Beyond Meat partners with Taco Bell for plant-based carne asada steak

Food reporter Allie Canal reviews the latest collaboration between Taco Bell and Beyond Meat.

Video transcript

[AUDIO LOGO]

DAVE BRIGGS: Carne, it means Spanish-- meat in Spanish, but not at various Taco Bell locations in Ohio next month. That's where they'll roll out Beyond Meat carne asada. Sounds delicious. Allie Canal is here with the details. I'll get it right one of these days. You tried it, though.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: I did. I got a chance to try it yesterday. Now, this is a test product. Like you mentioned, it's only going to be available at around 50 Taco Bell locations in Dayton, Ohio. Once that testing period is over, perhaps they'll roll it out to some other cities and states. There it is in all its glory. I got to say, it really did taste like carne asada steak. Look at me. I mean, I also had a bad bellyache yesterday because I had a quesadilla, a burrito all with this Beyond carne asada. But it was good.

SEANA SMITH: So maybe in moderation.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: Maybe in moderation. Maybe not all at once, a warning to the viewers.

[LAUGHTER]

But I will say that Taco Bell really wanted to get this right. This took a little under two years to develop. They told me they didn't want to be a sea of the same. There's plant-based chicken out there. There's plant-based beef, which, by the way, Taco Bell is also working on as a proprietary product. But there hasn't been anything, at least not in the QSR market, when we talk about plant-based steaks. This is a really important initiative for them. They said this is actually going to cost the same as traditional steak. So they're not doing any upcharge or any premium there because they want people to enjoy it and have that value. They're all about--

DAVE BRIGGS: That's shocking.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: Yeah, they're all about creating value. But we've talked about the Mexican pizza. We talked about their craveable menu offerings. And that's really helped them with same-store sales beating expectations in the last quarter. So they just know what they're doing, I feel like, at Taco Bell.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: I love that they're not raising the price. Because usually when you have like-- when they substitute for, like, these Beyond Meats, it's always so much more expensive. Now, I've not had Taco Bell since college, but I love Beyond Meat. So this, if you're like-- in terms of, like, a crossover, I'm into this. I would definitely try this. When is it coming to everybody else?

ALEXANDRA CANAL: That's the thing. It's TBD on everybody else. This is a partnership that Yum struck with Beyond Meat in February 2021. We have seen Beyond Meat products at KFC locations, at Pizza Hut locations. But this is the first one for Taco Bell. So we'll see how it performs in the market. I have a feeling it's going to do really well. If you take a look at something like the Impossible Burger at Burger King, for example, that did so, so well, continues to do big numbers for the company. So I feel like this is something that people want. They want a plant-based option, a vegan option.

DAVE BRIGGS: I hope you washed that all down with a Baja Blast at Taco Bell because those are awesome.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: Thank God I didn't, because like I said, the bellyache.

SEANA SMITH: I was going to say, if you had a stomachache from that, imagine what the Baja Blast would have done to you.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: Big regrets, but also not entire regrets. So we'll see.

DAVE BRIGGS: Allie, good to see you. Thanks so much. That'll do it for us today on this extraordinary Fed day. For Allie and Seana and Rachelle, I'm Dave Briggs. We'll see you tomorrow at 3 o'clock Eastern time.