We gather today to mourn the loss of one of the finest ice cream creations to ever grace our dessert plates: the Choco Taco. This treat is intrinsically tied to childhood memories of chasing down an ice cream truck, breathlessly demanding a Choco Taco from the driver, having him say, “Are you sure you don’t want to try something else this time?” and you respond, deadly serious, “Give me a Choco Taco or I will slash your tires,” as this adult man, terrified, hands you, a 12-year old child with the deranged look of a madman, what you most desire. This is something we can all relate to, correct? Sadly, our children will not have this experience. Let’s find out together why we now live in this sad, sick, Choco Taco-less world.
What is a Choco Taco?
The Choco Taco is yet another ingenious invention from my hometown of Philadelphia. In 1984, the Jack and Jill Ice Cream Company, famous for their ubiquitous summer ice cream trucks, created and began selling the Choco Taco in their trucks and convenience stores.
The Choco Taco is a novelty ice cream made of a waffle cone that is shaped like a hard taco shell. It’s then filled with vanilla ice cream swirled with chocolate fudge and topped with peanuts and a hard chocolate candy shell. Its design is brilliant. Its taste is exquisite. Everything about it is perfect.
The Choco Taco was truly a regional phenomenon until 1989, when the Good Humor brand bought the production company that Jack and Jill was using to make the Choco Tacos. Now that Good Humor owned the production rights, they ramped up production, making Choco Tacos available in nearly 30,000 convenience store freezers around the country. Klondike, which was owned by the same company as Good Humor, became the primary brand producer of Choco Taco, resulting in the label saying “Klondike Choco Taco.”
Why did they discontinue the Choco Taco?
If you can’t tell from the convoluted production history above, the Choco Taco has changed hands quite a bit. It used to be that all these different brands of ice cream—Good Humor, Breyer’s, Klondike, Popsicle, Ben & Jerry’s—were independent companies. They made their products, sold them locally or nationally, and that was it. But now we are living in the age of Big Business, so every single ice cream brand mentioned in this article is owned by Unilever, a massive, consumer goods operation that also owns Hellman’s, Q-Tips, Vaseline, Axe Body Spray, Lipton, Noxzema, and dozens of other brands.
The Choco Taco, which was literally only sold out of trucks on the East Coast when it first started, soon became subject to the whims of a heartless global entity. Any care that once went into the product was sacrificed for a bottom line.
In 2022, Good Humor-Breyers, the ice cream division of Unilever, made the decision to discontinue Choco Taco, using the pandemic as an excuse. Many companies pared down their product offerings during that time as a cost-saving measure. Good Humor-Breyers said they had to discontinue the Choco Taco so they could focus on their other products that have higher demand. Personally, the lack of Choco Tacos in the latter half of the pandemic made me miserable.
Who sells Choco Tacos?
The Choco Taco we all fell in love with is, sadly, a thing of the past. But you may be able to find them on the internet somewhere. A quick search turned up some wackos trying to sell them for $400 on eBay.
Did Taco Bell sell Choco Tacos?
In February of 2022, Taco Bell put out a press release saying they would be selling Klondike’s Choco Taco for a limited time, only in Los Angeles and Milwaukee. It seemed like good fortune for us all, but by July 2022, the product was discontinued.
What’s the deal with Salt and Straw Choco Tacos?
In February 2024, the internet was abuzz with news that the Choco Taco was making a comeback and that Taco Bell was involved. Time to celebrate, right? Well, not exactly.
The reality is that the Portland-based ice cream company Salt & Straw developed their own version of the Choco Taco in conjunction with Taco Bell development team. Their version has a cinnamon ancho-flavored ice cream and is only sold at Salt & Straw locations. According to their Instagram post announcement in February, the taco would be available at scoop shops and for online shipping “this summer.”
As I write this in mid-August 2024, I can find no evidence of these Choco Tacos on their website. We’re nearing Labor Day, so it seems their promises of a summer release have been misjudged.
What’s the deal with the Cold Stone Choco Taco?
There was even more Choco Taco noise on the internet in April 2024, when Cold Stone announced it was going to be making its own version of the treat. But the return was short-lived; it was just a Cinco de Mayo promotion that lasted one week.
Are Choco Tacos coming back?
It is possible the Choco Taco will rise from the dead, but there are no guarantees. Thanks to fan outrage, Klondike had to do some PR spin on their announcement, saying that they “listened to fans and are looking for ways to bring it back.” But there is really no plan in place to do so that we know of.
In reality, what we are seeing is a mega-corporation play with our emotions like a cat pawing at a dead bird. They’re dangling the little carrot of hope in front of us that the Choco Taco will make a comeback, but they don’t really care. Meanwhile, people everywhere (me specifically) are heartbroken (absolutely despondent and bed-ridden) over the destruction of their precious childhood memories (my personal fat kid summers). Shame on you, Unilever. SHAME!destruction of their precious childhood memories (my personal fat kid summers). Shame on you, Unilever. SHAME!