Costco's Twisted Churro Is Back — And the Internet Has Feelings About It
There are very few consumer brands in America capable of generating genuine emotional investment over a fried dough stick. Costco is one of them. When the warehouse giant quietly posted a censored teaser video on its official Instagram account this week — the item blurred out, a caption reading simply "We're taking guesses... Available at U.S. food court locations only" — it ignited the kind of online speculation typically reserved for movie trailers and product drops. Reddit threads multiplied. Instagram comment sections went kinetic. And somewhere in the middle of it all, a pastry became a proxy for nostalgia, frustration, and the peculiar emotional bond that millions of Americans have with the Costco food court.
The answer, eventually, was churros. After announcing earlier in the week that a familiar food court item would return for a limited time, Costco revealed that the churro would be coming back to its food court menus soon. But as is so often the case with beloved discontinued items, the devil is in the details — and those details are already dividing the membership base.
A Brief, Complicated History of the Costco Churro
The Original: A 99-Cent Institution
To understand why people care this much, you need to go back to the beginning. Churros were a 99-cent Costco food court staple since the '90s, and for roughly three decades, they were about as close to a perfect impulse purchase as American retail has ever produced. Thin, hot, blanketed in cinnamon sugar, and priced so low they barely registered as a spending decision — they were the reward at the end of the warehouse marathon. Parents used them as bribes for kids. Guys picked one up on the way to the parking lot out of pure habit. They were, as one writer put it, the food court's one uncomplicated pleasure.
The thin, straight Costco churros were a beloved staple of Costco's food courts from the 1990s until 2020, when the item was temporarily removed from the menu. The removal coincided with the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Costco stripped its food court down to a skeleton crew of offerings. Most members accepted this as a temporary wartime measure. They expected the churro — unchanged, unambiguous — to come back when the dust settled.
The 2021 Switcheroo: Enter the Twisted Churro
It did come back, just not as anyone remembered it. Costco brought back the sweet snack in 2021 with a different recipe that swapped out the straight churros for the new twisted ones. The shape wasn't the only thing that changed. These new and improved churros were larger than the earlier versions and were made with a new recipe featuring dough braided with butter and cinnamon. Costco also bumped the price up considerably. Members weren't thrilled about the switch, with some complaining that the newer version was softer and flavorless — and it also cost an extra 50 cents, which only added insult to injury.
The complaint from long-timers wasn't irrational. What made the original churro great was its simplicity: crisp exterior, light chew, and a cinnamon-sugar coating that actually adhered to the surface. The twisted version — softer, doughier by design — read as a downgrade to anyone who grew up on the original. And at nearly 50 percent more expensive, it felt like paying more for less. Many were quite upset about the change, which preceded yet another discontinuation in early 2024.
The 2024 Removal: Replaced by a Cookie
The twisted churro ultimately disappeared from menus in early 2024 and was replaced by the Double Chocolate Chunk Cookie. That cookie, to its credit, has developed its own following — but for churro loyalists, no amount of chocolate chips was going to fill the void. Since then, the only cinnamon-sugar situation in the food court has been the limited-time Caramel Churro Sundae from earlier this year. It was a consolation prize, not a substitute. The full food-court churro experience — warm, handheld, eaten while navigating a parking lot the size of a small airport — remained out of reach.
How the Confirmation Came: Employees, Reddit, and a Supervisor's Girlfriend
Costco's teaser video sent the internet into a predictable frenzy, with members posting their most-wanted candidates. Among the most popular predictions were the churro and the combo pizza. The combo pizza, pulled from menus in 2020, carries its own mythology — the fan-favorite pie featured pepperoni, Italian sausage, red onion, mushrooms, bell peppers, and black olives, all for $9.95 for a whole 18-inch pizza or $1.99 for a slice. Its loss still stings for a particular segment of the membership, and Costco's tease reopened that wound.
The answer didn't come from Costco's marketing department — it came from the workers. While Costco didn't specify the item in their video, several employees revealed that the twisted churro is making a comeback. On Reddit, Reddit user TrippingOnGinger asked his Costco food court supervisor girlfriend, and she stated it would, in fact, be churros. More Costco employees jumped in to add additional confirmation. One employee made it especially clear in a post that went widely shared: "As someone who works in the Costco food court, I can confirm the churro will be back for a limited time. Idk dates though. It's also specifically a 'twisted churro,'" one user said.
That last clarification — "specifically a twisted churro" — is where the celebration began to curdle for a meaningful portion of the fan base.
The Internet Reacts: Enthusiasm, Grief, and Pizza Envy
Mixed Signals Across Social Media
Costco officially bringing Twisted Churros back to the food court generated a reaction online where most people were let down by the news. That's a remarkable sentence to write about the return of a snack that costs less than a dollar fifty, and yet it is entirely accurate. The food court at Costco occupies a unique cultural position — it's one of the few places in American consumer life where a $1.50 item can command the same emotional real estate as a $50 steak.
The discontent on social media was pointed and specific. One user on Instagram wrote, "They're always disappointing when I get em. Feel like they've been sitting for a couple days." On Reddit, a 2023 post that resurfaced in the current discussion put it more bluntly: "These are terrible compared to the pre-Covid version and are 50% more expensive." Another commenter was even more direct: "Nasty, doughy, dry, and overpriced. Bring back the old Churros." These aren't fringe takes. They reflect a genuine and widespread sentiment that the twisted churro is a lesser product — one that carries the brand equity of the original without delivering the same experience.
The Straight Churro Faithful
There's a distinct generational and experiential divide operating here. Costco members who remember the pre-2020 straight churro feel strongly that what's being served up now is a watered-down substitute. Many shoppers who remember the straight churros Costco sold before COVID are unconvinced the twisted version is an upgrade. "We want the NON-TWISTED ONE," pleaded one commenter. Another noted, "They changed the churro and then took it off the menu because they weren't hitting anymore." That's a precise and uncomfortable observation: the argument isn't just that the twisted churro is worse, it's that the market already told Costco it was worse — and Costco apparently didn't fully absorb that signal before deciding to bring it back.
Some members are already taking issue with Costco bringing back the supposedly "inferior" twisted churro instead of the original straight version. But within the churro debate, there's also a pragmatic contingent. For members who came of age during the twisted churro's brief run, or who simply aren't interested in relitigating the straight-versus-twisted debate, the return is unambiguous good news. A warm, cinnamon-sugar pastry at the end of a long shopping trip is still a warm, cinnamon-sugar pastry, regardless of its shape.
The Combo Pizza Contingent
Then there's the second, entirely separate faction: the combo pizza people. These members were not in the market for a dessert announcement. They wanted their pizza back — the full 18-inch combo, loaded with proteins and vegetables, sold by the slice for under two bucks. One commenter on Instagram wrote, "I would rather have the combo pizza" — a comment that received over 300 likes. In a massive Reddit thread, more than two dozen comments supported the combo pizza too, many of which had dozens of upvotes.
The pizza crowd's frustration is layered. Costco's combo pizza disappeared in 2020, ostensibly as a COVID-era simplification of the menu. Costco removed the combo pizza from its menus in 2020. More than five years later, it remains gone. The churro announcement, for this group, was the cruelest kind of bait-and-switch: you raise my hopes with a mystery teaser, and then you give me a pastry when I wanted a pizza. It's the kind of thing that hardens opinions. The two factions — straight churro loyalists and combo pizza holdouts — aren't really fighting the same battle, but they've temporarily united under a banner of "this is not what we asked for."
What Costco Is Actually Doing Here — And Why It Works
The Limited-Time Playbook
Strip away the social media noise, and what Costco is executing here is a textbook limited-time return strategy. Costco is notorious for discontinuing and reintroducing items, regularly bringing back old favorites a few times a year. The mechanics are straightforward: an item gets pulled, a gap opens in the consumer's life, nostalgia builds, and then the item returns with the gravitational pull of something rare. McDonald's McRib operates on the same principle. So do seasonal offerings from virtually every major fast-food and retail chain in the country. Scarcity, manufactured or otherwise, is one of the most reliable levers in consumer marketing.
Costco amplified the effect this time by adding the teaser element — the blurred-out video, the "take your guesses" caption — which turned a routine menu update into a participation event. Costco shared a video on its official Instagram this week teasing the limited-time return of a mystery food court item. Members didn't just learn about the churro's return; they actively speculated, debated, and campaigned for their preferred outcome. By the time the reveal happened, the churro had already generated more organic engagement than most brands achieve with paid campaigns.
The Food Court as a Retention Tool
The Costco food court isn't a profit center in the traditional sense — it's a membership retention mechanism. The legendary hot dog and soda combo, still priced at $1.50, famously costs Costco money to sell. The food court is a feature of the membership experience, not a standalone business, and Costco treats it accordingly. Keeping members engaged with the food court — surprising them, generating buzz, pulling items in and out of rotation — reinforces the sense that a Costco membership is a living, evolving thing rather than a static access pass.
Costco has brought back several popular food items in 2026, including the Greek Pasta Salad with Rotisserie Chicken and Kirkland Signature Chicken Pot Pie, suggesting the food court is operating in a particularly active phase of menu revitalization. The churro return fits that pattern. Whether it's the version members actually wanted is, from a business perspective, somewhat secondary to whether it gets them talking — and clearly, it has.
The Caramel Churro Sundae Connection and What Fans Are Doing With the Return
While Costco released the Kirkland Signature Caramel Churro Sundae earlier this year, this limited return is the first time in years that fans will get to enjoy the treat in a traditional form. That distinction matters more than it might initially seem. A churro-flavored sundae is a derivative product — it borrows the equity of the original without reproducing the tactile experience of holding an actual churro. The food court churro, at its best, is a specific sensory event: hot from the warmer, immediately consumed, the cinnamon sugar still live on the dough. No sundae replicates that.
Among the fans who are genuinely excited about the return, some creative eating suggestions have already emerged. Dipping the churro in the Kirkland Signature Caramel Churro Sundae has been recommended by some fans online, as this would make the creamy dessert even sweeter than it already is. And for those who frequent the rest of the food court menu, dunking the churro in a mocha freeze from the food court is a great choice for those who enjoy Costco's coffee drink. These aren't frivolous suggestions — food court hacks have their own dedicated corner of Costco culture, and the churro's return expands the possibilities considerably.
The Bottom Line: A Complicated Win
While many have been begging for the return of the Costco churros, others are upset that it isn't what they had hoped the grocery giant would deliver — and the twisted churros have already been met with mixed reactions, with many fans writing them off before they've even been added back to the menu. That pre-emptive dismissal says something about the peculiar emotional investment people have in Costco's food court. This isn't rational consumer behavior — it's something closer to fandom, with all the disappointment and passionate debate that entails.
The complaints are real. The twisted churro genuinely divided opinion during its original run, and the members calling for the original straight version are expressing a legitimate preference, not just reflexive nostalgia. At the same time, Costco has confirmed it will be available only at U.S. food court locations, which means the window to try it — and form your own opinion — is finite. For anyone who has been craving a food court churro in any form since early 2024, the limited-time nature of this return is the most important detail of all.
The combo pizza crowd may have to wait a while longer. The straight churro purists may never get the product they're actually asking for. But the twisted churro is coming back — warm, cinnamon-dusted, and carrying more cultural baggage than any $1.50 item has a right to carry. Head to your local warehouse. Get there early. And maybe, just this once, let the shape slide.
