Taco Emoji: Uncomfortable in Its Shell.

The new taco emoji came out recently – but like most people, we weren’t very happy with it. First of all, a hard shell taco doesn’t represent what an authentic taco really is, and it definitely shouldn’t have tomato, lettuce or cheddar cheese as toppings either. This taco emoji interpretation may be the norm in Tex-Mex cuisine, but it would never be seen hanging out with true Mexican dishes. That’s why we decided to take the infamous taco emoji to our kitchen and had our digital chefs improve it.While it’s not easy to depict the warmth, softness and deliciousness of a fresh corn tortilla in a little icon, we believe our order came out pretty tasty. And since there is no definite, ultimate taco filling, we didn’t just create one new taco emoji, but three new ones, and we used our favorite taco fillings as inspiration: barbacoa, tripitas and pastor. Sorry to those arrachera and adobada lovers. We’ll put your order in the next iOS update, along with a warm plate of flautas with salsa verde. Sound good?

As you can imagine, preparing these new taco emojis came kinda naturally for us. During our cooking process, we also felt that there were other tasty Mexican dishes and drinks that should be put on our texting tables, because tacos only come full tortilla with a refreshing glass of horchata served from an ice-cold vitrolero, or if you’re not a fan of aguas frescas, maybe you could accompany them with a Mexican soda sweetened with cane sugar (not high-fructose corn syrup); and if you were partying all night, you know tacos need to be served with a hearty bowl of menudo on the side to make it pack a real Mexi-punch.

The list of taco add-ons goes on and on, and the reality is that it would be almost impossible to create emojis for all the amazing authentic Mexican dishes that are out there. The good thing is, the text messages of our imagination don’t have a character limit, so even though we won’t be able to text them to a friend, there’s nothing stopping us from enjoying them in real life. Visit your local authentic Mexican restaurant to try these superb culinary creations for yourself!

Staff top picks: Tacos Don Cuco, Taco Tote, Barbacoa El Güero, Barrigas, Rosario’s, El Leoncito, Taquería La Vaca Voladora, The Little Shack.