Taco Bell is serving up a taste of 2016 with the nationwide return of four nostalgic favorites, including the Naked Chicken Chalupa, Beefy Crunch Burrito, Meximelt and Caramel Apple Empanada.

The limited-time lineup, officially called the Decades #TBTB Menu, arrived at participating Taco Bell restaurants nationwide on August 20. It marks the third installment of the chain’s Decades Menu campaign, which brings discontinued and memorable items back for another run.

Four familiar favorites return

Leading the 2016-inspired menu is the Naked Chicken Chalupa. Instead of a traditional tortilla, the item uses a crispy, seasoned all-white-meat chicken shell filled with cheddar cheese, lettuce, diced tomatoes and Avocado Ranch Sauce.

The Naked Chicken Chalupa is priced at a suggested $5.99. It is also included in a $9 Discovery Luxe Box with a Cheesy Bean and Rice Burrito, Crunchy Taco, chips and nacho cheese sauce, and a medium fountain drink.

Also returning is the Beefy Crunch Burrito, a longtime fan favorite filled with seasoned beef, seasoned rice, reduced-fat sour cream, nacho cheese sauce and Flamin’ Hot Fritos. The burrito carries a suggested price of $2.79.

The Meximelt is back as well, combining seasoned beef, pico de gallo and a melted three-cheese blend inside a soft flour tortilla. Its suggested price is $2.99.

For dessert, Taco Bell has revived the Caramel Apple Empanada. The crispy pastry features warm apple pieces and caramel filling and is available for a suggested $2.99.

More than a menu revival

Taco Bell is leaning heavily into mid-2010s nostalgia beyond the food. The company is partnering with Anti Social Social Club, screen-free digital camera company Camp Snap and Divine, a six-second looping video platform inspired by the spirit of Vine.

On August 25, Taco Bell Rewards members will have an opportunity to enter a limited-time Tuesday Drop sweepstakes featuring 500 “2016 Starter Packs.” Each package includes a flannel shirt, cap and Camp Snap point-and-shoot digital camera.

Rewards members can also participate in an in-app scavenger hunt offering exclusive deals over three weeks, with a new offer scheduled each week between August 25 and September 14.

“For decades, Taco Bell has been woven into the lives of our fans, and there’s something special about revisiting the moments and experiences that made 2016 distinctly memorable,” Taco Bell North America Chief Marketing Officer Luis Restrepo said in the company’s announcement.

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Available for a limited time

The four returning items are available at participating U.S. Taco Bell restaurants for a limited time and while supplies last. Prices and participation may vary by location, and delivery orders may cost more.

For longtime customers, the promotion offers another opportunity to revisit some familiar flavors. For younger diners, it is a chance to discover why items such as the Beefy Crunch Burrito and Caramel Apple Empanada developed such loyal followings.

Which returning Taco Bell favorite would you order first? Let us know in the comments, and subscribe to the STM Daily News newsletter for more food, restaurant and consumer news.

Source: Taco Bell Corp. press release, August 18, 2026.

Taco Bell Newsroom: Taco Bell Brings the 2016 Vibes Back to Fans Nationwide With Decades #TBTB Menu

Related links

• Taco Bell Official Website
• Taco Bell Rewards Program
• Taco Bell Mobile App
• Taco Bell Rewards Drops
• Divine Announces Public Launch and Taco Bell Collaboration

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(Feature Impact) Hectic school mornings get much easier when breakfast is already waiting in the fridge or freezer. These Healthy Make-Ahead Breakfast Burritos can be assembled in advance, frozen individually and easily reheated for quick, filling meals to keep your family going through the day.

Eggs, cheese and black beans supply protein to fuel kids for gym class or sports, while vegetables, beans and whole-grain tortillas add complex carbohydrates and fiber to stave off hunger until lunch. Breakfast burritos also make for a hearty, grab-and-go option for adults heading off to work.

One of the best things about homemade breakfast burritos is how easily they can be customized to fit each family member’s unique nutritional needs and preferences. If you’re making a batch for the whole family, prepare a basic filling and let everyone choose their own combination of ingredients. Spice fiends might want to add jalapenos or hot sauce, while vegetable lovers can pack in sauteed broccoli or diced roasted sweet potatoes. Just remember to label the different varieties separately before storing, e.g. “Mild” and “Spicy.”

Although it’s best to avoid mixing in ingredients that don’t freeze well – like avocado or fresh tomatoes – you can always serve the reheated burritos with a side of guacamole or pico de gallo for even more flavor and nutrition.

Find more school-year meal prep inspiration at Culinary.net.

Healthy Make-Ahead Breakfast Burritos

Recipe adapted from The Gracious Pantry
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Servings: 4

• 2          teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
  
• 1          small red onion, diced
  
• 1          large red bell pepper, diced
  
• 2          cloves garlic, minced
  
• 1          cup chopped fresh spinach
  
• 1          cup cooked black beans
  
• 1/2       teaspoon ground cumin
  
• 1/2       teaspoon smoked paprika
  
• 4          tablespoons salsa
  
• salt, to taste
  
• pepper, to taste
  
• 6          large eggs
  
• 2          tablespoons unsweetened almond milk, water or dairy milk
  
• 4          large whole-grain tortillas
  
• 1/2       cup shredded Mexican cheese blend

1. In pan over medium heat, heat olive oil. Saute onion, bell pepper and garlic until soft, 4-5 minutes. Add spinach and cook until wilted.
2. Stir in cooked black beans, cumin, smoked paprika, salsa and salt and pepper, to taste. Remove from heat.
3. Whisk eggs with milk or water. In nonstick skillet over medium heat, scramble until just set; avoid overcooking. Season lightly with salt and pepper, to taste.
4. Lay tortillas flat. Divide eggs, veggie-bean mixture and cheese across each. Roll into burritos then toast, seam side down, in dry skillet to seal.
5. Remove from pan and let cool. Wrap in parchment then foil. Freeze up to 2 months.
6. To reheat, remove foil and parchment. In microwave or oven, heat until warmed through.

Notes: To prevent tortillas from becoming soggy, let filling cool to room temperature before assembling burritos.

Burritos can be warmed from frozen or, for best results, thawed overnight in refrigerator before reheating.

Photo courtesy of Unsplash

SOURCE:

Culinary.net

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You’ve probably seen them hundreds of times.

They sit outside supermarkets, convenience stores and shopping centers—or sometimes stand alone in small roadside kiosks. You bring an empty bottle, usually one, three or five gallons, put in some money, push a button and watch purified water pour into your container.

For many people in California, Arizona and other parts of the American West, water vending machines seem like they’ve simply always been there.

But when did we actually start buying water this way?

The answer takes us back more than a century, although the machines we recognize today didn’t really arrive until the 1970s.

The Water Vending Machine’s Surprising Ancestor

The story begins in Boston in 1908 with a man named Lawrence Luellen.

Luellen was working on something that sounds surprisingly modern: a machine that would allow someone to pay a penny and receive a clean drink of water in an individual disposable cup.

At the time, public drinking water was often consumed from a communal cup or metal dipper—a practice that increasingly worried public-health officials because of the potential spread of disease.

Luellen developed a paper drinking cup along with what became known as the Luellen Cup & Water Vendor. The porcelain machine contained water, ice, disposable cups and a place for discarded cups.

For one penny, a customer could get a drink of cold water in a fresh cup.

Historical records at Lafayette College’s Hugh Moore Dixie Cup Company Collection show that Luellen completed work on the vending apparatus in early 1908. His company, the American Water Supply Company of New England, was incorporated on April 4 of that year.

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There was just one problem.

The complete water machine was expensive to manufacture.

The company eventually concentrated on selling the disposable cups and cup dispensers instead. Those cups ultimately evolved into one of America’s most recognizable household products—the Dixie Cup.

So although Luellen’s machine wasn’t the five-gallon refill station we know today, the basic idea was already there:

Put money into a machine and receive drinking water.

The Modern Water Vending Machine Arrives

The next major chapter didn’t occur until roughly 65 years later.

According to histories of the water-vending industry, the first practical machines designed to sell purified water in bulk appeared during the mid-1970s.

These were fundamentally different from Luellen’s machine.

Instead of giving customers a cup of water, the new machines treated water—typically municipal tap water—and allowed customers to fill their own reusable containers.

And we have unusually strong evidence that these machines were operating by 1976.

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On July 26, 1976, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a memorandum specifically addressing the regulatory status of water vending machines.

The EPA described machines that filtered and disinfected water with ultraviolet light and then dispensed the treated water into a customer’s own container using a coin-operated mechanism.

In other words, by the summer of 1976, the basic water-refill machine many of us recognize today was already operating in the United States.

Why the 1970s?

The timing wasn’t accidental.

Americans had become increasingly concerned about pollution and drinking-water quality during the 1960s and 1970s.

Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1974, establishing a federal framework for protecting public drinking-water supplies. National drinking-water regulations followed during the decade.

Meanwhile, technologies such as filtration, activated carbon treatment, ultraviolet disinfection and eventually reverse osmosis made it practical to build relatively compact systems capable of treating municipal water at the point where it was sold.

The result was a new business opportunity:

Instead of transporting thousands of bottles of water to a store, a vending company could connect a machine to the local water supply, purify that water on site and sell it by the gallon.

Customers supplied the bottle.

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California Helps Turn It Into a Business

California became one of the industry’s most important early markets.

One company that would eventually become a major player was founded by Robert G. Miller.

In 1983, Miller established Bottle Water Vending Inc., the predecessor of Glacier Water Services.

The company manufactured water vending machines and placed many of them outside supermarkets. Customers brought their own containers, while participating stores often sold reusable plastic jugs nearby.

The machines treated municipal water using combinations of filtration, reverse osmosis, carbon treatment and ultraviolet sterilization.

The idea caught on quickly.

In 1984, the company expanded from California into Arizona.

Nevada followed in 1986.

By 1987, the company reportedly had nearly 900 water vending machines operating.

Texas and Florida followed in 1988.

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The familiar supermarket water-refill station was becoming a significant business.

Then Came the Drive-Up Water Kiosk

Another variation appeared at almost exactly the same time.

In 1984, Lani and Don Dolifka developed what became Watermill Express in Colorado.

Their idea was an automated stand-alone purification kiosk capable of taking municipal water, processing it through multiple purification stages and selling the finished drinking water directly to customers.

Instead of walking into a supermarket, customers could pull up to the kiosk with their bottles.

Later Watermill Express systems were designed to accommodate reusable containers ranging from one to five gallons, using treatment processes including sediment filtration, activated carbon, reverse osmosis, ultraviolet disinfection and ozone treatment.

That basic concept remains familiar today.

Why Five-Gallon Bottles?

The five-gallon container was already well established through traditional bottled-water delivery services.

But refill vending changed the economics.

Instead of purchasing another filled bottle—or waiting for a delivery—a customer could keep the same container and refill it repeatedly.

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That eliminated much of the packaging and transportation involved with conventional bottled water.

It also made purified drinking water relatively inexpensive.

Bring the jug.

Buy the water.

Take the same jug home.

Bring it back when it’s empty.

More than four decades later, that’s still essentially how the system works.

So Who Invented the Modern Water Vending Machine?

That’s where the story gets complicated.

There doesn’t appear to be a single universally recognized inventor of the modern bulk purified-water vending machine.

Lawrence Luellen developed an important early coin-operated water vending concept in 1908, but his machine dispensed an individual drink and disposable cup—not gallons of purified water into a customer’s reusable bottle.

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The modern bulk-water machine emerged much later, apparently during the mid-1970s, as water-treatment technology and consumer concern about drinking-water quality converged.

By 1976, the EPA was already dealing with the regulatory implications of machines that treated municipal water and sold it through coin-operated dispensers into customers’ own containers.

Entrepreneurs and companies then refined and expanded the idea during the 1980s.

From a Penny Cup to Five Gallons at a Time

The evolution is remarkable.

1908: Put in a penny and receive a cup of cold water.

Mid-1970s: Machines begin treating municipal water and selling purified water in bulk.

1976: The EPA documents coin-operated machines dispensing treated water into customers’ containers.

1983: Bottle Water Vending, the predecessor of Glacier Water Services, begins operations in California.

1984: Glacier’s predecessor expands into Arizona, while Watermill Express develops its automated purification kiosk in Colorado.

Late 1980s and beyond: Water refill machines become increasingly familiar outside supermarkets and at stand-alone locations throughout the United States.

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Today, paying a few coins—or tapping a card—and filling a five-gallon jug might seem thoroughly ordinary.

But the machine sitting outside your neighborhood supermarket represents more than a century of evolution in how Americans buy something that once seemed almost unimaginable to sell from a vending machine:

a drink of water.

Sources and Further Reading

U.S. EPA — Status of Water Vending Machines Under Public Law 93-523

Lafayette College — Hugh Moore Dixie Cup Company Collection

U.S. EPA — Safe Water Research Milestones

Glacier Water Services Company History

World Vision — History of Watermill Express

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