Review: Taco Bell's Newest Menu Item Gets My Nomination For Fast Food Dessert Of The Year

Taco Bell is adding a sweet treat to its summer menu for a limited time, and while it may resemble a familiar favorite, it has a personality all its own. The Strawberry Cinnabon Delights are, like the regular Cinnabon Delights, sugar-dusted donut holes served warm and filled with rich cream cheese frosting. They're not covered in cinnamon on the outside, but rather a (kind of beautiful) pink strawberry-flavored sugar. Normally, I'm not a Taco Bell dessert kind of gal, but I find these little spheres quite intriguing.

Taco Bell loves to bring back old favorite desserts — like the 2024 return of the Caramel Apple Empenada, and its additional appearance the following year as a part of the Taco Bell Y2K Decades Menu – which is always a fun blast from the past. However, the release of the Strawberry Cinnabon Delights on May 21, 2026 is refreshing because, although a version of the dessert already exists, this new flavor really stands out in a unique way. And frankly, it might just deserve a spot in the Taco Bell dessert hall of fame (which, to be clear, there isn't one, other than the hypothetical one in my head, but there should be). Let's talk about them.

Taco Bell reached out to me about trying the new limited-time summer menu items a few days before they were released nationwide. I arrived at the Taco Bell Cantina in Hollywood and was brought a two-pack of the Strawberry Cinnabon Delights, as well as a few other menu items (like the new and shockingly improved Cantina Chicken Mexican Pizza). 

All opinions on this menu item are authentically my own. I hereby promise that Taco Bell did not buy my opinions ... even if they did bring me a Mountain Dew Baja Blast to sip on as I waited.

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

I didn't expect to care for these lovely little pink-dusted donut holes. As I mentioned before, I'm just not, historically, a Taco Bell dessert person ... until now, apparently. Immediately upon biting into one of these guys, the inside of my head went entirely dark — and when the lights came back on, my brain had been replaced by a huge Strawberry Cinnabon Delight. Oh my goodness, this little donut hole was sort of amazing. Every aspect of the dessert complemented the rest of it. The sugar dust, the soft fried dough, the warm cream cheese middle — it was perfection, in a little fried sphere.

There is a singular taste to the strawberry-flavored sugar dusted all over the outside. It tastes like something from childhood, but also something you've never had before in your life. In that way, it's like biting into something as an adult, but feeling like a kid. This dessert brings childhood to you, somehow. It doesn't taste cheap, or even overly sweet, which is completely unexpected. 

One look at this thing and you'd probably assume it will be sickeningly sweet, but no. It's oddly subtle, definitely not too much — though, I did just eat one, initially. The sprinkles sort of jump out at your taste buds and give them a little hug. The Strawberry Cinnabon Delight, frankly, tastes like hope. And as good as they are served warm, I took my second one home as an experience to place in the fridge — it's good cold, too, y'all.

This treat is a winner. I'm not telling you that you should buy them in bulk and keep them in your freezer since they won't be available forever, but I'm not not telling you to do that, either (wink). At least go for the 12-pack. (Sorry, it sounds like I'm telling you what to do. I'm not. I'm just looking out for you). Don't sleep on these — they've turned me into a Taco Bell dessert supporter for life.

Taco Bell's Strawberry Cinnabon Delights are available for a limited time starting May 21, 2026. You can grab them in packs of two for $2.29, and packs of 12 for $6.99. Prices may vary according to location.