The Enchirito Was My Taco Bell Gateway Drug

The Taco Bell Enchrito nourished my body and soul when it needed it most.

Taco Bell has announced that it's bringing back the Enchitro as the result of a fan vote. I think the whole thing was kind of BS and this was the plan all along.

For those of you who don't know what the Enchirito is, it's basically a burrito covered with enchilada sauce -- a wet burrito, if you will. Let's also stop here and say, if it doesn't have precisely three black olive slices on it, then this reboot doesn't count. (Yeah, a lot of people just picked and flicked those off, but dammit, they are necessary!)

The Enchirito came into my life during my beach days. If you haven't been to the beach, then you have no idea how much it takes out of you. Just walking on the beach wears on you due to the sand. Swimming seems to work every muscle in your body. The sun taps your resources, and on and on. The beach in general is almost a detoxifying experience because of the way it drains all of your vital resources but in a good way. All of this leaves you hungry as hell.

The area near the beaches I went to were populated by Jack in the Boxes and Taco Bells. Since the Taco Bells had large fires out front (yeah, that was a thing), we'd go there to knock out the cold. We'd also need something to warm up our insides and nothing did it better than that arm Enchirito sauce and melty, gooey cheese. An Enchirito was a religious experience on a cool evening after surfing all day.

So, will it still have its magic when it makes its return? I'm not so sure that Americans in general will want to deal with the potential mess of a tray or hot red liquid with a burrito floating in it. After all, we rarely make it home with fast food these days and tend to eat on the run. I recommend you give one a try if you have a proper place to enjoy one, but it's going to be very hard for me to recapture the magic of the Enchiritos of days gone by.