Salt & Straw X Taco Bell Tacolate Review: A Mostly Worthy Successor To The Choco Taco

Klondike shocked fans midway through 2022 when it announced the sudden death of the beloved Choco Taco. In response, a number of brands rushed to save the Choco Taco, each releasing its take on the classic sweet treat, which took a taco shell-shaped hard waffle and stuffed it with vanilla ice cream, a chocolate swirl, and a dusting of peanuts. One of those brands was the ice cream chain Salt & Straw, which revived a product originally made at its former soft serve spinoff, Wiz Bang Bar, called the Chocolate Tacolate. In 2022, the Chocolate Tacolate was available during a limited window, and it sold out fast.

Three years later, Salt & Straw has teamed up with Taco Bell to release a new version of The Tacolate. It hit stores on October 3, just in time for National Taco Day 2025. Not only does this version boast a slightly updated recipe, but it also comes with a couple of Taco Bell-inspired sauce packets. I headed to my local Salt & Straw, which is part of the locals-oriented UnCommons shopping center in Las Vegas, to try the new collaborative Taco Bell Tacolate on the afternoon of its release. The following includes a brief rundown of the item and its availability before my personal review of Salt & Straw and Taco Bell's Tacolate.

Just like the prior version of Chocolate Tacolate that Salt & Straw released in 2022 — which took advantage of the golden opportunity created by the Choco Taco's demise — the collaborative Taco Bell Tacolate consists of a chocolate-lined waffle cone shell housing cinnamon ancho chili ice cream, dipped in single-origin chocolate. New to the 2025 version is the addition of puffed quinoa on top, contributing a textural crunch factor. The previous version simply included sea salt as a topping.

Taco Bell's biggest contribution is not the puffed quinoa but two sauce packets that come standard with the 2025 Tacolate. Each box includes one purple packet of Wildberry Cinnamon Sauce and one red packet of Mango Jalapeño Sauce. They're slightly larger than standard Taco Bell sauce packets in size, but visually reminiscent of the mild, hot, and fire sauce packets, without which no Taco Bell meal is truly complete.

Salt & Straw first announced that it was teaming up with Taco Bell for a new Choco Taco spinoff back during Taco Bell's 2024 Live Más event, which mostly detailed Taco Bell's major menu additions for 2024. So, those anticipating the collaboration since then have had to wait more than a year for this version of The Tacolate to finally arrive in Salt & Straw scoop shops.

Anyone interested in enjoying The Tacolate in person can pick up the collaborative Taco Bell item at their nearest Salt & Straw. While the item's press release specifies that The Tacolate will only be available at participating locations, these Salt & Straw stores are located in Oregon, Washington, California, New York, Florida, Nevada, and Arizona, in addition to parts of New England (where Salt & Straw opened a location in New Hampshire earlier this year). That covers the entirety of the chain's footprint by state, so locations not stocking The Tacolate should be rare exceptions to the rule. Prices may vary, but in my nearest store, one Tacolate costs $7.95.

Alternatively, anyone looking to try The Tacolate without easy access to a Salt & Straw may be able to order one from its online store. However, the promotion sold out on the day of its release, so online availability is contingent on Salt & Straw restocking its inventory. Furthermore, the only online option was to purchase six Tacolates for $65. The ice cream chain occasionally releases some pretty out-there flavors, like a Salt & Straw mealworm ice cream (which actually tasted pretty great), so adventurous eaters may want to keep an eye on its online store even after The Tacolate is no longer available. With that said, Salt & Straw has yet to announce an official end date for The Tacolate promotion.

I made sure to try my very first bite of my Tacolate without any sauce. I was immediately impressed. The predominant flavor was not that of ice cream, but the chocolate shell on its exterior, which was of a perceptibly high quality. That was underscored first and foremost by the cinnamon flavor of the ice cream. A nice vanilla accent from the waffle cone accentuated that cinnamon-chocolate flavor. Only in the aftertaste did the ancho chili come through, and it was subtle, adding complexity rather than an unnecessary distraction. Texturally, the waffle cone was firm but airy, and the ice cream inside was tightly packed, lending it a sort of heft. The puffed quinoa was kind of subsumed by everything else, so the crunch factor was light.

Sadly, I did not enjoy the Mango Jalapeño Sauce — but, for what it's worth, I like neither mango nor spicy desserts. My girlfriend, who accompanied me, also tried the Mango Jalapeño Sauce and thought The Tacolate was better off with it than without it. Altogether, it's sweetened-mango forward, and just a tad spicy. Anyone who likes the idea of that flavor combo will probably enjoy it. Finally, the Wildberry Cinnamon Sauce was practically like a blueberry jam, tasting strongly of dark berries, with a viscous, jammy texture. I didn't pick up much more cinnamon than what was already in the cinnamon ancho chili ice cream, but it absolutely delivered on its berry flavor.

I really enjoyed eating The Tacolate, but my experience wasn't quite perfect. First off, I thought The Tacolate was a little small for its price point. Its ingredients were of a high enough quality to help justify that cost, but it still felt slight.

I also thought that The Tacolate tasted better without sauce than with either sauce packet. Regular Taco Bell sauce is one of the chain's strong suits, to the extent that true thought leaders even put Taco Bell sauce on caramel corn. However, both the mango and berry flavors got in the way of the cinnamon-chocolate I enjoyed so much. That said, while my girlfriend and I agreed that the Wildberry Cinnamon Sauce was unnecessary, the Mango Jalapeño Sauce was her personal highlight, so a given customer's enjoyment of either sauce may just depend on how much they like mango or berry flavors versus chocolate.

Putting price and what I found to be a subpar execution of its Taco Bell gimmick aside, The Tacolate is straight-up delicious. It delivers on the Choco Taco experience, and does so in a way that's just unique enough, thanks mostly to the cinnamon flavor in the ice cream and the high quality of its chocolate. So, while The Tacolate is indeed just a little too ambitious, it's good enough that its slight flaws are overshadowed by what is still a truly tasty dessert.