Week 10 of 52 (March 4th, 2013 to March
10th, 2013): Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Tacos!
On
March 7, 2013 Taco Bell unveiled one of its most anticipated Tacos of all time…
THE Doritos Locos Cool Ranch Crunchy Taco! I heard that Taco Bell announced
that the taco would be available 1 day early, but when eager Taco Bell fans
showed up the taco was not yet available! This sparked some rage and because of
this people started to complain…
Needless
to say I decided to go and see what all the buzz was about! Afterall, I have never
tried a Cool Ranch Doritos Taco! I used to really like Cool Ranch Doritos a
long time ago… so I decided that mixed with a taco might be good, right? Well
not so much! Not saying that they are bad, but its not like some of the
fans on the Taco Bell facebook page have described…
“my prayers have been answered”
“this is like a dream”
“shutup and take my money”
Really!?! Over a
Taco? Welcome to ‘Merica!
So how did Taco
Bell and Doritos first start? Lets take a trip back to San Bernardino,
California in 1946 where a 23 year old Glen Bell opened his first hot dog stand
called “Bell’s Drive-In”. This drive-in operated for 6 years, before Glen sold
it and opened a new one 2 years later, this time he exclusively sold tacos under
the stand’s name “Taco-Tia” during this time Glen also opened several other
restaurants, including “El Taco” which was later sold to his business partner
for an undisclosed amount.
Glen decided to
keep going and in 1962 with a $4,000 investment opened up the first “Taco Bell”
in Downey, California within a few years Glen Bell opened another 8 Taco Bells
all with grand openings featuring live salsa music and free sombreros. The
company exploded and in 1978 PepsiCo purchased Taco Bell for $125 Million!! Since
then Taco Bell has seen large growth and has had several slogans over the years
starting with “The Fresh Food Place” from 1976 to 1979, then from…
Late 1970s - "Just Made For You"
Early 1980s - mid-1980s - "All of The
Above"
1987-late 1980s - "The Cure For The
Common Meal"
Late 1980s - early 1990s - "Hello Taco
Bell"
Mid 1990s - "Make A Run For The
Border"
Late 1990s - "Spice Up The Night"
(For Taco Bell's late night day part)
2001 - mid-2000s - "Grande taste. Loco
value."
mid 2001 - 2012 - "Think outside the
bun"
Current - "Live Más" (With the
introduction of the Cantina Bell menu)
So now that you know where Taco Bell got its start, what about
Doritos? The original product was actually made at the “Casa de Fritos” located
at Disneyland in Anaheim, California.
The restaurant would use their unused
(ready to be thrown out) tortillas by cutting them up, frying them and adding
seasoning, which were traditionally called “totopos” in Mexico. Arch West was the Vice President of
Marketing of Frito-Lay at the time, and noticed the popularity. He made a deal
with Alex Foods in 1964, the provider of many items for Casa de Fritos at
Disneyland, and produced the chips for a short time regionally, before it was
overwhelmed by the volume, and Frito-Lay moved the production in-house to its Tulsa plant.
"Doritos" were released nationwide in 1966, the first tortilla chip
to be launched nationally in the United States!
Since then,
Doritos has been a multi-billion dollar a year industry. Again… Welcome to ‘Merica!
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