When you think “Taco Bell beef,” a VERY specific kind of product enters your mind. And the beef in Taco Bell Shredded Beef Nacho Fries is not that idiosyncratic, unmistakable Taco Bell beef at all.

It’s hard to describe. It’s shredded beef, alright, but not shredded beef a la Arby’s. More like shredded beef, Sloppy Joe-style (just sans the Sloppy.) It has a decent mouthfeel and an adequate level of chewiness, but frankly, it’s a bit forgettable. After all, there are SO many different ingredients in this thing that the beef itself just kind of soaks up the congealed flavor of everything else. And for the most part, that’s a good thing.

I doubt I have to reintroduce anybody reading this to Taco Bell’s Nacho Fries. They’re a fan favorite for a reason, and TB didn’t meddle with the product at all here. In addition to the shredded beef, we get a deluge of Creamy Jalapeño sauce, a smattering of pico de gallo, and no less than four different types of melted cheese blends on top of it all. Nacho, cheddar, mozzarella, pepperjack — the band’s all here, folks, and you already know how beautiful their medley sounds (and tastes, I guess.)

It seems like the general taste of the Shredded Beef Nacho Fries would be super obvious, but there are more nuances going on than you might anticipate. The sinewy, stringy meat does a pretty good job of augmenting everything else on the plate, but it doesn’t change the mouthfeel and texture as much as you’d imagine. The fry seasoning, the sauce, and the monsoon of cheeses drown out everything else, even the pico de gallo ingredients. There’s nothing dry or savory about this dish, and I can see how that might turn off some potential consumers. Nor is it very spicy, though it occasionally catches you off guard with a “kick” out of nowhere; the flavor’s power seems to ebb and flow, with some pockets of the dish definitely carrying a more robust, potent taste.

If you’re looking for something zesty, filling, and oily in the best possible way, these things are right up your alley. Hardcore Nacho Fries fans are probably going to love this product by default, although it doesn’t taste that much different from some of the chain’s previous variants. It would’ve been nice to see Taco Bell amp up the product with something different — i.e., a new kind of sauce or more supreme-style toppings — but overall it’s hard to complain about everything you get here. The relatively steep price point might be a deterrent to some people, but you do get a rather filling dish.

That said, I still think the Fiesta Strips should’ve been included. And definitely a black olive or two.

Purchased Price: $5.99
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 480 calories, 30 grams of fat, 4.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 25 milligrams of cholesterol, 1,080 mg of sodium, 42 grams of carbohydrates, 5 grams of fiber, 3 grams of sugar, and 13 grams of protein.

Taco Bell understands that true innovation isn’t accomplished in broad strokes, but mild refinements. The Cantina Chicken Mexican Pizza is proof of this.

This fusion of the Cantina brand with the Mexican Pizza works wonderfully, to the point I’d contend it’s one of the best things you’ll find in the entire Taco Bell canon.

By now, we all know how TB’s Mexican Pizzas work. We’ve got two tortillas, with a smattering of black beans and what the restaurant touts as “savory, slow-roasted chicken” wedged in between them. The quality of the poultry here is much better than what you’d expect from the franchise. Like, it actually has some chewiness, and it isn’t buried alive in salt like the rotisserie-style chicken you get at rival fast food chains. Maybe it’s not on par with Chipotle, but it doesn’t feel like run-of-the-mill TB chicken, either.

Atop the pizza, we’ve got a smorgasbord of toppings. We’ve got a tri-cheese blanket consisting of pepperjack, mozzarella, and cheddar, we’ve got the iconic green chile sauce, we’ve got pico de gallo, and we’ve got purple cabbage … and lots of it. I’ve never been a big fan of cabbage in Tex-Mex, but I actually liked the textural variety it adds with this particular product. It’s a bit muted, but in a fast food item like this, muted cabbage is hardly a negative.

All by itself, the Cantina Chicken Mexican Pizza is exactly the kind of limited-time-only offering you’d want from the Bell. It’s crispy, it’s chewy, it’s comically cheesy, and it has a richer, more varied amount of ingredients in the mix than the standard Taco Bell product. Pretty much my only complaint is that the interior chicken was a little skimpy, but that’s the kind of thing that varies from store to store. As is, it’s still a top-tier Taco Bell item and something any long-time Mexican Pizza fan would almost certainly enjoy.

Yet the thing that pushes the Cantina Chicken Mexican Pizza from being a very good fast food selection to a genuinely great one comes in the side dressings. The Avocado Verde Salsa isn’t exactly a “new” offering from Taco Bell, but the Jalapeño Citrus Salsa certainly is. The latter is reason alone to give these things a try. It’s the best sauce I’ve tried from TB in ages, and it’s something that already deserves to be a year-round item. Heck, I’d even pay extra for it — it’s that good.

Once you’ve mixed the two salsa packets onto the Mexican Pizza, not only do you get a nice green and orange color palette, but you also get an absolutely stellar combination of flavors that’s unlike anything else you’ll find at Taco Bell. It’s chunky, it’s gooey, it’s zesty, it’s delightfully spicy, and it’s filling like you wouldn’t believe. Taste-wise, this is one of the ritziest and most complex dishes we’ve ever gotten at the Bell. It’s definitely worth checking out — especially considering it could leave the menu and never, ever come back.

Purchased Price: $6.49
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 520 calories, 29 grams of fat, 8 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 75 mg of cholesterol, 1,190 mg of sodium, 37 grams of carbohydrates, 9 grams of fiber, 4 grams of sugar (includes less than 1 gram of added sugar), and 27 grams of protein.

Do you remember when Late Night with Conan O’Brien had bands you’d never heard of? Musical acts like Brother Cane, Juicy Doves, At The Drive-In, Spicy Spicy Spice, The Spinanes, December Showers, Jawbox, Buffalo Tom, Flowerbot, and Pizza Redux.

Over the past three years, Taco Bell has been introducing me to hot sauces I’ve never heard of, like Yellowbird, Secret Aardvark, Disha Hot, and now Zab’s. More specifically, Zab’s St. Augustine Style Sauce, which has a sweet heat and gradual burn from Datil peppers. By the way, the Orange Sweet Datil Peppers would be a decent name for a Red Hot Chili Peppers cover band from Florida, which is where most Datil peppers are grown.

The Taco Bell Zab’s Chicken Ranch Nacho Fries feature Nacho Fries topped with slow-roasted chicken, warm Nacho Cheese sauce, a three-cheese blend, pico de gallo, and Zab’s Datil Pepper Ranch sauce, which is a combo of Zab’s St. Augustine Style Sauce and Taco Bell’s Spicy Ranch.

With that combination of a hot sauce and a spicy ranch, I expected at least a little kick from the Nacho Fries, but as I ate them, I kept thinking, “Where’s the heat?” The Zab’s sauce is supposed to provide a gradual heat, but instead, I got no heat. However, I’m not going to complain too much about that because I liked most of the flavors here. I say “most” because, and this might sound strange, I actually preferred the bites without any chicken. Look, I’ve enjoyed the slow-roasted chicken in plenty of other menu items, but they were a distraction here. Without it, I thought the flavors of the fries and toppings were more pronounced.

While the Zab’s ranch sauce lacked heat, it had plenty of flavor. Though I’m not sure I’d call it a ranch sauce. It was tangy like a ranch dressing, but also a little sweet. Think of a tangier offshoot of ketchup and mayo with a hint of pepperiness. It was also not overpowering, which allowed the tomatoes in the pico de gallo, the Nacho Fries seasoning, and the nacho cheese sauce to shine alongside each other, creating a tasty tower of toppings and fries that are worth a try. Well, except for the chicken.

Well, Zab’s, I now know who you are. I wonder what hot sauce brand Taco Bell is going to introduce us to next. Perhaps Vermont’s Angry Goat Pepper Company, Slap Ya Mama or Frog Bone from Louisiana, or Horsetooth Hot Sauce from Colorado?

Purchased Price: $5.99*
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 490 calories, 31 grams of fat, 4.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 40 milligrams of cholesterol, 1170 milligrams of sodium, 40 grams of carbohydrates, 5 grams of fiber, 3 grams of sugar, and 13 grams of protein.

*Because I live on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, things are a bit pricier here. You’ll probably pay less than I did.

Taco Bell could’ve just named these Spicy Crispy Chicken Nuggets and called it a day. But the marketing folks there went with some alliteration to make these the Diablo Dusted Crispy Chicken Nuggets, then dusted the Diablo dust off their hands and called it a day.

The limited time offering features all-white-meat chicken nuggets in a crispy, tortilla chip coating with Diablo dust made from the chain’s Diablo sauce packets. I imagine the seasoning is produced in Hell by heating up vats of Diablo sauce over a fiery pit and letting the liquid evaporate so all that remains is a fine powder, which gets stomped into a finer powder by those in Hell who are there because they never used their blinkers when turning or changing lanes. Also, I imagine El Diablo says the powder is being used by Taco Bell, but being El Diablo, he’s lying. Half is being used by Taco Bell and the other half is his nose candy.

An order is available with five or ten pieces, with a sauce of your choice. Because these are Diablo Dusted Chicken Nuggets, I had to go with the Hidden Valley Diablo Ranch Dipping Sauce. Although I would like to note that I’d be somewhat okay if my nuggets ended up without any sauce because their peppery and savory flavor is surprisingly good on its own. Also, when I ate them this way, the Diablo coating that ended up on my lips did make them tingle.

The nuggets are definitely spicier than the Hidden Valley Diablo Ranch, and I’d say they’re roughly as spicy as Wendy’s Spicy Chicken Nuggets. Maybe a tad more? It’s not an unpleasant heat that demands a cold beverage, but I was glad one happened to be within arm’s reach. The dipping sauce added a tangy ranch flavor and helped lessen the heat, even though it has a bit of a kick too. That cool ranch tanginess pairs extremely well with the hot, peppery seasoning on the nuggets, and I believe it’s enough to make this worth buying.

While I enjoyed the flavor of the nuggets and the dipping sauce, I wasn’t a fan of how dry the chicken was, and the dry, but on purpose, crunchy coating wasn’t helping. Thankfully, they weren’t as arid as Hell’s Diablo Dust stomping pits, and the creamy ranch did help hide some of that dryness. Of course, your results may vary, but the dryness did lower my overall enjoyment of what was otherwise a tasty order.

Purchased Price: $5.79*Size: 5-pieces
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (5 pieces) 340 calories, 14 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 55 milligrams of cholesterol, 1340 milligrams of sodium, 27 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, 0 grams of sugar, and 27 grams of protein.

*Because I live on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, things are a bit pricier here. You’ll probably pay less than I did.

As someone who doesn’t love beef, I highly appreciate the touchscreens at Taco Bell that allow you to make substitutions seamlessly—no fear of a disapproving gaze as I sheepishly swap to chicken. The only thing I’d enjoy more would be if the good people of Taco Bell revamped a classically beef-centric dish to include chicken from the get-go… and wouldn’t you know it, that’s exactly what they did with the new limited edition Crispy Chicken Crunchwrap Slider.

This isn’t the first Slider-ified Crunchwrap; it follows in the footsteps of last year’s Steak & Queso flavor. Where the OG Crunchwrap Supreme contains Nacho Cheese sauce, lettuce, tomatoes, and sour cream, this new variant has crispy chicken as the main protein, plus a three-cheese blend, pico de gallo, and your choice of either Creamy Chipotle or Jalapeno Honey Mustard sauce. Being a slider, it’s also important to note that it’s smaller than the traditional Crunchwrap Supreme, making it ideal for a quick snack. (If you’re hungrier, you can even get it as part of the Discovery Luxe Cravings Box combo.)

While the Slider shares the same iconic hexagonal shape as the original Crunchwrap Supreme, mine wasn’t folded quite flawlessly, so I could see some sauce-coated bits of tomato peeking out. The small size came in handy here, since I was able to grip the Slider fully in one hand and keep the other ready to catch any fillings that might tumble out. My first bite was remarkably solid, which made sense when I realized I had bitten directly into one of the nuggets of crispy chicken. (“I see, it’s like a chicken nugget wrapped in a tortilla,” remarked my husband, who, I guess, had never heard of a Crunchwrap before? Technically, there were three chicken nuggets in there, but his observation was more or less accurate.)

I enjoyed the plumpness of the nugget and the tasty fried coating, even if it was a bit dry. That problem was mitigated by mouthfuls that had more mustard, though I still couldn’t help but think that shredded chicken would have been a better fit. I know, the whole reason this item exists is to promote the fact that Taco Bell sells chicken nuggets these days, but still! It also didn’t help that my Slider came out a bit lukewarm, and my suspicions that it hadn’t been properly heated all the way through were supported when I unwrapped it to see an abundance of unmelted cheese shreds.

The pico de gallo was mild, mostly sweet from the tomatoes, which obscured the onion’s bite. And speaking of “sweet with a bite,” the jalapeno honey mustard was a bit strange. I mostly tasted the acridness of the jalapeno, which was a tad too vinegary for my liking, though my very last bite somehow tasted like pure, classic honey mustard, so it wasn’t the most consistent sauce.

While the Crispy Chicken Crunchwrap Slider didn’t knock my socks off, I enjoyed it enough to try it again if the opportunity arises. Maybe my Taco Bell was just having an off day! Maybe I would fare better with the Creamy Chipotle! And if all else fails, I can always do a little more customizing on my beloved touchscreen.

Purchased Price: $2.99
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 320 calories, 12 grams of fat, 860 milligrams of sodium, 36 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of sugar, and 16 grams of protein.