Taco Bell has finally revealed the newest flavor of its wildly popular line of Doritos Locos Tacos[1] , which first hit stores across the country in March 2012. Sort of.


The world's biggest Mexican fast food chain brought several samples of the newest member of the growing clan, which also includes Nacho Cheese and Cool Ranch, to The Huffington Post offices in New York for our staff to try. But the company refused to divulge the name of the flavor, referring to it only by the elusive, social-media-friendly moniker #___DLT.


That said, once we unwrapped the tacos, we were pretty sure we knew which Doritos flavor their shells are based on: Flamas. The telltale bright vermillion color tipped us off -- and the spicy taste, with a touch of lime that could only be detected when we ate the shell sans beef, all but confirmed it. Here's a side-by-side comparison of the new Doritos Locos Taco and a handful of Doritos Flamas chips:


doritos locos flamas side by side


I'm going to call it now. I'm 97 percent sure the new Doritos Locos Tacos[2] flavor is Flamas. It hits Taco Bells on August 22.


This did not come as a surprise to Doritos Locos Tacos devotees like us. Taco Bell had been testing the Flamas flavor in select stores for many months -- very successfully, according to sources within the company. In December, David Novak, the CEO of Taco Bell owner Yum! Brands, told investors he expected a Flamas Doritos Locos Taco[3] to be released in the middle of 2013. And our friends at FoodBeast wrote definitively that it would be Flamas[4] at the end of last week.


If you haven't tried Flamas Doritos before, think of them as the love-child of Flamin' Hot Cheetoes and Hint of Lime Tostitos. Their blazingly spicy kick is tempered only by a burst of lime flavoring. The chips are covered in so much red powder that when I ate a bag of them the other day, then blew my nose, I briefly thought that I was having a nosebleed.



The new Flamas Doritos Locos Tacos -- if that's what they are -- aren't nearly as intense as the chips. Taco Bell seems to have toned down the flavor dial for their tortilla shells even more for the Flamas than they did for Nacho Cheese or Cool Ranch. They're mild enough to appeal to all but the most milquetoast of palates.


However -- and this is a big however -- the Flamas still, even after the aggressive reduction, has a fuller-flavored taco shell than either the Nacho Cheese or the Cool Ranch. Its picante and citrus notes are assertive enough to stand up to the savory-salty innards of a Taco Bell Taco; they actually make a rather delicious contrast with the beef and cheese inside.


At the risk of sounding like total shills, everyone at HuffPost who tasted the new flavor agreed that it was the best Doritos Locos Taco yet. (And, uh, we would know[5] .) That's a far cry from being the best tacos ever -- you can get fresher, healthier, better-tasting tacos at any truck in LA or Austin. But given that, according to a Taco Bell spokesperson, Americans have already bought 550 million of the first two flavors of Doritos Locos Tacos, it's not nothing, either.


Click through the gallery below for more photos of the new flavor of Doritos Locos Tacos:



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  • The mystery tacos in their wrappers




  • One taco in its sleeve




  • Three tacos, in their sleeves




  • Deep vermillion shells spell Flamas to us




  • This is what they look like naked




  • Here are some Flamas Doritos on top of the new tacos


    Pretty similar right?




  • Bottom line? They're Flamas


    We're gonna look like fools if they aren't Flamas, but come on!