I Did It So You Don’t Have To, Although You Might Want To. Part 1: The Tacolate

THE BEN’s wildest dream that doesn’t involve a bathroom has come true! The Choco Taco has been rebooted!

No, Klondike has not decided to make the Choco Taco again. Instead, Taco Bell has collaborated with Salt & Straw, a premium ice cream chain store Straight Outta Oregon, to recreate (or reimagine if you speak marketing) the Choco Taco. They call it the Tacolate (pronounced like chocolate. I like to use the Spanish pronunciation; TacoLAHte).

I went to the Salt & Straw location in the Arts District in DTLA on Friday, October 3, the day it launched. I got there right at the crack of noon as the store opens at that time and I wanted to avoid any possible hipster lines and/or interaction.

Luckily, there was no line and I walked right in, went to the ice cream cooler, grabbed my Tacolate, went to the counter, paid, and walked right the fuck back out. I only had to interact with the hipster cashier for like five seconds tops.

Here is a picture of the Tacolate with the Arts District in the background:

Luckily, no hipsters were around to ruin the picture. Here are your “nutritional” details:

As is usual with these things, they have a complicated way of opening for “presentation” or whatever:

As you can probably start to tell, the packaging keeps getting smaller. The wrapper is barely the size of the picture of the taco on the outer packaging. Keen-eyed readers will note that there is a sauce package underneath the gold packaging. It turned out to be a packet of Wild Berry Cinnamon sauce!

I thought I was also going to get a Mango Habanero sauce packet too but there wasn’t one. Maybe it’s a thing where you get one or the other but not both? And which one you do get is either a happy or unhappy surprise? Finally, it was time to open up the gold packaging to see the actual Tacolate.

Um,

Yeah. Not as big as I expected.

Ghost of tWBS: THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID!!

Sooooo, what does it look like inside and how does it taste?

I halfway expected the inside to be dark brown due to the chocolate flavouring. The ice cream is not chocolate but actually “cinnamon-ancho” and it was quite good. The waffle shell was yummy and was the right blend of soft and crunchy, if that makes sense. Most of the crunch comes from the part covered with chocolate and toasted quinoa. It held up well after a bite and didn’t fall apart. I applied a little of the sauce to see how it impacted the taste.

The sauce had a great consistency in that it wasn’t too runny or too thick. I first tried it by itself and it was amazing. The berry flavours were very good but the cinnamon gave it an extra kick (slightly spicy for some weird but good reason) that made the sauce better than the Tacolate by itself.

When I took a bite of the Tacolate with the sauce on it, it was perfect. They really make a perfect combination. All the flavours worked really well together.

Alas, as the Ghost of tWBS would say, it was over way too quickly. The size of the Tacolate was so small that I ate the whole thing in less than 10 bites. The sauce was enough for the entire Tacolate and there was none left.

***

The Verdict

Let’s do this in the form of questions, shall we?

• How much did it cost?
• Was it worth it?
• Would you buy it again?

My answers, in order:

• The bar itself cost $7.50. The machine invited me to tip 25%, which I declined.
• Sort of? Salt & Straw is a “premium” ice cream store and they have unique flavours that no one else makes. One scoop of their ice cream regularly costs about $5 depending on your location. The Tacolate contains probably less than a scoop of ice cream, but it is very unique and has other quite tasty features.
• I’m not sure. If Taco Bell would sell that sauce packet by itself, I would buy a bunch of them and put that sauce on all kinds of things (including Lady Balls’ things). I can understand why Taco Bell and Salt & Straw decided to sell these exclusively at Salt & Straw stores instead of Taco Bell stores. They are way overpriced for Taco Bell but would be considered cheap at Salt & Straw.

Bottom Line: If you have a Salt & Straw location near you, I would recommend trying it. If you are a regular Salt & Straw customer, you will not think twice about the cost. I, being a regular Taco Bell customer, think it’s probably more of a once-in-a-while kinda expensive treat. But yeah, it’s really good!