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The Choco Taco, a popular ice cream treat sold in ice cream trucks and convenience stores for almost 40 years, will be discontinued this month.
Choco Tacos are a frozen vanilla ice cream treat encased in an ice cream cone in the shape of a taco, topped with chocolate and nuts. The chocolatey dessert started in ice cream trucks in the 1980s and quickly became a summertime staple for many. For a time Choco Tacos could even be found at several Taco Bell locations.
The Choco Taco license is owned by Klondike, the 100-year-old ice cream company decided to call it quits on the taco-shaped treat due to rising popularity in its other ice cream brands. Klondike's official Twitter replied to a displeased Choco Taco lover:
Unfortunately, the Klondike Choco Taco has been discontinued. We've 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. We're very sorry for any disappointment!
In 1983 Alan Drazen created the Choco Taco in Philadelphia. While working for the Jack and Jill Ice Cream Company he wanted to create a new and unique ice cream sandwich. He was inspired by Mexican food, which at the time was quickly gaining in popularity so he used one of its most iconic shapes, the taco. Drazen also created a treat that offered a novel way to eat dessert.
Drazen said this about his creation:
“When you eat a sugar cone, you generally eat the nuts, chocolate, and ice cream on the top, and then when you get to the cone, you’re [only] eating ice cream and cone. With the Choco Taco you’re getting the ice cream, cone, nuts, and chocolate with just about every bite.”
In other taco-related news, Diana Kennedy died on Sunday at the age of 99. Kennedy was a British-born food writer who dedicated her life to bringing Mexican cuisine to English speakers across the world. She was dubbed the "Julia Child of Mexican Cusine."
Here's an article where Kennedy breaks down how to cook with different chile peppers.
Kennedy was honored that Mexican people embraced her work, she once wrote that she was:
“surprised and very happy that the Mexicans themselves use my books, and are so generous in acknowledging, as they say … what I have done for their regional cuisines.”
In 1981 she was awarded the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle, the most prestigious award a foreigner can receive from the Mexican government.