Fast food chains consistently making a popular item available for a limited time only to whip up more adulation upon its inevitable return isn’t new, but what is new for the latest go-round of Taco Bell’s Nacho Fries is what you can now dip these perennial pleasers into…Vegan Nacho Sauce! This limited time offering launched on October 12th, but writing this just a few weeks later, I can confirm they weren’t kidding about the “limited” part. Many locations have already stopped selling Vegan Nacho Sauce, and I struck out at multiple places before locating the dang thing.
When I finally discovered some, the plant-based-elephant in the room was its viscosity, which could be best described as “sludgy.” My traditional idea of nacho sauce is on the liquid-y side, while this looked more like unnaturally dark orange plastic in a cup. When I glommed a big blob onto the end of a fry and held it out to take a picture, it even stayed in place the whole time, which felt somewhat freakish. I guess it’s a good thing that no one could look at this vegan variant and accidentally mistake it for the dairy-based original?
After my picture was taken, my first bite was taken too, and it was a bit confusing. Why was I getting spiciness? And was that a hint of Old Bay? I replicated my experiment repeatedly, and — oh, yep, okay, it became clear that all that overpowering zest was coming exclusively from the Nacho Fries.
That was a bit disappointing. Isn’t the whole point of dipping sauce to liven up the taste of something that’s too plain on its own not to fade into the background itself? Lapping up a solo gob of sauce brought a faintly funky flavor, slightly and pleasantly earthy, but decidedly not bad. People who brag about being vegans can have a bad reputation, and often, so does vegan food itself; I Googled “vegan cheese tastes like,” and the first word that auto-filled was “vomit,” but while Taco Bell’s newest offering kind of looks like that, it certainly doesn’t taste like it. Its flavor was mild, with a creaminess despite the rubbery looks and a comforting warmth, not as strident or synthetic as I’d feared. Just as it doesn’t look especially like dairy cheese sauce, though, it doesn’t taste much like it either.
This is the part of the review where I’d usually tell you whether to buy this product or not, but unfortunately, if you’re in an area where it’s no longer being sold, that choice might have already been made for you. So what I’ll say instead is that I think it’d be worth it for Taco Bell to give the Vegan Nacho Sauce another more permanent chance. I might not personally be rushing to buy it again, but I’m sure plenty of people who are more into vegan dining would. So come on, Taco Bell, learn from McDonald’s. If the McRib can go on a whole farewell tour before popping right back onto the market, Vegan Nacho Sauce can too!
Purchased Price: $3.80
Size: Small (size is for the fries, and the sauce is served on the side)
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (fries with sauce) 310 calories, 17 grams of fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 780 milligrams of sodium, 35 grams of total carbohydrates, 4 grams of fiber, 0 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of protein.
After ready a review filled with unappetizing descriptions and an overall “thumbs down” from the reviewer, I scroll down to see a rating of 6 out of 10. I was expecting a 2 or 1. What would it take to rate something lower than a 5? Food poisoning?
It’s a 1 to 10 scale. Explore the space.
No idea how you could read this particular review in its entirety and believe that the reviewer disliked it enough to give it a 1 or a 2. Their 6/10 score is perfectly fitting: the most negative thing they say is that the consistency is weird. They don’t seem repulsed by it at all, they just weren’t super excited about it and considered the flavor to be on the mild side.
They compliment the flavor of the cheese on its own, calling it “faintly funky flavor, slightly and pleasantly earthy, but decidedly not bad”. They even say that Taco Bell should give it a wider release because they believe that many people would enjoy it and should get the chance to try it. How do you read all of that and think that their overall opinion was a “thumbs-down”.
Lets read between the lines…
“sludgy.”
unnaturally dark orange plastic in a cup
felt somewhat freakish
no one could look at this vegan variant and accidentally mistake it for the dairy-based original
That was a bit disappointing. Isn’t the whole point of dipping sauce to liven up the taste of something that’s too plain on its own not to fade into the background itself?
faintly funky flavor, slightly and pleasantly earthy, but decidedly not bad
“vomit,” but while Taco Bell’s newest offering kind of looks like that, it certainly doesn’t taste like it
Just as it doesn’t look especially like dairy cheese sauce, though, it doesn’t taste much like it either.
I might not personally be rushing to buy it again
When the positives are “decidedly not bad” and “Doesn’t taste like vomit” I think Stephen might have a point.
No offense meant to Jenna, I generally enjoy your reviews, and took the time to reread your Starbucks Iced Pumpkin Cream Chai Tea Latte review, which also got a six, and your Domino’s Pepperoni Stuffed Cheesy Bread which got a five. Neither of those had such questionable descriptors, but rated similarly and it seems a little strange. Keep up the good work though, like i said, I enjoy your, and everyone else’s contributions!
A couple of those pics look like congealed egg yolks, which grosses me out even more then the vomit reference LOL
All of these lines sound bad when taken out of context and stacked together in a list, but the majority of those criticisms focus on the appearance/feel of the sauce, rather than the taste. And you included these two:
“Faintly funky flavor, slightly and pleasantly earthy, but decidedly not bad”
“vomit, but while Taco Bell’s newest offering kind of looks like that, it certainly doesn’t taste like it”
Neither of those read as negative to me. I don’t consider a cheese sauce being “funky and earthy” to be bad, you could describe blue cheese in the same way. And you clipped off the first half of that second sentence:
“I Googled “vegan cheese tastes like,” and the first word that auto-filled was “vomit,” but while Taco Bell’s newest offering kind of looks like that, it certainly doesn’t taste like it.”
Once again, the criticism is focused on the appearance of the cheese. And the reviewer wasn’t talking about “vomit” as a subtle diss – they were noting how *other people* describe vegan cheese. Then they immediately disagree with that opinion, describing this sauce as pleasant but mild/unremarkable.
There’s nothing “strange” about this review or its score. You’re “reading between the lines” to interpret it more negatively than it’s actually written. There is absolutely no way that this reads as a 1/10 (as Stephen said) unless you intentionally ignore everything that the reviewer wrote about how the sauce actually tastes.
I parsed it down to the basic descriptions (9 of them), I was being objective, and as you note, I also included the two “semi” good ones.
They say you eat with your eyes first, and reviews on here regularly include that aspect, so we can’t just cherry pick those out to suit your needs.
I left out the “I Googled “vegan cheese tastes like,” because it doesn’t really matter, the reviewer saw fit to include “vomit” in the review, (which I have never seen used in any overall positive review) and yes she said it didn’t taste like it, I was scoring that as one of the two “semi” positives.
You don’t want to admit it, but you pretty much make Stephen’ and my point…
And you included these two:
“Faintly funky flavor, slightly and pleasantly earthy, but decidedly not bad”
“vomit, but while Taco Bell’s newest offering kind of looks like that, it certainly doesn’t taste like it”
Those are the only two “semi” positives (and those are being generous because “faintly Funky might work for blue cheese, it doesn’t do it for cheddar and she could have said “decidedly good” but choose “decidedly not bad”, & “not tasting like vomit” isn’t a ringing endorsement either) and there are seven negatives.
Mathematically, 2 of 9 equals 22.2%
Oh piss off. You aren’t being objective at all, and I’m not “making your point” either. You’re acting like a review for a cheese sauce can be mathematically deconstructed to reveal a more negative score than the writer actually gave it.
They mentioned vomit because they were acknowledging vegan cheese’s bad reputation, not as some kind of subtle diss for you to decode. You probably haven’t seen the word “vomit” in a positive review before because not many foods have the reputation of tasting like “vomit”, so those reviewers had no reason to bring it up/refute it. You intentionally removed the context from that quote, while still leaving in the word “vomit”, because doing so made it appear more negative than it was actually written.
(Also this is my subjective opinion and not really the point, but I really disagree that calling a cheddar cheese sauce “funky” is a bad thing. To name one example, Trader Joe’s sells a spread called “unexpected cheddar” which I would describe as funky, and it’s one of their best products.)
They described the flavor semi-positively while describing the appearance negatively. Of course a food’s texture and appearance matters, but evidently those factors weren’t bad enough to lower the overall score.
Again, you are not being objective, you are pretending that review scores are based on how many negative adjectives the reviewer uses compared to positive ones. The only objective thing here is that the reviewer gave the product a 6/10.
Being a Vegan, I REALLY loved this and was impressed! It reminded me of what I remember the Dairy version tasted like!!
I hope Taco Bell keeps it on their menu to give me that option!!