So, Uh, Dunkin’ Is Selling Breakfast Tacos Now—Should You Try Them?
Is eating a breakfast taco at America's donut shop even allowed?
Is eating a breakfast taco at America's donut shop even allowed?
There’s always fanfare when mega-huge fast food chains release new products, especially those that don’t really make sense. Take Taco Bell’s Mexican Pizza for instance—they slapped it on menus in 2020 and it was popular enough to bring back a couple of years later. So, a fast-food taco joint makes a decent drive-through pizza; but can a fast-food donut stop make a taco? Dunkin’ would like to test your resolve and find out.
Available now and through the summer, the Dunkin’ Breakfast Taco beckons. But is it good for you? We’ll spill the beans, which are conspicuously absent from the taco.
There are 180 calories in the standard Dunkin’ Donuts Breakfast Taco—that number rises to 220 if you add the optional crumbled bacon topping—according to the brand’s published nutritional information, which is required by the FDA. The taco’s ingredient list is relatively short—flour tortilla, corn, scrambled egg, cheddar cheese, and a lime crema sauce on top—and are available to order a la carte.
There are 180 calories in the standard Dunkin’ Donuts Breakfast Taco—that number rises to 220 if you add the optional crumbled bacon topping—according to the brand’s published nutritional information, which is required by the FDA. The taco’s ingredient list is relatively short—flour tortilla, corn, scrambled egg, cheddar cheese, and a lime crema sauce on top—and are available to order a la carte.
Looking more closely at ingredients, macronutrient splits, and caloric load, the Dunkin’ Breakfast Taco is best described as “OK” for you—especially for a fast food breakfast or lunch option. Its fat, carb, and protein levels are all within normal ranges for a snack. In fact, the only thing noteworthy on the taco’s wrap sheet is its sodium level—500mg per taco, which is just under a quarter of your daily sodium intake in a single 180-calorie food, going by Dietary Guidelines for American’s adult sodium intake standards.
Unlike most other food options at Dunkin’, it is extremely low in sugar content at just 2g per taco. Ultimately, though, it’s still a highly processed fast food, which will nearly always be worse for your body than whole-food eating.
Here’s how the breakfast taco looks, health-wise.
Calories | Fat | Carbs | Protein | Sugar | Sodium | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Breakfast Taco | 180 | 9g | 17g | 8g | 2g | 500mg |
Glazed Donut | 240 | 11g | 33g | 4g | 13g | 270mg |
BEC Croissant | 560 | 36g | 41g | 18g | 6g | 820mg |
Source: Dunkin’ Donuts Nutrition Guide
We’d certainly recommend a few breakfast tacos over any breakfast dominated by donuts or bagels covered in cream cheese. The breakfast taco’s nutritionals are solid enough for a fast food option, and potentially the best Dunkin’ has to offer someone looking for a quick and relatively low-calorie way to stave off hunger for a while.
But does it taste good? This is purely my opinion, but no, I wouldn’t say it tastes good. I think you could make a similar and dramatically better breakfast taco in about 5 minutes time at home. But if you have no time for that, it’s serviceable. I’d bring my own hot sauce, though.