Tyler Malek, co-founder of artisan ice cream chain Salt & Straw, set very high standards when he began his journey to reinvent and upgrade the Choco Taco, a childhood treat originally marketed by Klondike.
Back in 2016, Malek first created a riff on this ice cream taco at the Wiz Bang Bar, a soft-serve counter he and the team operated in Portland, Oregon. They renamed it the Tacolate for trademark reasons. They also were intent on offering a better quality product.
While the original Choco Taco was popular, the shell tended to get soggy and the chocolate coating and ice cream were not up to par.
“We wanted to use real waffle cones [for the shell] and real chocolate, and we wanted the waffle to stay crispy no matter what,” said Malek. “We started by painting every shell by hand with chocolate before hand-piping the ice cream in and then hand-dipping for the final layer on top. Needless to say, this process is very time-consuming and we typically could make about 50 tacos per day and would sell out by noon.”
Malek spent the last 10 years in constant trial and error to perfect the Tacolate, he said, as well as meeting with engineers from across the world to help design custom equipment that has never existed before. The ultimate goal: To speed up the process and boost production while attaining the highest flavor and texture specs. Plus, “we wanted to use the same full-fat, decadent ice cream that Salt & Straw is known for,” he said.
Teaming up with Taco Bell
When Klondike’s parent company Unilever rolled the last Choco Taco off the line in 2022, Malek and his team produced 500 Tacolates as a tribute, working day and night to make them by hand. The ice cream treats sold out in hours, but the success of the effort caught the attention of Sean Tresvant, CEO of Taco Bell.
Tresvant met with Salt & Straw’s co-founding team of Tyler Malek and his cousin, Kim Malek, and together they saw an opportunity to bring back the nostalgic treat in a way authentic to both brands—and produce it in enough quantity to distribute nationwide.
“The challenge with launching our Tacolate nationwide was coming up with a machine that could replicate our hand-made nature without compromising quality,” he said. “Ultimately, we designed a multi-million-dollar machine with three different robots built in, about two dozen conveyor belts and an army of human ice cream makers to be able to make the same Tacolate we originally created 10 years ago in much larger quantities.”
The machinery challenge was finally solved, thanks in part to the expertise of a Polish equipment company. In February 2024, Taco Bell announced the collaboration with Salt & Straw at its Live Mas LIVE! event in Las Vegas, where the chain revealed its marketing calendar for the year ahead.
In its final form, the Tacolate is made with pressed, extra-crunchy waffle cones as the shell, filled with cinnamon ancho chili ice cream, then dipped in single origin chocolate and studded with crispy puffed quinoa.
“The cinnamon ancho flavor was the first we ever created back in 2013 so it meant a lot to me,” said Malek. “It feels like a churro ice cream dipped in multiple crunchy layers of chocolate and is one of my favorite flavor combinations of all time.”
Two Taco Bell-inspired sauces come with the Tacolates.
The Tacolate is accompanied by two sauces: Mango Jalapeño and Wildberry Cinnamon.
“We got to work closely with the Taco Bell R&D team to create the sauce packets and wanted to take inspiration from the core flavors that both teams work with,” said Malek. “The Wildberry sauce is Pacific Northwest through and through and feels like my childhood. The Mango Jalapeño is the perfect blend of spicy, salty and sweet and captures the magic flavor trinities that Taco Bell is famous for.”
Getting to market
The next challenge: scaling up the Tacolate to roll out across the country.
“This was my favorite part of our collaboration with Taco Bell because their food safety and R&D teams spent hours and hours with us, coaching us on how to make this scalable and safe,” said Malek. “We will be able to infuse their expertise into the entirety of our company for many years to come.”
Tacolates are available in packs of six shipped from Salt & Straw's website.
The Tacolates are made in Portland, Oregon, Salt & Straw’s home city. The ice cream taco launched nationwide Oct. 3 and is available at participating Salt & Straw shops in Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada, Arizona, Florida, New York and New England. Tacolates are also being sold in packs of six online at saltandstraw.com and at select Taco Bells and third-party platforms.
Salt & Straw is known for its innovative ice cream flavors, with the current Thanksgiving selection including Maple Koginut Squash with Pomegranate and Parker House Rolls with Salted Buttercream. “We have a few years worth of future flavors that we're excited to roll out,” said Malek. Whether they’ll end up in a Tacolate remains to be seen.