at its best when fresh and isn't suitable for drive thru customers because it's extremely messy to eat.
 |
| Taco Bell likes to talk about thinking outside the bun, but they need to think outside the holster. Items like the Quesalupa need their box to keep them closed. If you're thinking that you couldn't possibly eat this in your car, you win a prize. |
What Taco Bell breakfast really needs is something that is as convenient to eat with one hand as an Egg McMuffin but also every bit as delicious. Could that elusive item be the truly outside-the-box California Breakfast Crunchwrap? Find out when we discuss that next time.
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