We Tried The Newest Taco Bell x Milkbar Collab (And It’s Better Than You’d Expect)

At this point, I’m sure you’ve seen all of the advertisements for the Milkbar and Taco Bell collaboration, but just in case you haven’t, let us roll it back for you. You see, Milkbar is the famous bakery created by pastry chef Christina Tosi with locations in New York and Los Angeles, and at this point they’re probably most known for their absolutely iconic birthday cakes. So for this newest rendition of the Milkbar x Taco Bell collaboration, I can’t say we’re surprised to see something birthday cake themed.

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But, to give this collab it a bit of Taco Bell’s Tex-Mex flair, this dessert takes the flavors of the quintessential Milkbar birthday cake and puts it into an empanada. The empanada shell is filled with a birthday cake batter-inspired cream, and the top is drizzled with a pink glaze and garnished with sprinkles. Naturally, we knew we’d have to try this one out for you, dear readers. So without further ado, here’s our official Sporked review.

Our Official Thoughts

Pros — Honestly, we really enjoyed this release. Not only is it just fun and inherently a bit whimsical from the pink glaze and rainbow sprinkles, but it just tasted great. The filling is not overwhelmingly sweet, yet it is still luscious and creamy with a nice cake batter flavor. 

But let’s be frank, the real star of the shows the empanada crust. Not only was it fresh fried and not at all stale tasting (like I feared), but it is the perfect balance of crispy and chewy. The very edges were shatteringly crisp, but it still had a lovely chew that didn’t feel like each bite just dissolved in your mouth. We actually had something to work with. And, because of the nature of the dough, it was adding a nice element of something savory into the mix rather than piling onto the sweetness.

The glaze also added a nice touch. Although it just says that it’s a pink glaze, it does taste a bit fruity. At least it adds a nice touch of acid that makes the flavor more balanced and enjoyable. Maybe the most attractive part of the whole thing, though, was simply the fact that it was covered in sprinkles. One of our favorite things about Milkbar is their unabashed use of nostalgia. Seeing that come through in the collab made us very happy.

Cons — If you have an issue with the artificially flavored cake batter taste, then I’m afraid you’re almost guaranteed not to like this. For as nice as the filling is, it still does have that very classic artificial cake flavor. For us, we find that nostalgic and charming, but we could easily see how to someone else would not find that to be an attractive quality.

Otherwise, I think the only real complaint that we have about the empanada is simply the value. For as expensive as it is, it is so remarkably small compared to what we are expecting. Considering how good Taco Bell food’s value is generally, it was a huge shocked to us to see that this was just maybe five or six bites big.