Never Double Down on a Pair of Tacos – Review of Taco Bell’s Black Jack Taco and Taco Round up
By Jesse | October 16, 2009
Taco Bell is notorious for recycling their food items in an attempt to create something new. Taco Bell’s new Black Jack Taco is no exception. Launched nationally last week, The Black Jack is an attempt at creating a new taco by basically dying the shell black and adding a different sauce. This is not T-Bell’s first foray into dyed taco shell/different sauce realm, since they already have the Volcano Taco launched last year.
Fastfoodreviewed.com decided not only to stop by Taco Bell for a review of the Black Jack Taco, but also do to a round up of T-Bell’s full hard shell taco selection, with a side-by-side comparison of the Black Jack Taco, the Volcano Taco, and the regular hard shell taco.
Let’s start with the regular taco as our control.
What can I say? This thing is the rock upon which T-Bell has created its empire. Salty processed beef, shredded cheese mix, and shredded iceberg lettuce between a crunchy taco shell. Really not much to it.
Next up, the Volcano Taco. This baby turned out to just be the original taco with a red shell, and some kind of “Volcano” sauce. The shell did not taste any different from the regular, yellow shell, and was in fact less crunchy and slightly chewy. Judging from the commercials, this thing was supposed to be really spicy. Surprisingly, it was actually kind of spicy. But not “Oh my god my head is about to blow up because I ate my roommate’s last Volcano Taco and holy shit fire just started blowing out my ears” hot. I would give it about a 6.5/10, and hotter than T-Bell’s fire sauce. Strangely enough, the Volcano sauce almost had a mayonnaise like consistency.
Here’s the one you’ve all been waiting for, Taco Bell’s new Black Jack Taco. Like the Volcano Taco, prepare to be disappointed. Again, original taco, black shell and a different sauce. I was hoping at least the shell would be a blue corn shell, but I could not taste any difference. If anything, like the Volcano, the shell was softer than the original yellow shell. The pepperjack sauce on the taco had a tangy, slightly sweet taste. It was just OK, and is the exact same sauce found on their Baja Gorditas.
All and all the Black Jack Taco is just another lame Taco Bell attempt at recycling their ingredients to make a new menu item.
So which one did I like the best? I’m going to have to go with the Volcano Taco. I enjoyed the spiciness of the sauce. The only draw back was the relatively high price tag, my Volcano Taco was $1.29, well above the $.89 for the Black Jack Taco and $.79 (I think) for the regular hard shell taco. Granted, that’s still cheap as hell.
Overall I’m giving the whole group of Taco’s 2/4 patties.
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October 16th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
[...] come out with such a thing, especially after other monstrosities like the Crunch Wrap Supreme, The Volcano Taco (it has a red shell for God’s sake), and another classic hybrid, the Mexican [...]
October 21st, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Great review. Particularly liked the “live action” photos of the tacos. :up: