January 20, 2009 by Marianne

January 20, 2009 • Filed Under: Bacon Reviews , Bacon, Cheddar Bacon Gordita Crunch, Taco Bell

Hey everyone! Hope you had a great Martin Luther King Day, and that you’re having an even better Inauguration Day! I’m starting the day off with a sad confession: I’ve been really bad about trying the hippest new bacon creations for your edification, particularly when they’re the product of a fast food chain. For example, I have yet to go to Wendy’s for the Baconator. I feel like such a fraud. However, after my recent Taco Bell experience, I might just go ahead and change my tune. Because first of all, it was a good excuse to get together for lunch with two great friends, Beth and Heather. And second of all…it wasn’t so bad.

I’ll admit we were total chickens and decided to split one Cheddar Bacon Gordita Crunch between the three of us. Honestly, what’s the point of wasting $7.50 if we don’t like it, right? And yes, the price was $2.49 on the Taco Bell menu, so you know they consider it a prize item. Our first question when it arrived was, “how much bacon?!” As you can see in this photo, the cheddar and bacon was not spread over the entire gordita, but it was real cheddar and real bacon so we didn’t complain. We noticed that the melted cheese did a great job of keeping all the ingredients together.

Next, we wondered about the orangey sauce inside the taco. Heather referred to it as some sort of “smoky sauce,” something she’d heard of in reference to another Taco Bell creation. That made me leery. I’m particular about my condiments, and absolutely detest “special sauce,” french dressing or any sauce with chunks or pickle relish in it. I don’t even like it when mayonaisse and ketchup get mixed together, and in some states that’s the standard in french fry dip. So anyway, we persevered and found that the sauce wasn’t so bad. We tasted a hint of vinegar which Heather likened to the warm bacon dressing you might find on a spinach salad. And actually, I liked the flavor of the bacon and sauce with the lettuce, seemed more like a sandwich than a taco. Between the normal taco, extra cheese, bacon and sauce, the CBGC had a lot of flavors and a lot of salt going on. And, like I said, it wasn’t so bad…in small doses.

So when it came down to it, the big question was: would you eat it again? And I don’t mean if it was forced on you or someone bought it for you without asking. Would you ever crave the Cheddar Bacon Gordita Crunch? My answer was no. The only thing that ever draws me to Taco Bell is a bean burrito. Beth and Heather agreed. Each of us visits Taco Bell infrequently enough that we’ll be sticking to our old favorites. However, if the plain Gordita Crunch happens to be your favorite, this may just be a big winner.

January 9, 2009 by Marianne

January 9, 2009 • Filed Under: Bacon News , Bacon, bacon cheddar gordita crunch, Taco Bell

By now you’ve no doubt heard: Taco Bell has taken the bacon world by storm! It’s all everyone is talking about. Its face seems to be painted across every surface I encounter. It’s the bacon-cheddar-gordita-crunch, and it has come to dominate our world.

Taco Bell is not really on my radar. I mean, yeah, we drive by it every morning on our way to the coffee shop, but we never actually go there. My husband and I are both fans of the poorly-put-together bean burrito, mostly because it has that huge flap of tortilla at the bottom, filled with a pool of taco sauce, and no one can replicate that awful fold job. Reminds us of high school or something. And yet, like most of the awful things we used to eat as kids, it’s more fun to talk about than to actually re-live. And so my patronage rolls right by every morning without so much as a wistful glance.

However, being the intrepid bacon hound that I am, I think I may have to go give this one a try. My dear friend Beth says she’ll brave it with me, and I’m going to make her keep that promise. Hopefully this weekend. If anyone else has sampled this culinary wonder and has an opinion they’d like to share, we’d love to hear it. In the meantime, I hope to take some gnarly taco autopsy photos to share with you next week. Wish me luck!