7-Eleven Adds Mini Chicken Chipotle Tacos
DALLAS -- 7-Eleven Inc. is spicing up its foodservice lineup with the addition of Mini Chicken Chipotle Tacos, which were unveiled this week .
Available at participating stores, the tacos fill a white corn tortilla with shredded chicken, green chilies, onions, garlic and Mexican spices and are heated in rapid-cook ovens at the store. They come four to a $1-order and contain just 55 calories each.
"7-Eleven continually expands its products to meet the needs of its guests," Kelly Buckley, 7-Eleven's vice president of fresh food innovation, told The Daily Meal. "Latin-inspired products are top sellers in 7-Eleven stores, making the new Chicken Chipotle Mini Tacos a natural extension for the line."
As CSNews Online previously reported, more than 500 7-Eleven franchises began selling Spicy Mini Beef Tacos in July.
"We've been in the fresh and hot food business for several years, and we've learned that there is a trend toward snacking up to six to eight times a day," Margaret Chabris, director of corporate communications for 7-Eleven, told the Los Angeles Times. "The Hispanic population is booming, and Hispanic food crosses all ethnic lines."
In December, 7-Eleven announced it will continue to add fresh and healthy food options to its convenience store offerings. To help with its focus shift, the c-store retailer put together a team of culinary and food science experts to study industry trends and develop new products.
7-Eleven's goal is to have 20 percent of sales come from fresh foods in its American and Canadian stores, up from about 10 percent currently, a company spokesman told The New York Times.
Media reports also suggested 7-Eleven's move could be a way to follow the success of another successful taco launch: Taco Bell's Doritos Locos Tacos. More than 100 million Doritos Locos Tacos sold in just 10 weeks last year, the most successful new product launch in Taco Bell's history, and now the fast-food company is expanding the product to include the Doritos Cool Ranch flavored shell.
7-Eleven's senior director of fresh food innovation, Anne Readhimer, joined the company in May from Yum! Brands Inc. where she had worked on the KFC and Pizza Hut brands. Yum! Brands is also the parent company of Taco Bell Corp.
"We're working to create a portfolio of fresh foods," said Readhimer to the Times. "Some will be for snacking, some for a quick meal, but we hope everything we offer our guests is convenient and tasty."