Review: Taco Bell's New Strawberry Cinnabon Delights Stink - Literally

Taco Bell's menu is packed full of savory options ranging from mild to fiery, some even amassing a fast food cult following. The chain has started to seriously dabble in the fried chicken tender world, and with the newest menu release, it's changing up the classic taco pizza, giving it a cantina twist that so many millennials love. Now, it's making moves in the sweet-treat sector. Move over Cinnamon Twists, because a new dessert has claimed a seat as part of the chain's mid-May menu: a whole new flavor of Cinnabon Delights that celebrates sweet strawberries.

The Strawberry Cinnabon Delights are your typical Cinnabon Delights but with a strawberry sugar coating on them. The little sweetened bits of dough have the same Cinnabon-flavored frosting you might be familiar with, making this a seemingly small change to this dessert (and, weirdly, breakfast) item. On the day the Strawberry Cinnabon Delights hit the menu, I set out to give them a try to determine whether or not you need to order these on your next visit to the Bell.

To decide if the Strawberry Cinnabon Delights are worth your time (or should follow in the footsteps of another discontinued Taco Bell dessert), I visited my closest Taco Bell for breakfast, ordering a 12-pack of the delights to really get a full grasp on the flavor. I based my decision on whether these are worth a try on the taste and texture of the sweetened bites of dough. I was hoping for little bites that tasted and felt like a cross between a gooey, strawberry-flavored mini cinnamon roll and a doughnut hole.

The very first thing I noticed was that the Strawberry Cinnabon Delights had a little bit of a funky smell to them. It felt like it should smell like a strawberry doughnut of some kind, but it actually smelled more like funky cheese. At first, I thought it might be because I was sitting in the restaurant, so I escaped to the sanctuary of my car to give them a real taste test. It quickly became clear that that funk was all Strawberry Cinnabon Delight.

Admittedly, they taste quite a bit better than they smell. The strawberry exterior is only lightly flavored with strawberry, and the overwhelming flavor is more Cinnabon frosting than anything else. I thought I might be able to figure out where that funk was coming from after a bite, but it was just a strange, lingering smell. Since taste and smell are so deeply connected, it really impacted my overall experience, even if the taste was quite good on its own, and the texture was also very pleasing.

The addition of the strawberry sugar on the outside of the Cinnabon Delights isn't enough to warrant a rush out to your local Taco Bell to try these bites. If you're craving Cinnabon Delights, simply go with the regular ones, and hopefully save yourself the odd funky smell of the Strawberry Cinnabon Delights.

I was hoping for an experience that offered more of a mix between a donut hole and a cinnamon roll, but they reminded me more of frosting-stuffed bread. I think they would've been a lot better with a little more strawberry flavor mixed in, perhaps within either the batter or the filling itself. It doesn't seem like too complicated of a task to have included a little strawberry jam in the Cinnabon filling, for instance. These just aren't giving enough strawberry feel to make them feel like a specialty summer item.

According to Taco Bell, my 12-pack of Strawberry Cinnabon Delights should serve four people, so the serving size for each person would amount to three bites. Altogether, the 12-pack has 1,010 calories, 68 grams of fat, 430 milligrams of sodium, 52 grams of sugar, and 11 grams of protein. If you were to break those into their intended serving size, you would end up with nearly 253 calories, almost 23 grams of fat, just about 143 milligrams of sodium, just under 18 grams of sugar, and almost 4 grams of protein.

Perhaps not so surprisingly, the nutritional information for regular Cinnabon Delights is identical. Although the bites might have different flavor crystals on the outside, the numbers stack up exactly the same. It means the only real difference between the two of them are some ingredient swaps. The cinnamon sugar on the outside of the regular Cinnabon Delights has a much simpler list of ingredients, while the strawberry sugar portion of the Strawberry Cinnabon Delights has a whole lot more ingredients to achieve that attempt at a strawberry flavor.

Taco Bell's early summer menu was released on May 21. The Strawberry Cinnabon Delights were part of this collection, and while there's no clear indicator just how long they'll be around, I do know that they'll be a limited-time offering. Like so many seasonal menus, this means you'll have access to the Strawberry Cinnabon Delights until the restaurants run out of the sweet treat, likely somewhere around the time a new seasonal menu comes out. A 12-pack of Strawberry Cinnabon Delights is priced at $7.79 at my local Taco Bell, while a two-pack sells for $2.79, although prices may differ at other locations.

If you're missing these strawberry Cinnabon delights after they've left, opt for the regular Cinnabon Delights instead. Though they won't have the same strawberry sugar (and funk) on top, the texture and flavor profile may be enough to tide you over until the next sweet Cinnabon release. Though I chose to visit bright and early (easily arriving before Taco Bell stopped serving breakfast), you'll find these Cinnabon delights available all day as a side to your burrito or even as a gooey dessert to any meal you can construct from your tried-and-true favorite Taco Bell items.