One of the original pioneers of snack food partnerships and limited-time fast food offers, Taco Bell truly started something when it launched the Doritos Locos Taco in 2012.
The idea of having a shell made out of the same stuff that goes into Frito-Lay's Doritos corn chips was almost unheard-of at the time and quickly turned the Doritos Locos Taco into a major icon, In fact, after taking the new menu item nationwide, The Yum! Brands-owned (YUM) chain had to hire an additional 15,000 staff to help manage the increased store traffic and demand.
It's fair to say that the Doritos Locos Taco touched off the current craze of fast-food chains offering super wacky limited-time-offers (LTOs). You can blame Taco Bell for Restaurant Brand International's (QSR) Burger King's Mac N' Cheetos, Pizza Hut's Cheezit stuffed pizza, Papa John's (PZZA) Chili Fritos Pizza, and so many other ideas that fell somewhere between glorious and gross.
Over the next decade, Taco Bell would experiment with various different versions of the Doritos Locos Taco — from Fiery and Cool Ranch flavors to a store version of Locos Taco tortilla chips. And, now the chain has gone back to Doritos once again.
Taco Bell
New Flamin' Hot Tacos Already On (Some) Taco Bell Menus
Most recently, Taco Bell announced that it would be launching two new versions of its taco with Frito-Lay's popular Flamin' Hot flavor: the Flamin’ Hot Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Tacos and the Doritos Cheesy Gordita Crunch – Flamin' Hot Cool Ranch.
While a full nationwide rollout was widely expected to start next week, food news site Chewboom reported that the new tacos are already being sold at select menus across the country.
Also coming in a Supreme version, the Flamin’ Hot Cool Ranch Doritos Locos has seasoned beef, lettuce, and cheddar cheese in a Flamin' Hot shell. The Doritos Cheesy Gordita Crunch – Flamin' Hot Cool Ranch has the same shell and seasoned beef filling but also a three-cheese blend and flatbread around it all. The latter costs $1.99 while the much more calorie-dense Gordita Crunch commands $4.19.
Flamin' Hot Is In The Midst Of Its Own Craze
Originally launched as Flamin' Hot Cheetos in the 1990s, the extra-spicy chip flavor created by PepsiCo (PEP)'s Frito-Lay has recently started appearing on every Frito-Lay product imaginable: from Flamin' Hot Doritos to Flamin’ Hot Cheddar and Sour Cream Ruffles and Flamin' Hot Funyuns.
While the current renaissance is part of the flavor's natural ebb and flow over the years, its tendency to burn the tongue and stain one's fingers red earned Flamin' Hot a cult following of its own. In a story disputed by both Frito-Lay and dozens of interviewed employees, a California man named Richard Montañez has also spent years insisting that he invented the flavor while working as a janitor at Frito-Lay but robbed of credit by corporate heads.
"At a time when Doritos can serve as the base of a taco shell and Cheetos dust has become a star ingredient, it's hard to see where fast-food chains will draw the line," TheStreet Managing Editor Daniel Kline wrote in 2016 for The Motley Fool.
