Taco Bell's Cool Ranch Dorito Taco: Just the Latest Frankensnack

On Wednesday, the Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Taco officially launches at Taco Bells across the country.

As most fast-food aficionados know, the Cool Ranch taco is the edible sequel to the original Doritos Locos taco, which imbued a taco shell with the taste of a nacho cheese Dorito. It was a dream team of two top brands from two different companies -- Yum's (YUM) Taco Bell and PepsiCo's (PEP) Doritos.

And it was also a prime example of a burgeoning genre of junk food that we've decided to call the Frankensnack.

The Frankensnack is so named because it takes two or more types of junk food and mashes them together in the gustatory equivalent of Frankenstein's monster. Such creations should not to confused with Frankenfood, the term that many activists use to describe genetically-modified food products.

There are several such Frankensnacks on the market. Here are a few of the biggest, best and weirdest.

[UPDATE: While Taco Bell had originally announced that the Cool Ranch taco would launch on Thursday, March 7, the chain now says that it will let fans buy the new taco a day early. The release date has been updated in the first paragraph.]