Police are still looking for Pranksters that in Sedalia, Missouri that reportedly used a Taco Bell drive-through radio signal to shout vulgarities at customers. The pranksters in question posed as Taco Bell employees on Tuesday afternoon, but the ordeal only lasted a few minutes.

Despite the fact that it was just a practical joke, they could face charges. The employees of the Taco Bell said that they would definitely press charges if the pranksters were caught.

In order to do something like this, the suspects “would have to be in relatively close proximity to” the Taco Bell to interfere with the drive-through speaker.

[Via Google News]

Ah, the Enchilada. Or is it Enchirito? During our last Taco Bell expedition, we discovered that Enchirito is a not-so-fancy word made up by Taco Bell that means Enchilada. We also learned that the Enchirito (Enchilada) is really a sad excuse for something anyone would actually eat. In theory, its just an open-ended burrito with meat, beans and onions on the inside with red sauce and cheese on the outside. Or, that’s what the picture on Taco Bell’s website would have you believe. The Enchiladas (we tried all four flavors) were just flat, bean-ridden abominations of man. Oh, and did I mention that there’s about a thousand million onions?

The biggest problem with this item is that the flavors of the beans, onions, red sauce and meat are all too sharp. Instead of Fiesta Salsa to add some contrast with tomatoes, they went for onions alone that make the experience much worse. The beef, spicy chicken and steak all have their own juices lending nothing to the tastes already in place. Even the grilled chicken (which we had the most hope for) absolutely fell flat. Without any of its own juices, it was slightly more bearable than the other flavors but still not very pleasant.

Verdict: The Enchirito/Enchilada is really a sad item altogether. The flavors of the meats along with the overpowering taste of the red sauce completely negates any flavor the cheese has and the addition of onions makes it even worse. All in all, this item is mostly a failure. Even if made like on Taco Bell’s website, this item would have a long way to go to be eatable by humans.

The choice of which Taco Bell to frequent is generally decided by where you are, but sometimes there are much deeper things to consider. There are over 5,800 Taco Bells in the United States. This basically boils down to there being enough in an area to choose from at least two but sometimes up to five different Taco Bells to eat at. From those two to five, there are many things to consider. Prices often fluctuate, the distance can sometimes be a nuisance and how old or newly renovated they are will all sway you one way or another.

The first thing to consider is whether or not the Taco Bell in question is privately owned. Privately owned franchises have the final say over prices and what promotions/items they do or do not participate in. Sometimes this can be a good thing, but in such “touch economic times” people are raising their prices more than ever. Corporately owned Taco Bells sometimes hike prices up slightly but private owners have less assets and raise them in an attempt to stay in business. This sometimes leads to items being up to a dollar more than corporate locations, making it the last choice on the list of which to visit.

Beyond prices, there are a few more subtle things that set many Taco Bells apart. Some have undergone recent renovations and others (often privately owned) are past due for such an update. Eating in an establishment with broken tiles, smelly bathrooms, sticky tables, squeaky chairs and that irremovable sheen of caked on dirt can be considerably unnerving, especially once your mind begins to wander to what the kitchen must look like.

After considering both ownership and prices, if a few of the Taco Bells in your area are even in those two respects (making you pretty lucky), you have to look at the crews that work there. If you frequent multiple Taco Bells, you begin to familiarize yourself with the ones make better quality items and at what time of the day they do it (whether day shift or night shift). Sometimes the staff can be very attentive, endearing and do their best to make every visit your best visit. Considering this, there are also those crews that don’t seem to do anything right, that do as little as possible as often as possible, and that really don’t care. This being last in the things you should look for does not, by any means, make it much less important than renovations or prices. These are the people that put together what you’re paying for, making them just as important as everything else.

Make sure to consider all of your options when choosing which Taco Bell will be your haven of cuisine on any given day. Such an important decision is the difference between getting everything you want, being comfortable and coming back again as compared to swearing off Taco Bell completely until you realize what an enormous mistake you’ve made.

Nobody ever seems to give Taco Bell enough credit. So many people consider Taco Bell to be the bottom of the barrel, worst of the worst or otherwise not worthy of their money, but still drop the dollars at plenty of other fast food places.

Taco Bell, McDonald’s, Arby’s, Burger King and any others you can think of generally pay the same rates, have similar marketing budgets, have the same quality standards and all follow the same FDA rules and regulations. Somehow, though, Taco Bell seems to sit at the bottom of the ladder of the average person’s fast food choice. Whether they don’t like the food (which 70% of the time means they’ve never tried it) or have never really eaten there, many are opposed to the idea of trying it rather than being open to giving it a try. If someone hasn’t ever tried McDonald’s, they’d be all gung-ho to dive right in and try a Big-Mac but the same could never be said for Taco Bell and a Chalupa.

This seems to stem from people either hearing that Taco Bell was somehow perpetually and inherently dirty or having heard some other horror story with little, if any, roots in reality. It sits on the proverbial bottom in people’s minds but there is absolutely nothing worse or dirtier about Taco Bell relative to it’s other fast food competitors. That is, on top of the fact that Taco Bell’s items generally have less calories and fat by weight and value and with the addition of their Fresco menu, have more versatile options to eat “healthy.”

Taco Bell has had its fair share of scares and negative marks on its record, but they were never really preventable by Taco Bell or YUM! Brands specifically. The 2006 E. coli breakout that affected 71 people in 5 states was not due to neglect on Taco Bell’s part. They immediately took action after identifying the problem. It turned out that the shredded lettuce they were using was infected with E. coli before it reached the Taco Bell, and there was no easy way to tell that it wasn’t up to code. Nobody at Taco Bell knowingly served up an E. coli taco, they simply used the same lettuce they always use.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the myth that the green onions were the cause of the outbreak holds no water. In fact, Taco Bell voluntarily removed green onions from all five-thousand and eight-hundred of it’s restaurants “after preliminary tests by the firm indicated the possible presence of E. coli” according to a report by the FDA. Taco Bell did their best to take care of the outbreak, but rumors spread and Taco Bell was quickly branded the bad guy. Taco Bell was not the only place to receive infected lettuce and “eight other [non-Taco Bell] restaurants on Long Island, in what [was] called a temporary precaution to sanitize and restock outlets, stopped service of lettuce.” Taco Bell was named the common factor in all of the outbreaks, but only because their reach extended beyond privately owned restaurants in the area.

If you look back to June 7, 2008, the FDA warned customers nationwide not to eat raw tomatoes for fear of infecting consumers with Salmonella. The only reason that particular “scare” didn’t target a specific company was because the FDA issued the warning before a considerable number of infections had occurred. This kept any one restaurant from suffering the burden of “the place that was infected with Salmonella.” The only difference in this case as compared to the E. coli outbreak was that the FDA caught it before it created any serious health issues.

All of these things, and probably miscellaneous other reasons, contribute to the social stigma surrounding eating at Taco Bell. This kind of thing causes it to stick around with enough loyal followers to keep it afloat, but Taco Bell should be a place that people are proud to eat. People should be able to tell others that they eat at Taco Bell without getting the disgusted looks and disgruntled sounds from their friends and loved ones. Taco Bell should be celebrated, even more so than the simpletons and copycats that are most other fast food restaurants serving meat between bread. So when someone you know says that they hate Taco Bell or that they think its gross, volunteer to be their tour guide. Bring them with you to a Taco Bell and show them the light. Show them what’s good, how to make it perfect and that there is nothing wrong with ordering more than just a hard taco. We need to show the world that Taco Bell is king, one patron at a time.

[The official E. coli FDA report]

Jason Lauth was a man that knew what he wanted. Around 1:00 in the morning, Jason Lauth and his companion, David Stanier, visited a Spring Hill Taco Bell for some late night FourthMeal action. Not only did he know what he wanted, Jason Lauth also knew that he wanted it now. The only thing standing between him and his precious FourthMeal was another excited Taco Bell patron, ready to get his grub on.

Now Jason, he decides whatever is going in the car in front of him is taking much too long, so he yells, “Hurry up!”

Hearing this, the two men in front of him climb out of their vehicle and approach Lauth and Stanier. Lauth gets out to meet them, grabs one man by his collared shirt, cocks back his fist and BAM! before Lauth’s punch lands the man’s partner gives him a good one in the face

The Taco Bell staff called the police as Lauth, defeated, returned to his vehicle. He and Stanier drove off, only to be picked up by police at around 1:15 AM less than a mile down the road. The deputy that pulled them over split them up for for separate interviews. David Stanier, the driver, could not produce his license because it had been suspended. When asked how much he had to drink, the only response he could come up with was “A lot.”

Lauth was also clearly intoxicated and told the deputy that he was beaten up at Taco Bell. When the deputy asked about the details of the fight, Lauth suddenly remembered that he lost a fight over Taco Bell and denied that it happened. The deputy then brought up Lauth’s original statement, and in his drunken state, he called the deputy a liar.

Jason Lauth has since been charged with misdemeanor battery and David Stanier was charged with DUI.

After the unorthodox wedding between Paul and Caragh Brooks at an Illinois Taco Bell, they have since spoken on a radio show and also had a brief interview on the CBS Early show. Outside of that, they have been mentioned in many places including The Tonight Show, The Late Show and Chelsea Lately.

After meeting on OKCupid.com, they never originally planned to get married in a Taco Bell. Paul and Caragh both wanted to get married on Caragh’s mother’s wedding anniversary, but when they called the courthouse, there were no openings. Being married that day was important enough for Paul to call his ordained minister friend to marry them. When the minister asked where he wanted it to take place Paul responded “eh…Taco Bell?”

“I didn’t think she would go for it,” Paul said. “At first it was supposed to be just us, the minister, and the two witnesses…but once people found out, I figured I should probably [OK it] with Taco Bell.”

Caragh apparently got a lot of flak for being married at a Taco Bell and paying only $200 for it, but her response was simple:
“It’s funny…the negative reactions you see from people when they say [sarcastically], ‘You must really love her spending $200 on a wedding.’ “Since when does money represent how much you care about someone?”
Both Paul and Caragh say they are “laid back, low-key and we just couldn’t fathom spending that sort of money on a wedding.”

My favorite part of the story comes when we find out that the President of Taco Bell is also from Australia, Caragh’s native country. “He sent us a hand-written letter congratulating us and a check for $200 to cover the cost of the wedding,” Paul said.

Although Caragh’s visa status has not yet allowed her to work within the U.S., Paul runs a video production company he started a little over a year ago.

[via The Daily Vidette]

Taco Bell, after launching their $500 million dollar campaign with the slogan “!Yo quiero Taco Bell!” in the 1990s, never actually paid the original creators:

A federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled Taco Bell is responsible for a $42 million judgment awarded to the creators of its popular Chihuahua mascot.

A Michigan jury had found the Mexican restaurant chain didn’t properly pay the dog’s creators, Tom Rinks and Joe Shields, when it launched a $500 million ad campaign in the 1990s. The campaign’s tag line, “¡Yo quiero Taco Bell!,” is loosely translated as, “I want some Taco Bell.”

The part that I don’t get is how they went so long without getting their money. Not that they don’t deserve it, but if I had accidentally “not been paid” $42 million dollars I would have been asking for it a long time ago.

[Via USA Today]

To those like myself, Taco Bell is the greatest place on Earth, but to be fair, Paul and Caragh Brooks took it to an entirely new level.

Paul and Caragh claim they are both a little wacky, despite being married in Normal, IL. After meeting on an internet dating website and getting engaged on New Year’s Eve, they both decided to have their wedding in a local Taco Bell.

The grand total of the wedding was only $200 including the food, streamers, balloons and the $15 hot pink wedding dress. There was no word on what they ate or how much they ate, but props to them for going through with it. Many people would mock them both, but congratulations are in order for doing something as bold and lighthearted as this.

A 23-year-old man was arrested on charges of lewd and lascivious molestation, lewd exhibition and false imprisonment after following a child into a Taco Bell bathroom and exposing himself.

Brian Lowery followed the 4-year-old victim into the bathroom around 2PM on Tuesday. Witnesses followed them both in and found Lowery “performing a lewd act on the child” which could mean just about anything. Lowery is being held without bond in the Orient Road Jail in Plant City.

[Via MyFox Tampa Bay]

The Baja Chalupa is one of the most popular styles of Chalupa that Taco Bell has to offer. Of the many combinations of Chalupa, the Chicken Baja is specifically the most masterful, followed by steak, and finally trailed by beef. The Baja Chalupa contains your choice of meat topped with Baja sauce, shredded lettuce, a three-cheese blend and fiesta salsa, all inside of a fried Chalupa shell.

The Chalupa has a lot going on inside and this complexity makes it a staple of Taco Bell cuisine. The perfect Chalupa has a freshly fried shell with warm chicken, cold lettuce, fiesta salsa and cheese. When you bite in, you get the warmth of the shell and chicken, but the contrasting coolness of the lettuce and cheese, all made better by the lukewarm Baja sauce seeping from the middle. When done correctly, this balance of temperatures makes the Chalupa what it is, but brings to light two major risks when ordering:
1) If you wait too long to eat it, the balance is easily lost
and
2) if the Chalupa is made with cold chicken, warm lettuce or other mediocre ingredients, all is already lost.

Verdict: The Baja Chalupa is one of the major players on the Taco Bell menu and the taste of the perfect Chalupa completely offsets the risks that come along with ordering it.