In 2022, I was in mourning. That’s because I had lost a great friend of mine: the Choco Taco. The ice cream confection was discontinued after 40 years because, according to Unilever, it was not selling as well as some of its more popular brands.
I could not comprehend this. Every summer evening, the pleasant jingle-jangle of the ice cream truck wafted through my neighborhood, and every time, without fail, I would ask, “One Choco Taco, please.” These fond childhood memories soon turned to self-blame: Was it my fault that the Choco Taco fell out of favor? When was the last time I even saw an ice cream truck, let alone ordered from one?
In February of 2024, it seemed as though my mourning would soon come to an end. News broke that Taco Bell and the ice cream makers Salt & Straw were teaming up to bring back the Choco Taco that summer. Celebrations! Tears of joy! In a few months, I’d be on the train to nostalgia town with a Choco Taco in my hands!
The summer of 2024 came and went with neither hide nor hair of this promised mash-up. To have been built up to such great heights, only to have come plummeting down into a hopeless pit of despair, was almost too much for me. For the first time in my life, I cursed Taco Bell’s name.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere on September 30, 2025, Salt & Straw announced on their Instagram that their Choco Taco would finally be hitting stores on October 3. And it had a new name: the Tacolate. While it looked different from my beloved childhood confection, I was optimistic and overjoyed that it was finally here. I set my alarm for 7:00 a.m. on the release date to make sure I was first in line.
Cut to October 3, and I was actually second in line, arriving at the Salt and Straw store around 15 minutes prior to opening. It seemed that there were many people who were just as excited as I was to get their hands on the Tacolate. I brought my two friends, Kait and Corin, to also participate in this monumental event. In the time we were in line, at least six or seven people lined up behind us.
When the doors finally opened and I entered the store, the Tacolates were sitting in the freezer, clear as day. I was struck by how few there were in there, breathing a sigh of relief that we got there early and that we were not totally ridiculous to be eating ice cream at 11 in the morning. This freezer was empty before we even finished our Tacolates out on the front bench.
Each Tacolate costs $7.95, which seems pretty steep when compared to ice cream truck prices. I wonder how much of that cost went into the packaging?
The Tacolate has the coolest and perhaps most appropriate amount of calories of any food. You can imagine a late-night trip to your local Salt & Straw after some hard partying and being overcome with a giggle fit. Based on the product description, there are two differences between this and the Choco Taco that immediately stick out: the cinnamon-ancho ice cream replacing the classic chocolate-vanilla swirl and the puffed quinoa replacing the traditional nuts.
Inside the box is the Tacolate in a separate wrapper, along with two sauces: mango jalapeño and wild berry cinnamon. These sauces are made to replicate the hot sauce packets from Taco Bell.
Another noticeable difference between the Tacolate and the Choco Taco is the size. This new creation seems much shorter in length compared to my memory of the original. Maybe my hands have just gotten bigger since my ice cream truck days? At the same time, this one seems thicker in width, indicating more filling. So it probably all evens out in the end.
The first few bites make it clear: This is not your grandma’s Choco Taco. The Tacolate is bringing something entirely different to the taco-shaped ice cream confection world. First is the crunch of the taco. The Choco Taco shell tended to be soft and chewy, whereas the Tacolate retains a mighty crunch. This is probably aided by the well-defined inner chocolate lining, preventing the ice cream from softening its shell.
The biggest difference is in the flavor palette. The traditional vanilla-chocolate swirl ice cream is replaced by a cinnamon-ancho ice cream, inspired by the flavors often found in horchata. The ice cream itself is delightful: not too sweet, high quality, and even has some heat on the back end. The puffed quinoa replaces the peanut flavor of the original, but ultimately adds nothing except a little more textural crunch.
On its own, the Tacolate is pretty darn good. Adding the sauces, however, brings it to a whole other level. The idea of adding a sweet fruit element to the milder ice cream was shockingly delicious. The mango jalapeño sauce packed a big punch and was definitely my favorite of the two. But the wild berry cinnamon was no slouch either.
I have to say: the Tacolate is awesome. I always come to these specialty food drops with a healthy bit of skepticism. Often, they wind up being a silly marketing ploy for food that hasn’t been thought through enough. In this case, however, the extra thought Salt & Straw put into this creation made it well worth the wait. So the big question remains: Is this a replacement for the Choco Taco?
Nostalgia is a funny thing. Often, it is a combination of memories that have less to do with what actually happened and more to do with your blurry, skewed vision of the past. Do I hold the Choco Taco up as the pinnacle of the ice cream confection world? Yes. Is the Tacolate, objectively, better than the Choco Taco? The answer, also, is yes. In terms of quality, there is no question.
Can this paradox exist? I think so. The Tacolate, while it looks familiar, is bringing something new to the table, and I highly suggest you track one down as quickly as you can. But that doesn’t take away from the warm memories I have of the Choco Taco. The summer evenings spent on the front stoop of my home, tired and sweaty from a day filled with riding bikes and climbing trees, chowing down on a Choco Taco fresh from the ice cream truck as the lightning bugs emerge from their hiding places. That combination of feelings, tastes, and experiences can never be replicated. So the Choco Taco will remain in its hallowed place amongst the greats; it will just have to scoot over a bit to make room for the Tacolate.
The Tacolate is officially sold out at Salt & Straw locations, but they’re working their absolute hardest to get it back soon.
While you wait for the Tacolate to restock, download the free Tasty app to save our Choco Taco copycat recipe — no lining up at 7 a.m. required.
