Taco Bell
Taco Bell has some tacos that are designed for international tastes.
- Taco Bell is launching new tacos around the world that can't be found on American menus.
- They're designed to win over locals. The chain aims to open 1,000 locations outside the United States by 2022.
- We tried the tacos you can't get in America and discovered they were some of the best innovations that Taco Bell has ever created.
As Taco Bell goes international, it has a growing fleet of tacos that cannot be found in the United States.
Over the last few years, Taco Bell has ramped up its international expansion, entering countries including China, the Netherlands, Finland, Peru, Romania, and Sri Lanka. Currently, the chain has more than 400 locations in 27 countries outside the US; the chain wants to grow that figure to 1,000 by 2022.
Expansion into new countries means adapting the menu to locals' preferences. In India, for example, the majority of the population is vegetarian, making a beef burrito a less popular option. In some Asian countries, customers were unsure of the best way to eat a hard-shelled taco, leading Taco Bell to launch with an emphasis on rice bowls.
These tweaks have led to a crop of new Taco Bell tacos that mega-fans cannot find in the US. From tacos with hash brown shells in India to a revamped lava sauce on a fried chicken taco in Southeast Asia, American Taco Bell fans are missing out.
Business Insider had a chance to try five of these international menu items ahead of Taco Bell's National Taco Day celebration on October 4. Here's what these revolutionary tacos are actually like: