Taco Bell is testing a crème brûlée, inspired Crunchwrap Slider at locations in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a two-dollar bet that a French classic can survive the drive-through treatment.
The dessert wraps a creamy vanilla center and a crispy cinnamon-sugar mini tostada inside the chain's signature hexagonal Crunchwrap shape, all folded in a warm grilled flour tortilla and finished with a caramelized cinnamon-sugar topping. It sells for $1.99 at participating restaurants in the west Michigan city, where Taco Bell is using customer feedback and sales numbers to decide whether the item earns a national rollout.
The slider is part of a broader push by the chain to load its menu with limited-time, social-media-friendly offerings aimed at younger diners. Taco Bell unveiled more than 20 new products at its annual Live Más Live fan and media showcase earlier this year, and the crème brûlée slider drew some of the loudest reactions from food writers who sampled it there.
Bailey Fink, a food writer and content creator who tried the slider at the Live Más Live event, did not hold back. Fink told reporters her reaction was immediate:
"That is insane."
She followed up with a more detailed take:
"The inside is like a custardy vanilla flavor and you get that sugar tortilla. This is all I ever need in dessert from Taco Bell."
Hunter Reis, a food reviewer writing for Tasting Table, sampled the same early version and called it his favorite sweet offering from the event. Reis wrote that "the sweetness of the caramel lent itself well to the soft and cinnamon-topped tortilla wrapper, making for a wholly pleasant snack."
On the nutrition side, the slider clocks in at 170 calories, with 5 grams of fat, 27 grams of carbohydrates, 10 grams of sugar, and 3 grams of protein. For a fast-food dessert priced under two dollars, those numbers are modest, roughly half the calorie count of a typical Cinnabon Delights six-pack from the same menu.
Online reaction split along familiar lines. One Reddit user captured the target audience perfectly:
"My roommate and I live for the TB novelty stuff. We are exactly who they make this nonsense for."
Another was ready to commit:
"I will camp out in front for that crème brûlée Crunchwrap slider."
Not everyone was sold. One commenter dubbed the item "Crime Brulee." Another raised a practical question that any home cook would recognize: "How the h*** are they gonna have fast food line cooks using a torch to caramelize sugar? Ain't no way."
That skeptic has a point. Traditional crème brûlée requires a culinary torch to crack-finish the sugar topping. Taco Bell has not publicly explained how its kitchens replicate that step, and the source does not clarify whether the chain uses a torch, a broiler, or some other method. For a company that built its reputation on speed and simplicity, adding an open-flame step to the assembly line would be a notable departure.
The crème brûlée slider is not a one-off experiment. Taco Bell has teased a growing pipeline of experimental desserts for 2026, including a Milk Bar Birthday Cake Empanada and a Strawberry & Cream Mexican Pizza Bite. Both items surfaced at the same Live Más Live event, though neither has entered a public regional test yet.
The strategy is transparent. Fast-food chains have spent the past several years watching younger consumers chase novelty, limited drops, mashup flavors, items designed to photograph well on a phone screen. Taco Bell wants to own that lane on the dessert side of the menu, and a $1.99 price point keeps the barrier low enough that a curious customer has little reason not to try it.
Whether the Grand Rapids test leads to a nationwide launch remains an open question. Taco Bell says it will use customer feedback and sales performance to make that call, but the company has not disclosed a timeline or specific benchmarks. Plenty of regional test items never leave their pilot markets.
Still, for a chain that built an empire on repackaging the same five ingredients in different shapes, wrapping French custard in a hexagonal tortilla is at least a creative swing. Whether it belongs on the same menu as a Chalupa is a question every drive-through customer in Grand Rapids can now answer for two bucks.