Costco just teased the return of a food court favorite — and it’s not the churro you’re picturing. On September 16, 2026, Costco hinted on social media that churros are coming back to food courts nationwide, and the announcement has members split. Some are thrilled. Others are pointing out that the churro coming back isn’t the one they grew up with.
What Costco Actually Announced
The tease was light on details: a social post hinting at a limited-time return, with no exact launch date or list of participating warehouses confirmed yet. What is clear is which version is coming back. Costco is bringing back the “twisted” churro — the recipe it switched to in 2021, not the straight, classic-shaped churro that sold for $1.00 for years before that.
To understand why fans are split, you have to go back to what the churro used to be.
The Churro’s Three Different Eras
Costco’s churro has already been through more changes than most people realize. The original, straight-shaped churro sold for $1.00 and stuck around for years as one of the food court’s cheapest items. In 2021, Costco brought it back after a pandemic-era menu cut with a new twisted shape and a higher price of $1.49. That version lasted until early 2024, when it was pulled from the menu entirely — with no standalone churro replacing it.
That’s also the point where things get confusing, because Costco didn’t leave the churro-shaped gap empty for long. In March 2026, the food court introduced the Caramel Churro Sundae for $2.99 — soft-serve ice cream topped with salted caramel sauce and crispy churro bites. It’s a completely different item from a standalone churro, and it’s still on the menu right now, separate from whatever is returning this fall. If you’ve seen the sundae on a recent food court visit, that’s not what this announcement is about.
So the September 2026 tease is specifically about the standalone twisted churro — the 2021 recipe — coming back for a limited time, not the original straight churro and not the sundae.
And the churro isn’t the only place where the numbers get murky. The calorie count is a story of its own.
How Many Calories Are in the Returning Churro?
Here’s the catch: Costco doesn’t publish a standardized nutrition label for every food court item, and the twisted churro is one of the items without an official figure. That’s left third-party nutrition trackers to fill the gap — and they don’t all agree.
The most commonly cited figure, appearing across a Costco food court nutrition guide and several independent tracking sites, puts the twisted churro at 570 calories, with 20 grams of fat, 88 grams of carbs, and 8 grams of protein. But fastfoodnutrition.org lists a different number for the same item — 530 calories, sourced from Costco Food Court but last updated in 2021 — with 21 grams of fat, 78 grams of carbs, and 10 grams of protein. A third source, MyNetDiary, lists the twisted churro at just 410 calories. None of these are official Costco figures, and the size of the gap between them (410 to 570) is a reminder that fast-food and food-court nutrition data from third-party trackers should be read as an estimate, not a guarantee.
Sodium is the number worth pausing on. Depending on which source you use, the churro comes in at 380 to 550 milligrams of sodium. That’s 17% to 24% of the American Heart Association’s recommended daily limit of 2,300 milligrams — a meaningful chunk for a single dessert item, even before you count anything else you eat that day.
What’s Still Unconfirmed
This article is for general informational purposes only and isn’t a substitute for advice from a registered dietitian or healthcare provider.
A lot about this relaunch is still up in the air. Costco hasn’t confirmed an exact start date, whether every warehouse will carry it at the same time, or how long the “limited-time” window will actually last. Until Costco publishes something more specific, the safest approach is to check your local food court menu board before making a special trip.
This isn’t the first time a food court or fast-food dessert has come back with more questions than answers attached. We saw something similar with Taco Bell’s churro ice cream taco, where the exact nutrition numbers weren’t easy to pin down either. It seems to be a pattern with limited-time dessert items in general: the return gets announced first, and the fine print catches up later, if at all.
So here’s where things stand: Costco’s churro is coming back, but it’s the 2021 twisted recipe, not the original, and it’s a separate item from the Caramel Churro Sundae that’s already on the menu. The calorie count depends on which tracker you check, landing somewhere between 410 and 570 calories, with no official number from Costco itself. If you’ve been waiting for the exact churro you remember from a decade ago, this isn’t quite it — but for anyone who liked the 2021 version, it looks like it’s on its way back.
Sources
- The Takeout — This Costco Food Court Favorite Is Coming Back, But Not In The Way Fans Were Wanting
- Costco Guides — Costco Churros: Price, Calories & Which Locations Sell Them
- fastfoodnutrition.org — Costco Food Court Churro Nutrition Facts
- MyNetDiary — Calories in Twisted Churro by Costco Food Court
- American Heart Association — How Much Sodium Should I Eat Per Day?
- Costco Food Court Nutritional Facts Guide (PDF)