Missouri Man Preserves Taco Bell Potato Tacos For Science

Potatoes were one of the first victims of the Taco Bell Great Menu Streamlining of 2020. Many fans mourned. Cooks showed us how to make our own at home. But only one man had the foresight to cryogenically preserve the beloved Potato Soft Taco and save it for later. That man is Bryant Hoban of O'Fallon, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. Know his name.

Back in August, just before potatoes disappeared from Taco Bell's regular menu forever, Hoban purchased three Spicy Potato Soft Tacos, froze them, and then, in mid-September, after fans had a chance to miss the potatoes for a while, offered them for sale on Facebook Marketplace. "Mint condition potato soft tacos from Taco Bell. From drive through to freezer. These babies are rare! Never been eaten!"

Hoban was asking $200 for the set of three, but it turned out buyers were only interested in single tacos. He found two suckers people willing to pay $70 per taco. But now he thinks he'll keep the third. He's grown too attached to part with it.

"Once I got down to the last one I realized that we need to preserve this for future generations to experience this delicious being," he told the Riverfront Times. "So I'm holding onto it right now, and I'm hoping someone comes along and wants to maybe help me with preserving this — conserving the Potato Soft.... I mean, if you had the last panda, you wouldn't sell that on Facebook, right?"

He envisions harvesting the taco's DNA so that the whole thing could be recreated (a la Jurassic Park, the Riverfront Times helpfully explains).

But this is just part of a larger plan. "I've had this idea of 'investment sandwiches' where, like, you'd buy a limited-offer sandwich in bulk, freeze it, and then sell it later for a profit," Hoban explained. "You know, like the McRib — McDonald's only offers it once a year, but the demand doesn't go away."

Will people be willing to pay a premium for out-of-season McRibs? We shall see. But just know that if investment sandwiches become a thing, Bryant Hoban thought of it first.