Still want a Choco Taco? Rare ice-cream treat selling for hundreds online
FILE - Choco Taco. (Klondike)
LOS ANGELES - Forget the housing market…the demand of Klondike’s discontinued Choco Taco has skyrocketed with sellers asking for hundreds of dollars for the rare ice-cream treat.
On Monday, Facebook Marketplace in the Los Angeles area listed several Choco Tacos for sale. The lowest advertised price was $25 and the highest price was a box of Choco Tacos at $500 each.
Other social media posts showed the summer treat going as high as $1,000.
RELATED: Iconic Choco Taco ice cream treat discontinued
"Remember that guy at the beginning of the pandemic who got in legal trouble for hoarding hand sanitizer & gouging the prices through the roof?" One person tweeted. "I look forward to the Choco Taco equivalent."
Other social media users posted Choco Tacos can still be found in some stores.
Klondike confirmed last month that the summer treat is being pulled from ice cream trucks, convenience stores and grocery shelves.
RELATED: McDonald’s pulls Beyond Meat ‘McPlant’ burgers after trial run
"Over the past two 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," a Klondike representative said in an email. "A necessary but unfortunate part of this process is that we sometimes must discontinue products, even a beloved item like Choco Taco."
Klondike, which is owned by London-based Unilever, continues to sell cones, shakes and its signature Klondike bar nationwide.
FOX Television Stations reached out Unilever for comment.
The Choco Taco, invented in 1983 by a former ice cream truck driver, is a waffle cone shaped like a taco shell filled with fudge-swirled ice cream. It’s dipped in chocolate and peanuts.
The news of its demise sent some Twitter users into a meltdown.
"There are bad decisions, like getting a face tattoo or French kissing an alligator. Then there are horrifically bad inexcusable decisions like discontinuing the Choco Taco," one fan tweeted.
Multi-millionaire Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian called out Unilever on Twitter.
"I’d like to buy the rights to your Choco Taco and keep it from melting away from future generations’ childhoods," Ohanian tweeted. Unilever didn’t appear to respond.
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, tweeted that he would invoke the Defense Production Act to mandate continued manufacture of Choco Tacos.
Klondike seemed to realize it had struck a nerve. In a later tweet, the company said it was "working hard to find a way to bring Choco Taco back to ice cream trucks in the coming years."
One place the Choco Taco might show up? Taco Bell. In February, the restaurant chain announced a collaboration with Klondike, testing Choco Taco sales at 20 locations in Los Angeles and Milwaukee. It was a welcome return for fans: Taco Bell used to sell Choco Tacos but took them off their menu in 2015.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. This story was reported from Los Angeles.