Why Exactly Did Klondike Discontinue Its Beloved Choco Taco?

If we had known that the last time we enjoyed a Choco Taco would have been our last, we would have savored it just a bit longer... and enjoyed more of them while we still could. This is true of many discontinued desserts we will likely not get back, including the newly retired Choco Taco. For those who need a refresher of just how delicious Choco Tacos once were, the handheld dessert was made up of vanilla ice cream with fudge swirls held in a "sugar taco shell" and enclosed in a chocolate-flavored coating with peanuts. The tasty treat could be found at grocery stores, ice cream trucks, and even on Taco Bell menus from 1989 until 2015.

Klondike and its parent company Unilever shared the sad news with fans back in 2022 that the high demand for the company's other products needed to take priority as production was being reevaluated. This leaves us to believe that the demand was not high enough for Klondike to continue offering the dessert taco. If only the company knew then what we all know now: The Choco Taco is sorely missed.

The ice cream company shared on X, formerly Twitter, "Over the past 2 years, we have experienced an unprecedented spike in demand across our portfolio and have had to make very tough decisions to ensure availability of our full portfolio nationwide." News that the Choco Taco was not in as high demand as other Klondike products was news to many ice cream fans. The frozen taco-inspired treat even ranked as the most popular ice cream truck treat in nine different states based on Google Trend data collected in 2021, just one year before its discontinuation announcement. 

Fans of the nostalgic treat made their feelings known in response to this news, using the hashtag #BringBackChocoTaco to express their disappointment. An outraged fan tweeted, "This is an injustice!" Another wrote, "You're losing customers because of this. Including me." Multiple fans on X even threatened Klondike with a boycott of the company's products until Choco Tacos returned safely to stores.

After the overwhelming response from fans, it was hard for Klondike to ignore the possibility of reintroducing the Choco Taco to markets. Less than a month after the news of Choco Taco's retirement, the company tweeted, "We know this is disappointing — we've heard our fans, and we're hoping to bring this favorite treat back to ice cream trucks in the coming years!" However, a spokesperson for the ice cream company told CNN Business not to hold your breath, writing in an email, "There are currently no definite timelines for bringing the Choco Taco back."

Klondike may not be scheming to bring the beloved treat back to fans, but Taco Bell apparently is. In partnership with ice cream company Salt and Straw, the duo announced in February of 2024 plans to offer a new, elevated kind of Choco Taco. The ice cream company shared on Instagram that the new and improved Choco Tacos will have a "cinnamon ancho ice cream dipped in single origin chocolate and studded with toasted brown rice," and will be served with a side of cheesecake dipping sauce. Promises were made for the treat to be released this summer, but sadly there has been no word of an exact release date as of the time of this publication. Until it is officially released, we recommend trying your hand at homemade Choco Tacos to fill that crunchy, sugary void that the disappearing Klondike treat left behind.