When fast-food fans think of Taco Bell, late-night cravings for cheesy quesadillas and Doritos Locos Tacos usually come to mind. However, the corporate leadership in Irvine, California, has spent the early months of 2026 executing a massive shift to capture a completely different crowd: the morning commuter. As part of a grand corporate strategy to achieve $5 billion in global beverage sales by 2030, the chain is turning its attention to premium caffeine and elevated sweets.
On Thursday, May 21, 2026, Taco Bell officially shook up the fast-food breakfast wars by launching its first-ever Cold Brew with Cold Foams lineup alongside a fruit-forward reimagining of its most beloved dessert, the all-new, nationwide Strawberry Cinnabon Delights.
The Architecture of the Cold Brew Lineup
The headliner of the morning rollout is the permanent debut of premium cold brew coffee at specialized Live Más Café locations across select markets, including Houston, Dallas, Las Vegas, and Southern California. Rather than pumping out generic hot coffee poured over ice, Taco Bell developed a proprietary blend of medium and dark roast Arabica beans sourced entirely from Latin America. The beans are air-roasted and put through a slow, cold extraction process to create a naturally sweet, low-acid, and incredibly smooth coffee base. To top off the brews, the chain introduced three distinct, velvet-textured dairy cold foams:
- Purple Velvet Cream: The undisputed star of the show. It features a striking, social media-friendly purple hue (naturally colored via butterfly pea flower extract) infused with warm, traditional Mexican horchata notes of toasted rice, cinnamon, and vanilla.
- Caramel Dulce Cream: A rich foam layered with deeply buttery, salted caramel flavor notes.
- Vanilla Cream: A classic, velvety topper that delivers a lightly sweet, clean vanilla finish.
Available as a plain cold brew or with any of the flavored foams, the drinks retail at a highly competitive $4.59 for a 16-ounce cup and $4.99 for a 20-ounce cup.
“We've spent decades building a bold flavor legacy at Taco Bell, and now we're bringing that same innovative mindset to coffee at Live Más Café,” Liz Matthews, Taco Bell's Global Chief Food Innovation Officer, said in an official press release. “As we continue to build the Café experience, Cold Brew and Cold Foams felt like the natural next step.”
Making the Best Dessert Even Better
If a purple horchata coffee isn't enough to pull you into the drive-thru, Taco Bell paired the beverage launch with a massive upgrade to its legendary pastry line. The iconic Cinnabon Delights—which have stood as a permanent breakfast staple since 2012—are receiving their first major flavor variant with the arrival of Strawberry Cinnabon Delights.
The fundamental architecture of the treat remains gloriously intact. Customers still get warm, pillowy, bite-sized donut holes filled to the brim with Cinnabon’s signature, gooey cream-cheese frosting. However, instead of being tossed in traditional cinnamon sugar, the new version is generously dusted in a vibrant, tart strawberry-flavored sugar. Early taste tests across food communities highlight the genius of the tweak; the punchy fruit acidity from the strawberry sugar cuts directly through the heavy sweetness of the frosting, resulting in a balanced, bakery-quality bite. The upgraded treats are rolling out nationwide, priced at $2.89 for a two-pack and $7.39 for a 12-pack sharing box.
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