Taco Bell's Chili Cheese Burrito Used To Have A Different (And Vulgar) Name

Taco Bell's chili cheese burrito is a simple wrap of chili (not to be confused with Taco Bell's infamous seasoned beef) and cheddar cheese in a flour tortilla. It was originally added to the menu in 1990, but isn't part of Taco Bell's core menu any longer, which is why your nearest location might not serve them. If you ever meet a superfan of these things, sometimes you'll hear them referred to as "Chilitos," since that's what Taco Bell originally used to call them.

That being said, as harmless as the word "Chilito" might seem (it means "little chili" in Spanish), the fast food chain eventually renamed the item to just a straightforward "chili cheese burrito." Some people believe that the company changed the name because the word "chilito" can be used as slang to describe a particular body part that many people don't reference in public, and which I'll leave to your imagination, but will simply note the shape of a little chili pepper.

Taco Bell has never officially addressed this situation, so whether or not this is why the name change occurred is up for debate. But slang meaning or not, a lot of people still affectionately call it the Chilito, so the legacy of its original name lives on.

If you're curious as to where to get one, there are still Taco Bell locations that sell chili cheese burritos. But rather than having to hunt around for one, the Taco Bell enthusiast site Living Más has a map that's scraped all the Taco Bell locations in the United States that have them on the menu. There's actually quite a bit of them, too, and centered mainly around the Midwest. 

I've only had a few of them in my lifetime, and admittedly they've always seemed just okay to me. But as we all know, nostalgia is a great selling point when it comes to Taco Bell items, and at least these things aren't complete relics of the past, since technically, they're still available. And if you do go get one, you'll know that the original name of the Chilito might have been a little questionable at some point. Now, it basically amounts to Taco Bell lore, like what happened to its seafood salad option, which is something that people love to talk about nearly as much as they do the food.