I still dream about it when the weather gets colder. When Halloween creeps up I can’t help but think about it. How can ten years pass by like that? Sometimes I have to make sure I didn’t just make it all up. Now the only place it resides is in my dreams.
Ten years ago Taco Bell came out with a special “Halloween-themed taco,” the Black Jack Taco. It was almost identical to the regular hard shelled taco that they sell, except for two noticeable differences. The obvious black shell for Halloween, and it came with baja sauce, the ranch like sauce that they put on the Gordita Crunch. Now when this came out in 2009, this was long before the days of the Doritos locos taco with different colored shells. Back then hard shelled tacos only came in standard taco color.
On Halloween night 2009 Taco Bell ran a promotion, they gave out free Black Jack Tacos from 6pm to midnight. That is how I was able to try this delicious wonder, and unfortunately it hasn’t left my mind in the decade that has now passed. Every year I look to see if this will finally be the year that it gets brought back, and I always have to check does anyone else have any idea what this even is?
The whole world seems to have moved on, like it never existed or it didn’t matter. But it did. The taco was only offered around Halloween in 2009, but every year like Linus I find myself waiting in the pumpkin patch for the Great Pumpkin to return.
Maybe if I believe hard enough in the power of this black taco it will return. Maybe if I make some form of animal sacrifice some benevolent God will take pity on me and return this delicious creation back from the dead if only for one night. A boy can dream.
Taco Bell is not the only fast-food “restaurant” to come out with black Halloween themed food. In 2015, Burger King came out with a black Halloween whooper. It was quickly pulled from stores after less than 2 weeks on the market after customers complained that the squid ink used to dye the buns black turned their poop green.
While doing my research about the Black Jack Taco, I found that the reason this taco has never returned was the same problem with black dye. Customers complained that the black shell turned their poop green.
That is no reason to stop selling this wonderful creation from the heavens. When people eat at Taco Bell there is a reasonable consideration that putting their food in your mouth will wreak havoc on your insides, so I don’t think this is really any different or worse than the outcomes of eating any of their other menu creations.
Taco Bell needs to bring this back, now more than ever. As a country we can’t agree on whether we should have an orange president, but I think we can agree blue or red that we do need a black taco.
