A Short History Of Taco Bell’s Caramel Apple Empanada, The GOAT Of Fast Food Desserts

In the Mount Rushmore of fast food legends, some faces are carved in stone: the Big Mac, the Whopper, the Frosty. But then there are the cult heroes. These are the iconic menu items ripped away in their prime, leaving a generation of fans to mourn, petition, and pray for their return.

At the top of that list, encased in a golden, deep-fried shell, sits the undisputed GOAT of fast food desserts: the Taco Bell Caramel Apple Empanada.

For those who never had the pleasure, let’s be clear about what the Taco Bell Caramel Apple Empanada actually is. Officially, Taco Bell describes it as a “golden brown, crispy empanada loaded with warm apple pieces and a creamy filling with caramel notes.” But let’s be real, that’s like calling a fighter jet “a plane.”

In reality, it was a blisteringly hot, perfectly crispy pocket of bubbly fried dough, protecting a molten core of apple-caramel lava. Its fan base is more rabid and organized than a faction of SEC football fans, and their loyalty has been tested through years of heartbreak.

When Taco Bell yanked it from the menu in 2019, it was an act of “betrayal” that “broke hearts” across the country. Its periodic, limited-time reappearances, including its current return for Fall 2025 on the new Taco Bell “Decades Y2K” menu, are treated like the return of a king, “a triumphant return” that makes its followers feel “like a kid on Christmas morning”.

“The Caramel Apple Empanada has lived rent-free in our fans’ hearts, and its return is proof of the power of their voices,” a Taco Bell spokesperson tells BroBible. “With Y2K nostalgia shaping so much of today’s culture, it only felt right to revive this iconic throwback and give longtime fans, and a new generation, a sweet taste of Y2k, the Taco Bell way,” Taco Bell spokesperson

Its story is a dramatic cycle of love, loss, and corporate strategy. For a legion of fans, however, this is more about core memories than the return of a an iconic dessert. It’s the taste of freedom on a late-night high school drive, the cheap, warm comfort that got you through broke college days, the gooey center that could fix almost anything for a couple of glorious minutes.

It became part of their story, the “absolute favorite fast-food dessert of all time,” as one writer for Parade confessed. This nostalgia is so powerful it’s contagious, capable of infecting even those who never had it. As TikToker @SnachwithZach admitted after trying it for the first time: “Even I feel nostalgic, and I’ve never had it,” proving just how easy it is to be nostalgic for a past you didn’t necessarily participate in.

 

But to understand the empanada’s epic journey, you first have to understand the ghost it was born to replace: the original, deep-fried McDonald’s Apple Pie.

An Early 2000s Taco Bell Original

The Caramel Apple Empanada first appeared on the scene in the early 2000s, a certified “2004 hit” on Taco Bell’s “Big Bell Value Menu.” For 15 years, it was a menu staple. The formula was simple but perfect: a “crispy, deep-fried pastry pocket filled with warm apple pieces and a creamy caramel sauce,” all dusted with cinnamon sugar.

Crucially, we have to consider the Caramel Apple Empanada’s price. This thing was gloriously cheap, honoring a legacy of value Taco Bell built decades ago with legends like the $.39 taco on its 1991 Fiesta Menu. A direct descendant of the iconic “79-89-99 Why Pay More?” era, the empanada was a dollar menu staple. We’re talking 99 cents, and sometimes even less. As one Reddit user perfectly put it, “This was $0.89. I added it to every order.” At that price, adding one to your order was a reflex. It was the ultimate add-on, as an indulgent treat that was completely guilt-free for your wallet.

But what makes the empanada a true legend is that it didn’t just appear out of thin air. It rose from the ashes of a fallen icon, arriving to fill the deep-fried, apple-filled void another fast food giant had left in our hearts.

From 1968 to 1992, the undisputed king of handheld pies was the McDonald’s Apple Pie. It was the chain’s first-ever dessert and, most importantly, it was deep-fried. It was a crispy, bubbly pocket of molten-hot apple filling that was legendary for its ability to inflict third-degree burns on the roof of your mouth. As a mid-’80s baby and ’90s kid, I remember eating these all the time on road trips with my parents and grandparents. It was a beloved treat and a fixture of the McDonald’s experience.

Then, in 1992, citing “health concerns,” McDonald’s made the catastrophic decision to switch to a baked version nationwide. The public reaction was brutal. Fans called the new pie “inferior” and compared the crust to “apple-cinnamon-flavored cardboard”. This single move created a decades-long craving for a proper fried pie.

When Taco Bell dropped the Caramel Apple Empanada years later, it was the spiritual successor fans had been waiting for. It was, as one reviewer later put it, “actually deep fried, the way all fast food pies should still be cooked“.

It instantly became a cult classic. Taco Bell gave fans the fried pie they had been robbed of years earlier. It was the perfect dessert, a crunchy, gooey, and cheap staple that earned a level of fan devotion most brands only dream of.

And when you put the two fast food desserts head-to-head, consensus is not even a contest.

The key difference-maker, according to eagle-eyed fans, is the filling. While McDonald’s offers “weak cinnamon apple gunk,” the empanada’s “oozing caramel” is the “game changer”.

The online verdict is decisive. As one Reddit user stated bluntly, “the McDonald’s apple pie is absolute dogsh*t compared to the CAE“.

The Great Discontinuation and The Uprising

Then, in the summer of 2019, the music died. Taco Bell “quietly pulled” the empanada from its menus. There was no farewell tour. It just vanished, 15 years later.

Taco Bell left only Cinnamon Twists and Cinnabon Delights behind as a consolation prize. For the empanada’s legion of fans, this was an unacceptable trade.

The response was a digital riot. The word “betrayal” echoed across social media as Change.org petitions were immediately launched. The outrage had a long tail, too; when Taco Bell dropped the savory Cheesy Chicken Crispanada in early 2024, the announcement was buried under a tidal wave of comments demanding the dessert it was clearly copying. It felt like the company was trying to pull a fast one on its most loyal customers:

The top comments were a collective groan:

“Why doesn’t Taco Bell listen to it’s customers? Bring back the caramel apple empanada,” writes one person on Instagram.

“Bring back the Caramel Empanada and the Chilli cheese burrito listen to all your customers that’s what they all want…” chimes in another.

“Caramel apple please . Your already have enough non dessert items. Bring back the apple,” demands another

“Idk what I’m more upset about; the fact that I’m just hearing about this or that it’s not THE CARAMEL APPLE EMPANADA 😠 👎 🍗” adds another. 

“Omg I thought it was my favorite caramel apple empanada, I was so disappointed 🙁 when I asked for an empanada today and got this…. 😭” bemoans another customer.

“I’m still mad about the Caramel apple empanadas being discontinued, and this made me even sad because I got my hopes up just to be disappointed,” expresses up another.

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While Taco Bell has never given a straightforward answer, former employees on Reddit have laid out a compelling case. One alleged employee states in the thread that the empanada was a logistical nightmare. It required a dedicated deep-frying process that took three to six minutes, and worse, a mandatory 10-minute cooldown period before it could be served. The total prep time could be as long as 16 or 17 minutes—an eternity in the drive-thru world. It was a certified drive-thru killer.

This move was part of a massive strategic shift for Taco Bell in 2019. The brand simplified its menu to speed up the drive-thru, axing other complex items like the Double Decker Taco that was a fixture on menus since 1995, when it was introduced via a Spike Lee-directed commercial featuring Shaquille O’Neal and Hakeem Olajuwon. After trimming the menu in 2019, Taco Bell started pushing a new wave of flashy, limited-time offers like the Toasted Cheddar Chalupa to drive hype.

The slow, beloved empanada simply didn’t fit the new game plan.

The Taco Bell Caramel Apple Empanada’s Glorious Return

For years, the battle to bring back the empanada raged across the internet. It was a grassroots movement worthy of the Taco Bell pantheon, right up there with the legendary Beefy Crunch Movement, a fan-led campaign so passionate and organized it basically forced the company’s hand through sheer, unrelenting demand.

After years of online petitions and social media bombardment, Taco Bell finally caved in November 2024. The empanada made a limited-time comeback, and has made several triumphant comebacks, currently headlining the brand’s nostalgia-fueled “Decades Y2K Menu” promotion.

But this victory came with a catch. The once-humble dollar menu hero now carries a suggested price of $2.99, a fact that has fans torn. As one commenter put it, the reaction is a mix of joy and pain: “I’m happy it’s back but damn, that price hurts. It went from an every-time add-on to a rare treat.”

This is the new playbook. Taco Bell learned from the public outcry that resurrected the Mexican Pizza. They now openly embrace fan demand as a core marketing strategy. The company’s own press releases cheekily declare things like, “Our fans have always been vocal about what they want from us, and we’re excited to give them the opportunity to literally choose what’s hitting menus next.” They know exactly what they’re doing: selling our memories back to us at a premium.

Taco Bell Caramel Apple Empanada’s permanence remains in question.

The return of the empanada has been met with mixed reviews. Some fans report it’s as “glorious” as they remember, while others have been disappointed by inconsistent quality and bemoan the price. One Redditor notes, “I think a fair price would be $1.49 or $1.99” in their review.

So, the big question remains: will the empanada ever return permanently?

Don’t hold your breath. In the modern fast food game, “permanent” is a dirty word, and manufactured hype is king. It’s the business scarcity playbook, perfected by decades of on-again, off-again relationships with items like the McDonald’s McRib and the Shamrock Shake. You take something beloved away, let the internet spend years begging for its return, and then cash in on the frenzy when it finally “drops.”

It’s a calculated strategy to “play on hungry folks’ alternating excitement and disappointment” to spike sales. By making it a limited-time offer and even “gamifying” its return with app-only early access, Taco Bell creates a powerful sense of urgency.

We live in a hype economy, and permanent menu items don’t trend on TikTok with content creators doing taste tests to mind for clout. Nostalgic comebacks, however, generate a news cycle you can take to the bank.

I’ve eaten this empanada in two wildly different settings: once in the sterile perfection of the Taco Bell test kitchen, and again, as intended, from a drive-thru window. The test kitchen version was flawless.

The drive-thru version, however, was the real thing.

Let’s be clear: the magic isn’t just the filling. The shell is where the truth lies. A shatteringly crisp, bubbled miracle of deep-fried dough providing the perfect textural counterpoint to the piping-hot core. The flavors in the filling itself are wonderfully balanced. I could eat caramel by the vat, but even I have to admire its restraint here. It’s not aggressively ‘appley,’ nor is it a sticky caramel bomb like some overpriced novelty from a neighborhood carnival. It’s a perfect equilibrium. And that’s the genius of it.

For a couple of bucks, Taco Bell has managed to engineer the memory of that 2 AM gut-punch of joy from my college days and sell it right back to me.

The new “Decades Y2K” menu includes some of the items fans were waiting for, including long-lost legends like the Double Decker Taco ($2.49), the 7-Layer Burrito ($2.49), and the Cool Ranch® Doritos® Locos Taco ($2.49), and the cult-favorite Chili Cheese Burrito ($2.99), checking all the boxes for a perfect nostalgia trip.

In that way, the empanada has become more valuable to Taco Bell as a temporary, hype-generating, high-margin weapon of nostalgia.

The entire saga is best summed up by one fan’s impassioned plea, which doubles as a threat: “Make the apple empanada permanent or we will riot“.

Except no one actually will. Because, at the end of the day, it’s just a dessert. A gooey, delicious, perfect deep-fried treat, attached to those core memories that so many will gladly pay $2.99 to unlock.

Until that day comes, fans will have to settle for the fleeting, glorious, and increasingly expensive return of a true fast food legend.

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Fast food memories are powerful. What’s your fast food ghost? That one menu item you’d bring back in a heartbeat? Email me your story at brandon@brobible.com.

Bonus points for a good story.