[title]
The Choco Taco may live on in memory (and freezer hoards), but Salt & Straw is bringing it back in a decidedly more grown-up form. The Portland-born ice cream shop, which has outposts across the country including right here in New York, is teaming up with Taco Bell for a creation called The Tacolate—a hand-crafted reimagining of the cult-favorite dessert taco. It officially launches Friday, October 3, and yes, you can get it nationwide.
RECOMMENDED: 11 best ice cream shops in NYC
This isn’t a straight reboot. The Tacolate swaps out Klondike’s candy shell for Salt & Straw’s signature mix of inventive flavors and fine ingredients. Think: a taco shell made from hand-pressed waffle cones, filled with cinnamon ancho chili ice cream, then dunked in single-origin chocolate and speckled with toasted brown rice. Each one also comes with not one, but two custom sauce packets—Mango Jalapeño and Wildberry Cinnamon—developed in collaboration with Taco Bell’s flavor team.
Salt & Straw co-founder and head ice cream maker Tyler Malek has been tinkering with this concept for nearly a decade. “It has been a dream to collaborate with Taco Bell to bring this product to life,” Malek said in the launch announcement. “Nearly a decade in the making, we’ve developed a reimagined version of the nostalgic treat and we could not be more excited to bring our version to ice cream and tacos lovers.”
The collaboration traces back to 2016, when Salt & Straw experimented with ice cream tacos at its Portland soft-serve offshoot, Wiz Bang Bar. A limited-edition run in 2022 sold out in minutes, catching the attention of Taco Bell’s CEO, Sean Tresvant. From there, the partnership snowballed, culminating in last year’s buzzy reveal at Taco Bell’s Live Más LIVE event.
Starting this week, The Tacolate will be available in Salt & Straw shops across Oregon, Washington, California, New York, Florida, Nevada, Arizona and New England. For those outside those regions, the treats will ship nationwide in six-packs via the company’s website and select delivery apps. To sweeten the deal, Salt & Straw is also dropping a commemorative keychain for superfans.
Whether you’re nostalgic for the original Choco Taco or just curious about this high-concept mashup, clear your freezer shelf. The Tacolate is here to make dessert tacos cool again—literally.