Shake from Del Taco

I continued my quest of redeeming free birthday coupons to another destination I hadn't been to in years: Del Taco.

Let me rewind.

When I was growing up, we went out to dinner every Sunday night.  It was my mom's night off from cooking.  But when I say we went out to eat ... I mean that we went to Subway, Papa Ginos, or Del Taco, depending on who was picking.  Del Taco was always my dad's pick.  It was my least favorite of the batch, but it should come as no surprise that I was willing to go, if only for the fact that they had ChocoTacos!  (Remember those things?  Waffle cone taco shell, filled with ice cream and fudge and peanuts?  Dessert and ice cream loving Julie loved these!)  I also thought the taco salad was pretty good.

Anyway, I don't think I'd been to a Del Taco since I was probably 15 years old.  I got a coupon for two free chicken tacos, and even my freebie loving self wasn't interested in those.  But then I got one for a free, premium shake!  My dessert radar went off, and I was sold!

Entering Del Taco was like entering anther world.  There was drama the moment I walked in, as a woman had ordered some nachos, and then when told the price (which was higher than what was on the sign, since it included tax), threw a fit.  She threw the nachos across the room and screamed that she didn't want them.  And then the next person in line paid for their entire order in change, with nothing bigger than a dime.  It was ... a cultural experience.

The cashier was very friendly, called me "hun", and quickly prepared my shake.  However ... I won't be going back.

"Premium" Vanilla Shake, topped with "real whipped cream".

The shake comes out of a machine, sort of like a soft serve ice cream machine, rather than being made from ice cream and milk.  I have no idea what it is really made of, but I'm guessing the base is similar to soft serve ice cream, just with a ton more corn syrup.  This thing was sweet!

Besides sweet, there wasn't really much to it.  I didn't taste much vanilla flavor at all.  They also offer a chocolate and a strawberry variety, which are the vanilla shake with chocolate sauce and "real strawberry topping" mixed in.  I decided to play it safe and go with the classic vanilla, but perhaps one of the others would have more flavor.

The shake was way too thick to drink at first.  Even 10 minutes in, I was barely able to drink it.  The consistency was just sorta strange, way too thick to drink, but definitely not like ice cream.  It also wasn't very icy.  Just ... strange.

The whipped cream on top was advertised as "real whipped cream", so I somewhat expected a real canister of whipped cream or something, even though I was at fast food joint.  It was just a regular generic can of whipped cream, and was surprisingly not good at all.  I thought all canned whipped cream was pretty much the same, but this had a nasty sour taste to it.

Overall, really not very good, but I somehow finished it, even though it was fairly massive.  I think I kept wanting it to be good.  After all, it was a "premium" shake!