Ordering a sandwich at Subway can be a dizzying experience: Do you want mustard on that? Mayo? Vinegar? Salt and pepper? Lettuce? Do you want a Footlong? Toasted bread?
But it's about to become even more difficult. Because on May 1, the Milford, Connecticut-based sandwich chain will add guacamole to the menu. Subway's suggested pricing for the guacamole is 75 cents for a six-inch sub and $1.50 for a Footlong. It will be available as an add-on to any sandwich, but the chain will debut a new sandwich, the Chipotle Chicken Melt with Guacamole, specially designed to show the Mexican avocado spread in its best light.
The move comes four years after Subway first started offering avocado as an option on sandwiches at stores nationwide. Guacamole will, like avocado, be available only for part of the year -- summer, basically, plus a couple months on either end.
Guacamole and avocados in general have skyrocketed in popularity over the last 15 years. According to New York magazine, Americans' per capita avocado consumption increased more than fivefold in that time, rising from 1.1 pounds per year in 1999 to 5.8 pounds per year in 2014.
But avocado farmers in California, Mexico and Chile, who provide the overwhelming majority of the country's supply, have found it difficult to keep pace with soaring demand while dealing with water scarcity and climate change. Mexican fast-casual chain Chipotle, one of the country's largest sellers of guacamole, has even warned that environmental pressures could someday make avocados impossible to come by in sufficient quantity for them to sell. Subway, of course, could face some similar issues if that day ever comes to pass -- let's hope it doesn't!
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