Panera, McDonald’s, and Chick-fil-A have all had their menu items seemingly exposed by employees online. Now, the time has come for the well-known beacon of Americanized Mexican cuisine: Taco Bell beans.
In the POV-style TikTok, a Taco Bell employee is shown walking viewers through their typical process of making the refried beans, which essentially involves stirring hot water into a bin of dehydrated beans and mixing it for several minutes until thickened.
The TikTok went viral and eventually made its way to the Twitter-sphere, where it went even more viral and garnered mixed reactions. A user who posted the video on Twitter claimed they “literally gagged” when watching it. The feelings were mutual for many.
Another Twitter user who claimed to be a former employee for the restaurant seemingly confirmed that, yes, “those are the beans” before questioning the quality of the other menu items. “It’s disgusting,” they wrote of the food prep.
While many called the process “disgusting” and “appalling,” others quickly pointed out that dried beans are completely normal and that this is a standard, routine process for a fast-food restaurant.
It wasn’t long before people cracked jokes and made memes about the whole thing. “This is absolutely appalling. my whole life i thought taco bell grew their beans in a local organic garden where they were picked fresh every morning,” one Twitter user satirically wrote.
Additionally, many pointed out that Taco Bell is, after all, a fast-food restaurant and that it shouldn’t be surprising this is the way its beans are made.
Others also seemed pretty disgusted upon finding out about the preparation process, but it admittedly isn’t going to stop them from eating there anytime soon.