Apparently, we could have been enjoying Doritos Locos Tacos about 12 years earlier if Taco Bell executives had listened to some wise interns.

The Doritos Locos Taco, which boasts Doritos chips for a shell, debuted in 2012 and has garnered over $1 billion, according to Huffington Post. Andrea Watt, however, says she, along with three other college students including Rob Rader and Roy Brown, came up with the idea back in 1995 during a summer internship competition.

"I'm sure I signed away that anything I pitched to them was their property anyway," she told Huffington Post. "I would just like someone to recognize that it was a good idea."

Rader says they invented the product, which targeted 18-24-year-olds. The two tacos, Cool Ranch and Nacho Cheese flavors, was priced it at just 79 cents (compared to today's suggested retail price of $1.39). The prize was simply the chance of seeing the idea on a Taco Bell menu, but Watt and her fellow interns lost.

"It was just so obvious to us then," Watt explained. "When we did our presentation they were like, 'It's not really that marketable,' and we were like, 'What?'"

Watt's husband was the one that told her that her dream became a reality.

"When I saw it come out, my jaw almost dropped," Watt said. "I'm surprised it took so long."

Rader found out via a Chicago billboard.

"I was like, 'Oh my God, no way,'" he said. "It's really a thing. Are people really going to want this?"

In 1995, Bob Taber was an account supervisor for Bozell, which was Taco Bell's ad agency.

"I don't know what the client ended up doing with them, but the client certainly saw all of the pitches," Taber explained. "It's not uncommon at all to come up with a new product idea that goes nowhere, but then years later pops up."

According to Rob Poetsch, Taco Bell director of public affairs and engagement, however, the taco was invented by Taco Bell and Frito Lay marketing teams.

"Good ideas can come from anywhere, but an idea without execution does not make a successful product," he wrote in an e-mail. "The concept of making a taco shell out of Doritos may have come to people's minds which is why we've had no shortage of those who have claimed it was their idea."

It is worth noting that the team provided evidence of the creation, including a picture of the team, a feedback letter from a Taco Bell executive and a mockup of a counter card and window decal:

Watt still claims ownership of the product and identifies herself as the creator on her LinkedIn page. None of the three former interns mentioned work in the food business today.

What was the product that beat the Doritos Taco? A line of appetizers called Mexitizers. Perhaps those will mysteriously pop up in another 12 years as well.

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Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @SH____4.

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