I know what you’re saying aloud as you read this:“I’m tired of hearing about the Mexican Pizza!” Well, I feel you. We’ve covered all the news surrounding this beloved Taco Bell menu itemexhaustively, from the momentit was firsttaken off the menu, toits triumphantreturn, learning along the way thatDolly PartonandDoja Catare such fans that a Mexican Pizza musical isin the works. It’s rare to see suchcommotion around a single fast food product (rare,not unheard of), and it turns out thatthis story is far from over.
Once the Mexican Pizza finally returned to Taco Bellfor good nationwideon May 19, I thought we’d finally seen the dust settle. I mean, it seemed pretty definitive. But now, another twist:it’s starting to look like the Mexican Pizza is going away again.Temporarily, at least.
Is Taco Bell taking the Mexican Pizza off the menu again?
It all started with this mysterious recent tweet from Taco Bell:
The company announced that it was postponingMexican Pizza: The Musical, starring Dolly Parton and Doja Cat, for unspecified reasons. The tweet reads, “At this time, we are postponing Mexican Pizza: The Musical. We hope to reschedule to a later date, complete with the joy and celebratory spirit in which it was originally created.”
Okay. The world’s currently a tumultuous place, and logistics foranythingare a nightmare right now. Stuff gets canceled or postponed for a thousand reasons—and in fact, some outlets are directly attributing the decision to thecurrent awful news cycle. I get it. I sort of ignored the tweet altogether—until we stumbled on a thread from Reddittitled“welp bye mexican pizza.” Uh oh.
The thread displayed a screenshot that the poster claimed was ofaninternal Taco Bell email, and ithad a pretty big announcement.
As you heard from us just a few days ago, the response we’ve been seeing to Mexican Pizza is tremendous and historic. We couldn’t be more impressed by how our restaurant teams have rallied around each other and served our customers to deliver a great experience.
Because of the incredible love for Mexican Pizza, we have begun selling out across the country. We will communicate this to our fans later this week. The Mexican Pizza will return later this year; you’ll hear more from us as that date approaches.
We know seeing this product leave temporarily again so soon will be hard for some fans, but this is also an opportunity to continue fueling the Mexican Pizza love while ensuring you and your teams are set up for success in the week ahead.
The language and voice within this emailseems pretty legit to me, in thatit sounds like all the other corporate emails from Taco Bell I’ve ever seen. But again, it’s justa screenshot within aReddit post. Though Reddit can often bea pretty reliable source for fast food news, it wasn’t enough information to go on.So I headed to my local Taco Bell toorder a delicious Mexican Pizza for lunch and check with theemployees to see what’s up.
After placing my order, Iasked my cashier if he knew whetherthe Mexican Pizza was leaving.
“I don’t know for sure, but I hope not!” he said.“I really like it. I usually order it with steak or chicken.” (Noted. I should try that sometime.)
I flagged down another employee and asked her the same question. She motioned for me to hold on, and I heard her run to the back to ask her manager.
“It will be here from one more week and it’ll be gone temporarily,” she said upon her return.I guess thatscreenshot from Reddit could bethe real deal, huh?
But the Taco Bell employeeadded one more detail that, whileuncertain, seems to offer fans a glimmer of hope.
“If we stop selling it in person, check the app,” she told me.“You might still be able to get it through there.”
Why is there a Mexican Pizza shortage at Taco Bell?
I’m guessing since the demand for the Mexican Pizza has been so high since its return last week, it’s been a strain onTaco Bell’s supplies. Not just the ingredients in the Pizza itself, but also its extensivepackaging, which the brand admits factored into the decision toremove it from the menuin 2020.
Something similar happened with thePopeyes chicken sandwich back in 2019, when the chainhad to hit pause andstop selling the new menu itemjustto recover inventory. Of course, the chicken sandwich haslong since returned, evenbranching out into newvarietiesalong the way,and that 2019 shortageis but a distantmemory. But we’re right in the thick of it with the Mexican Pizza, so brace yourselves.
Ifyou’re aMexican Pizza fan, you’dbetter get one while you still can. New Reddit threads are popping up thatindicate the Mexican Pizza hasalreadysold out atsome Taco Belllocations. We’ll keep an eye on when they might return, whether it’s weeks or months from now. Thanks to the Mexican Pizza, we’ve learned the hard way thatwe can never take our favorites for granted.