Taco Bell is testing a Biscuit Taco on its breakfast menu, along with two new versions of its popular A.M. Crunchwrap.
Senior director of marketing Amanda Clark, who oversees Taco Bell’s breakfast daypart push, said the chain aims to cut through the “sea of sameness” that morning quick-service consumers wake up to every day.
Breakfast sandwiches make up more than 70 percent of the segment’s early daypart purchases, and they all look pretty much the same, Clark said.
The chain has tested the Biscuit Taco in San Antonio, Texas, and Atlanta, and is now testing it in a few Taco Bell locations in Orange County, Calif.
The item taps the familiar flavors of a Southern-style breakfast biscuit with a “taco-ized” twist.
The Biscuit Taco “shell” is a fluffy buttermilk biscuit, thinner and wider than a standard biscuits, and folded over like a taco. The biscuits are pre-baked and heated for service.
Taco Bell is offering in the test four options with various combinations of eggs, bacon or sausage, and cheese, priced between $1.99 to $3.29.
The standout is a crispy, fried white-meat chicken variation, dredged in crushed taco shells, with a hint of spice.
Customers can order the crispy chicken Biscuit Taco with traditional country gravy or a new signature jalapeno-honey sauce that Clark described as a game changer.
“I think we should bottle and sell it, it’s so good,” she said.
Expecting the Biscuit Taco to spark social media buzz in line with its Waffle Taco, Clark said the chain plans to expand the test this year, with the goal of launching the product nationwide in 2015.
Taco Bell is already planning the national rollout in mid-October of two new additions to its A.M. Crunchwrap platform, which has been a star performer as a “breakfast sandwich buster” on the chain’s morning menu, Clark said.
The new A.M. California Crunchwrap is a grilled tortilla stuffed with eggs, bacon, cheese and hash browns, with guacamole and pico de gallo, for a recommended $2.79, slightly higher due to the guacamole than the original A.M. Crunchwrap, which is priced at a recommended $2.49.
“We thought this would be a hit in California, but when we went to the South they loved it too,” Clark said.
The second option, the A.M. Country Crunchwrap, is designed to evoke a Midwestern country skillet breakfast.
“But that’s not something you can eat in the car,” Clark said. “This one, you can.”
The item has eggs, sausage, cheese, hash browns and country gravy, wrapped in a tortilla and grilled, for a recommended $2.49.
Clark noted that the existing A.M. Crunchwrap, as well as the popular Waffle Taco, will remain on the morning menu, and innovations to the breakfast lineup will continue.
“We knew we had to give consumers ‘más’ in a daypart that has been stagnant for the past four years,” Clark said, referring to Taco Bell’s “Live Más” marketing tagline. “Innovation is at the heart of what we do, and we’re passionate about innovation at breakfast.”
Contact Lisa Jennings at [email protected].
Follow her on Twitter: @livetodineout
