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Ditch the Ice Cream Truck and Make Choco Tacos at Home

If you're been to a 7-11 or an ice cream truck, you've probably seen a choco taco. It's the vanilla ice cream, milk chocolate, taco shell mashup up of frozen desserts. It's carbohydrates meet chocolate flavored swirl. It's also pretty amazing. These ice cream tacos look delicious, and are fun to eat. Now that we're a bit too old to go chasing the ice cream truck, we'll need to make our own version of this childhood treat. Luckily, this half taco half ice cream sandwich treat is relatively easy to recreate at home.

History of the Choco Taco?

The Choco Taco was created in the '80s in Philadelphia by Alan Drazen. Klondike, which is famous for their Klondike bars, makes the choco taco.  Good Humor purchased the Klondike company in the '90s. They are a subsidiary of the world's largest ice cream manufacturer, Unilever.

You can find them in the freezer section in major grocery stores, convenience stores, and on some lucky ice cream trucks. They used to be sold at Taco Bell with chocolate sauce and sprinkles. While vanilla with a fudge swirl is the original, and current flavor, they used to sell cookies and cream, peanut butter, and fried ice cream. If you're ever looking to find a choco taco, you can visit klondikebar.com and use their choco taco locator to find them near you.

Choco Tacos are made with both real and artificial flavors, like most frozen manufactured items. Their ingredients include: Nonfat Milk, Wheat Flour, Coconut Oil, Dry Roasted Peanuts,  Whey, High Fructose Corn Syrup, and Cocoa Powder. They also include less than 1% of the following: Chocolate Processed with Alkali, Soy Lecithin, Vanillin, Soybean Oil, Mono and Diglycerides, Caramel Color, Modified Tapioca Starch, Cocoa Powder Processed with Alkali, Locust Bean Gum, Guar Gum, Lactic Acid, Corn Oil, Vitamin A Palmitate, and Carrageenan.

DIY Klondike Choco Taco

When making a choco taco at home, you can forgo most of the hard-to-pronounce artificial ingredients. Many recipes call for making your own waffle cone or sugar cone taco shell. If you have a waffle maker or are used to making homemade ice cream cones, this will be very easy. You can also just snag store-bought shells if you're lazy.

Once you have the shell, you'll need to fill it with softened vanilla ice cream. Then, let it sit in the freezer for a few hours to harden. Next, take your hot fudge sauce and dip the taco into the sauce. You can add peanuts as the topping, or chocolate chips, brownie bits, sprinkles, etc. It's your taco and you get to decide what toppings you want. If you want to really create a Mexican dessert fusion, throw your favorite hot sauce on top for a spicy kick!

Find the homemade choco taco recipe here.