We Tried It: The Doritos Locos Tacos at Taco Bell

Last week, I was invited to visit Taco Bell’s headquarters out in Irvine, California for the launch of Doritos Locos Tacos.  Think of a nacho cheese Dorito, filled with your favorite Taco Bell fillings – this is the Doritos Locos Tacos.

We started our day at Taco Bell headquarters greeted by a mariachi band and all our blog logos on screen – it featured everyone from Fast Food Geek to Grub Grade.  I couldn’t help but get in the spirit and wear a sombrero.  We all then gathered into a conference room where we met the CEO of Taco Bell, Greg Creed. Greg gave us an overview of Taco Bell and the upcoming launch – here’s a few of the fun things I learned:

• Taco Bell was the first to offer free refills (I love fountain soda, so this made me very excited)
• Taco Bell was the first to offer value meals
• Glen Bell, the founder of Taco Bell, was the first to hire women as managers (yay women’s rights)
• Taco Bell is celebrating 50 years this year
• To celebrate the launch, they’ve created the Doritos Locos Tacos

I also couldn’t help but ask Greg if there were plans to launch a Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Tacos – and don’t worry, there is! I’m a much bigger Cool Ranch fan, but Greg said there are more than 100 Doritos flavors around the world, so the possibilities are endless.  They will start with Nacho Cheese and move on from there.

After meeting the CEO, we toured the facility. One of the hallways was almost like a Taco Bell museum, showing wrappers and memorabilia of years past. We saw the cafeteria where employees eat – and yes, they do eat Taco Bell and most said they don’t get sick of it daily because they can create so many options, from bean burritos to chicken tacos. They also have a lounge, complete with foose ball and video games and Rock Band – and they even have a gym in their headquarters.

We then made our way to the test kitchen where we were finally able to try the Doritos Locos Tacos.  These are ground beef tacos, and the Supreme that I tried had lettuce, cheese, sour cream and tomatoes. The shell was definitely made of Doritos – it left that familiar orange stain on my finger tips.  Plus, to combat the stain, there is a cardboard holder for your taco if you want to make sure your fingers aren’t tainted orange.

I’ll be honest – I’m not familiar with the Taco Bell menu, but I thought the taco was good and I liked the shell so much that when we got full access to the kitchen and could make whatever we wanted, I used to the Doritos shell, complete with chicken and steak filling, guacamole, pico de gallo and chipotle sauce. My creation was delicious, and everyone at Taco Bell said that each restaurant is pretty good about letting you customize your order if you want to to.

If you want to try the Doritos Locos Tacos, it’ll be hitting stores on March 8 beginning at midnight. If you try it, let us know what you think!

Full disclosure: I received my flight, hotel, car service, t-shirts and coupons courtesy of Taco Bell.