Taco Bell At Home Crunchwrap Supreme Cravings Kit Vs The Restaurant Version: Which Is Better?

Taco Bell's endless menu offerings are usually best made and enjoyed at an actual Taco Bell. That hasn't stopped the chain from supplying its customers with the crunchy tools to recreate the same tasty magic in the comfort of their own homes. Since as far back as the 1990s, Taco Bell has sold branded items such as taco shells, sauces, seasoning packets, and even kits so that eaters don't always have to "run for the border."

Since partnering with Kraft Heinz, the two companies have stepped up efforts to supply Taco Bell at-home kits that will save fans the trouble of trying to do it all on their own. In a press release, Danielle Coopersmith, associate director of marketing for Taco Bell at Home, said, "Our innovation strategy focuses on creating new products inspired by beloved Taco Bell classics that encourage fans to customize their at-home creations and take them to new heights" (via Business Wire). A new release Taco Bell hopes will elevate home cooking is the Crunchwrap Supreme Cravings Kit.

The Crunchwrap Supreme Cravings Kit comes with a basic set of ingredients, but a lot is left to the home chef to fill in the blanks and wrap it up for themselves. The question is — is it worth the time and effort, or are we all just better off leaving it to Taco Bell? Here is my chew and review with that answer.

Some recommendations are based on first-hand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer.

The Taco Bell Crunchwrap Supreme Cravings Kit is exclusively available for purchase at Walmart retail stores and online, while supplies last. The current retail price is $6.98 for the kit.

The kit includes basic materials to make four Crunchwraps: four 12-inch wheat-based flour tortillas, four crunchy yellow-corn tostada shells, a packet of Velveeta cheese sauce, and a packet of Taco Bell Original Taco Seasoning Mix, which is made up of salt, garlic, chili peppers, spice, onions, paprika, and sugar. At-home chefs should supply their own pound of lean ground beef, sour cream, chopped lettuce, diced fresh tomatoes, cooking spray, and anything else one desires to make this the perfect Crunchwrap Supreme.

A single Crunchwrap, with all the supplied and suggested ingredients, nets 710 calories, 28 grams of total fat, 65 milligrams of cholesterol, 1,670 milligrams of sodium, 82 grams of total carbohydrates with 4 grams of dietary fiber, and 28 grams of protein. Based on the expiration date on the box, the contents are good to use up to four months later.

The Crunchwrap Supreme Cravings Kit's box is a mammoth foot wide and pictures a perfect version of the desired finished product. Removing the box's contents isn't as exciting, as the four sets of simple elements don't look like much. With the help of my amazing wife, who has the golden touch in the kitchen, we assembled the missing pieces, including organic beef, full-fat sour cream, romaine lettuce, and vine tomatoes. The box's instructions were simple to follow, down to the important Crunchwrap folding technique. It took about 20 minutes to complete one and even less for the subsequent ones.

Our home Crunchwrap Supreme was mighty large to look at and even heavier to actually hold. The pan grill marks were a little browner on the exterior tortilla than the box pointed the way to, but it mattered very little, as we were extremely satisfied with the end results. With a warm, lightly crispy outside and a hard-shell middle, lying low and thin on the inside, this Crunchwrap felt like a Taco Bell Double Decker Taco if it were in the shape of a hexagonal burrito. We didn't use the entire seasoning mix, but the beef had a nice peppery taste to it. In lieu of straight tomato pieces, we opted to make a mild pico de gallo. It paired well with the sour cream and creamy and zesty Velveeta cheese to provide all the sauce this thing needed.

If one is making a homemade Crunchwrap Supreme, it's only fair to compare it versus the genuine article. One of the advantages of the homemade kit version over the restaurant one was made immediately clear when the latter was lukewarm by the time I got home and unwrapped it. To level the playing field, I reheated it in a toaster oven. Unfortunately for the restaurant version, the temperature was the least of its problems. Since ingredient portion sizes were left to me, our homemade version was crunchier, beefier, cheesier, and almost as mammoth as the kit's box. Granted, my wife is an excellent cook and nailed this recreation, but you too can easily top the original in your own home. Unfolding the restaurant version's tortilla reveals a sparse amount of beef, which helped to explain why it basically tasted like a pile of lettuce. I had to resort to using Taco Bell's sauce packets to spice things up a bit.

Timewise, making the homemade version didn't take all that long, and the price math equates to it being a good deal. If I purchased four Crunchwrap Supremes directly from Taco Bell, it would run me almost $30. The Cravings Kit plus the ingredients ran $5 less, and our versions were about twice as big. The choice is clear: Stay home, and you can make your own Crunchwraps reign Supreme.