Taco Bell expands Live Más Café with horchata drinks
Taco Bell is launching four limited-time horchata beverages at its Live Más Café locations, with a national rollout of two drinks on December 10. The chain is also accelerating the café's expansion into new markets including Las Vegas, Indianapolis, and Southern California.
Taco Bell is introducing four horchata-inspired beverages at Live Más Café locations, with two rolling out nationally on December 10 as part of a limited-time offering. The launch on Thursday includes the Strawberry Horchata Refresca and the Vanilla Spiced Horchata Refresca. A new Vanilla Spiced Horchata Freeze will also join them at participating Taco Bell restaurants nationwide for a limited time. Three of the horchata-inspired beverages will receive a nationwide release on December 10.
Live Más Café expansion accelerates
Taco Bell is growing its Live Más Café footprint with new stores in Southern California, Indianapolis, and Las Vegas, including a flagship on the Strip. The chain plans to add more units to its storebase before the end of 2026.
A standalone flagship Café on the Las Vegas Strip is scheduled to open later this fall. It is located inside a shipping container next to the existing Taco Bell Cantina at 3717 S Las Vegas Blvd.
In Indiana, Taco Bell is opening three Live Mas Cafe locations. It begins with a grand opening in West Lafayette at 252 E State Street on October 22. Additional cafes in Greenfield and Muncie are expected to open before the end of the year. The Indianapolis market entry will start with two company-operated stores and one franchised location.
Southern California is receiving three new locations. A Cafe is planned for Century City Mall, with additional openings scheduled in Irvine and Tustin.
Beverage innovation drives growth
Live Más Café has tested over two dozen drinks, with horchata remixes showing strong transaction growth in morning and afternoon dayparts. The few dozen Live Más Café stores have sold 1.3 million beverages. The experimental units have tested at least 24 new drinks.
Morning and afternoon have been the strongest performing dayparts for test drinks. Taco Bell said the experimental units have "delivered favorable transaction growth" in the last year. One launch, dubbed You Seem Pretty Pink for a Baja Blast, became the best-selling beverage launch in Live Mas Cafe history.
Pricing for one test item is as follows:
| Size | Price |
|---|---|
| Small | $4.79 |
| Medium | $5.29 |
Context: Testing concepts across the industry
Taco Bell’s Live Más Café follows a pattern used by Yum Brands and competitors to trial new menu items via spinoff concepts. Yum Brands has historically used spinoff locations like Taco Bell Cantina to generate buzz. Live Mas Cafe originally launched as a test concept focused on specialty beverages.
KFC recently opened a new store called Open House to test elements of its brand turnaround, including premium beverages like boba refreshers and iced lattes. McDonald’s used insights from its short-lived CosMc’s spinoff to develop a new slate of dirty sodas and premium drinks. Those beverages required adding a new back-of-house position and contributed to operational challenges.
The Strawberry Horchata Refresca and Vanilla Spiced Horchata Refresca will be joined by a new Vanilla Spiced Horchata Freeze at participating Taco Bell restaurants nationwide for a limited time.
