The Taco Bell Limited Menu Reddit Wishes Would Make A Comeback

If there's one thing Taco Bell knows (aside from tacos and burritos), it's how to get people talking. Sure, Taco Bell can sell tacos made with everything from Doritos to tortillas, and it's darn good at what it does, but to first sell the tacos, you need to have a crowd to sell them too. Whenever Taco Bell wants to drum up some hype for the brand, it taps into that most potent of all marketing tricks: nostalgia.

Very recently, Taco Bell brought back its Mexican Pizza, something that had vanished off the menus in 2020, and made such an explosive return that the chain quickly ran out of taco pizzas in under two weeks (via The Street). Back in June, Taco Bell collaborated with Cheez-It to produce the limited-time "Big Cheez-It Tostada", which was a Cheez-It roughly 16 times the size of a regular Cheez-It to serve as a plate for a pile of taco fillings (via The Washington Post). In March, the company brought back its classic "Salsa Verde" sauce–or at least, technically they did, considering that it was on a burrito that bore the sauce's name instead of the sauce itself (via Brand Eating). It seems whenever Taco Bell wants to get people talking, it goes back to the old Taco Bell vault and brings back a fan-favorite item — even if it's just for a limited time.

Some Redditors are hoping that Taco Bell's next returning item will be the classic Fourth Meal campaign.

In case you're wondering what the "Fourth Meal" is, it's not so much a food or a limited-time menu item as it is Taco Bell's idea for a late-night menu. As Fast Food News reports, Taco Bell introduced the concept of the "Fourth Meal" in 2006 as a way to market to late-night customers. Described as "the meal between dinner and breakfast," Taco Bell promoted their new idea with plenty of merchandise and commercials raving about the joys of being a "Fourthmealer" (via QSR Magazine), even going so far as to create an interactive website in which visitors can explore a city at night, searching for Taco Bells to fill their midnight burrito cravings. 

Now, 16 years after the "Fourth Meal" came and went, an apparent Taco Bell employee and user on r/TacoBell discovered a sleeve of "Fourth Meal" promotional cups stacked up in the basement of their workplace. The discovery reignited a discussion on the long-discontinued idea of a late-night Taco Bell menu. Some users reflected on the "good old days" when Taco Bell was open past 9 pm and encouraged late-night visitors.

Taco Bell still has a "late-night menu," although it may not be as grand as what the "Fourth Meal" promised it to be. Perhaps if the elusive "Fourth Meal" is ever brought back, maybe Taco Bell will bring back other classic menu items from those carefree days of the mid-2000s and from years past.