Author: Denis

REVIEW: Dairy Queen Pecan Pie Blizzard

Denis 5 Comments

Dairy Queen Pecan Pie Blizzard Cup

What is the Dairy Queen Pecan Pie Blizzard?

It’s Thanksgiving in a cup! Actually, it’s the September Blizzard of the Month (sharing the stage with the return of the Pumpkin Pie Blizzard) and part of the fall Blizzard menu, which presumably means it will be available beyond September since most of the month is technically summer. Calendar confusion aside, this is a new offering from Dairy Queen and includes gooey brown sugar pie pieces, crunchy pecans (is there such a thing as non-crunchy pecans?), creamy caramel topping, and vanilla soft serve with whipped topping.

How is it?

Dairy Queen Pecan Pie Blizzard Pie Piece

Remember in grade school when someone would say, “If you love it so much, why don’t you marry it?” The “it” in question could be anything, from a pudding cup to an embarrassed classmate. In this case, let’s say it is the gooey brown sugar pie pieces. Yes, I would marry them, all of them. Just don’t tell my wife. Seriously though, the little square pie pieces in here alone are worth the price of this Blizzard, both monetarily and physically for the higher-than-usual calorie count of this concoction compared to most other varieties.

I had never heard of brown sugar pie prior to this, and now it’s one of my new favorite things. The ingredients are basically flour, eggs, sugar, molasses, caramel, and sugar, which is probably what a kid in grade school would use if you asked one to make a pie, and maybe that’s why it’s so good. The pieces are really more chewy than gooey with a wonderfully satisfying sweet taste and texture, just like pecan pie filling.

Dairy Queen Pecan Pie Blizzard Spoon

Now that I’m done deifying the brown sugar pie pieces, the rest of this is pretty good too. The caramel topping does a great job of adding flavor to the soft serve, and the pecans are just fine. Mine had a few big ones on top for show and a lesser amount mixed into the Blizzard. The pecan flavor was there, but perhaps pushed aside a bit by the pie pieces and caramel. It would have been nice to have a few more pecans in there, but overall it’s hard for me to find much fault with this Blizzard.

Anything else you need to know?

Even if you are not a fan of pecans, I would encourage you to give this a shot, and why wouldn’t you follow the advice of some random guy on the internet? Even if you can’t stand pecans, maybe try getting this without them. It will be worth the strange look you get for ordering a Pecan Pie Blizzard with no pecans.

Conclusion:

Dairy Queen Pecan Pie Blizzard Full

Anything with the words pie and Blizzard in it is likely going to be good, but this was a surprisingly special treat. I hope this one sticks around for a while.

Purchased Price: $4.29
Size: Small
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (Small) 750 calories, 35 grams of fat, 17 grams of saturated fat, 1 gram of trans fat, 65 milligrams of cholesterol, 350 milligrams of sodium, 97 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of dietary fiber, 76 grams of sugar, and 15 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Blue Bell Coconut Cream Pie Ice Cream

Denis 14 Comments

Blue Bell Coconut Cream Pie Ice Cream Container

What is Blue Bell Coconut Cream Pie Ice Cream?

It’s a whole lotta coconut with coconut flavored French ice cream with coconut flakes and pie crust pieces and whipped topping with toasted coconut.

How is it?

As one reader astutely pointed out in the comments in the prior “Spotted” posting for this ice cream, coconuts are among the most polarizing of all foods, right up there with black licorice and pineapple on pizza. There’s just not much middle ground for most people, including my wife and me. She loves coconuts, and I think they look ugly and taste nasty. But somehow we make our relationship work, despite widely divergent views on the subject.

Blue Bell Coconut Cream Pie Ice Cream Top

Since it would be hard for me to objectively review this ice cream, I gave her the chance to experience the prestige, power, and considerable wealth that comes with being a reviewer for The Impulsive Buy!

So what did she think of it?

Well, she loved it, and surprisingly, I sort of liked it too. I didn’t like it enough to ever eat it again due to my dislike of all things coconut, but if Blue Bell ever does any different cream pie flavor in the future, then I’ll be all over it.

Blue Bell Coconut Cream Pie Ice Cream Crust

The ice cream is wonderfully smooth and creamy with a very subtle coconut flavor. At first, my wife and I both thought our tub didn’t have any pie crust pieces, but after a few bites, we did indeed find some of the elusive gems. The crust pieces are virtually the same color as the ice cream, but they are worth the search as they have a great crumbly texture and buttery flavor. There are coconut flakes in the ice cream, which are also hard to see, but they don’t have much of an impact on the taste because they are so small.

Blue Bell Coconut Cream Pie Ice Cream Swirl

As for the whipped topping, it has a bit of a Cool Whip vibe to it. The toasted coconut is what really delivers the signature coconut flavor here, and although that didn’t do much for me, it sent my wife into ice cream bliss. She just gave it one thumb up instead of two, but that’s only because she was using the other hand to eat a bit more.

Anything else you need to know?

Coconuts are really bad for you! OK, let me rephrase that because I don’t want to feel the wrath of the coconut industry. They are not bad for you, and they are an amazingly versatile fruit (not a nut) that can be eaten and used in many ways, including oil, water, milk, and over-priced carved souvenirs for tourists. But according to the USDA, if you eat an entire medium coconut (I assume minus the shell), you will consume 118 grams of saturated fat. How much is that, you ask? Well, that’s 590% of your recommended daily value, which seems like a lot. So don’t eat a whole coconut.

Conclusion:

Blue Bell Coconut Cream Pie Ice Cream Dig

Kudos to Blue Bell for making a coconut ice cream that someone who has strong anti-coconut feelings can almost enjoy. If you do like the flavor of coconuts, you are wrong, but this is an ice cream you really should try.

Purchased Price: $5.97
Size: 1/2 gallon
Purchased at: H-E-B
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 260 calories, 14 grams of fat, 10 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 45 milligrams of cholesterol, 70 milligrams of sodium, 31 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of dietary fiber, 21 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Dairy Queen Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Blizzard

Denis 7 Comments

Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Blizzard Top

What is the Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Blizzard?

It’s the July Blizzard of the Month made with soft-baked Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookies and mini chocolate chip morsels mixed with Dairy Queen vanilla soft serve.

How is it?

Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Blizzard Nondescript Cup

Despite the nondescript appearance, complete with the nondescript cup it was served in, this is a top-notch Blizzard. DQ has done numerous varieties of cookie dough Blizzards in the past, and I’ve never really loved any of them. The cookie dough always seems a little gritty because it’s not really cookie dough; it’s “edible” cookie dough. What’s the difference? Regular cookie dough, as in the kind you would use to make cookies, has raw eggs and uncooked flour in it. That makes it unsafe to eat, even though we have all done it. I’m not suggesting that you should eat raw cookie dough, but I think we can agree that it does taste better.

Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Blizzard Cookie Bits

The soft-baked cookies in this Blizzard come pretty close to tasting like raw cookie dough, and they have a really nice non-gritty texture and taste much better than the cookie dough in other Blizzards.

Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Blizzard Chips

As for the mini chocolate chip morsels, DQ is not messing around when it says mini morsels. They are tiny, and even though they deliver some chocolate flavor, it would have been nice to have some bigger chip pieces.

This Blizzard is also really sweet — not too sweet, but close. The sugar content doesn’t appear to be higher than the average Blizzard, and the ingredients list on the DQ website has a lot of words I don’t know, so I can’t really explain the extra sweetness. But those are minor issues, and I enjoyed this one quite a bit.

Anything else you need to know?

You can still visit the spot where the famous Toll House cookies were invented in the 1930s by Ruth Wakefield at the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts, except that there’s now a Wendy’s and a Walgreens there. You can, however, check out the restored sign and a marker, but don’t get too carried away with the historical significance as the 1709 date on the sign was a marketing ploy, as was the name. The Toll House Inn was built in 1817, and it was never actually used as a toll house. Thanks for ruining it for us, Wikipedia.

Conclusion:

This is not quite good enough to make my personal Blizzard Hall of Fame, which is topped by the late, great Nerds Blizzard, but it’s still delicious, so maybe I can put it in my Blizzard Corridor of Fame.

Purchased Price: $4.29
Size: Small
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (Small) 550 calories, 19 grams of fat, 12 grams of saturated fat, 0.5 gram of trans fat, 65 milligrams of cholesterol, 310 milligrams of sodium, 83 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of dietary fiber, 65 grams of sugar, and 13 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Blue Bell Chocolate Sheet Cake Ice Cream

Denis 15 Comments

Blue Bell Chocolate Sheet Cake Ice Cream Pint

What is Blue Bell Chocolate Sheet Cake Ice Cream?

Blue Bell’s newest flavor features milk chocolate ice cream with chocolate sheet cake pieces, chopped pecans, and chocolate icing swirl.

How is it?

As one might expect from an ice cream with the word “chocolate” appearing three times in the description, this is pretty chocolatey but not to the extreme or to its detriment. I thought this might be a choco overload situation, however, the different types and textures of chocolate really work well together.

Blue Bell Chocolate Sheet Cake Ice Cream Top

The ice cream base is smooth and creamy, and the chocolate swirl actually did taste more like a fudgy icing than the generic chocolate swirl in many ice creams. As for the cake pieces, they were denser and richer than I was expecting, almost like a brownie, so it was an excellent complement to the ice cream.

Blue Bell Chocolate Sheet Cake Ice Cream Spoon

The only thing that did not bring much to the table was the pecans. The pieces were quite small and not very plentiful, so you might be a little disappointed if you are a pecan lover. Overall, this flavor was quite delightful, and that’s coming from someone who is not a chocoholic.

Anything else you need to know?

Blue Bell claims this is “inspired by a favorite Texas dessert.” That befuddled me a bit, as I happen to live in Texas and have never heard of the Lone Star State taking credit for the sheet cake.

It turns out that it is not just marketing spin and that a chocolate cake with pecans in sheet form is sometimes called a Texas sheet cake. But I doubt anyone in Wisconsin, or in Texas for that matter, walks into their local Walmart and asks for a Texas sheet cake.

Although I live in Texas, I was not born here, and I do not own a Don’t Mess with Texas T-shirt or belt buckle, so whether or not Texas gets credit for a dessert matters little to me. That’s probably why I gave up on my research after a few minutes upon discovering there seems to be disagreement on both how the “Texas” and “sheet” parts of the name came into being. So the mystery will endure.

Blue Bell Chocolate Sheet Cake Ice Cream Scoop

Conclusion:

Blue Bell is not breaking new ground here by mixing chocolate ice cream with cake, pecans, and some swirl, but if you are in the mood for a good chocolate treat with a bit of depth to it, then this should hit the spot.

Purchased Price: $2.69
Size: 1 pint
Purchased at: H-E-B
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 260 calories, 14 grams of fat, 6 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 30 milligrams of cholesterol, 115 milligrams of sodium, 29 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of dietary fiber, 26 grams of sugar, and 5 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Dairy Queen Brownie Batter Blizzard

Denis 2 Comments

Dairy Queen Brownie Batter Blizzard Cup

What is the Brownie Batter Blizzard?

This is one of the six flavors in the “New! Summer Blizzard Menu” from Dairy Queen. Only this flavor is not new (it has been released several times over the years), and only the recently reviewed Girl Scout Thin Mints Blizzard is truly new. But enough with semantics, let’s move on to discuss the BBB (Brownie Batter Blizzard), which contains brownies in both batter and piece form.

How is it?

Remember in school when you had to determine the average, median, and mode? This Blizzard is all of those blended into one. There’s nothing wrong with it, but the batter flavor doesn’t really come through with any distinction.

Dairy Queen Brownie Batter Blizzard Spoon

If I really try, I can pick out subtle flavor hints that remind me of brownie batter, but it mostly tastes like chocolate syrup or fudge flavoring. The brownie chunks are fine, but you could have convinced me they were chocolate cookie dough instead of brownie. I did enjoy the chewy texture of the pieces.

Dairy Queen Brownie Batter Blizzard Brownie

Anything else you need to know?

Even though this Blizzard is nothing special, it got me thinking…is there such a thing as a “bad” Blizzard? I’ve never had one, but if you mix ice cream with any type of candy, cookies, brownies, nuts, etc., then it’s going to at least be palatable. So I am hereby challenging DQ to raise their game and dive into the gross-out food trend we’ve seen with jelly beans, sodas, and the like. How about a ketchup and mustard Blizzard? Or pickles and onions? Just think of all the social media action you would get off those, DQ.

Conclusion:

Dairy Queen Brownie Batter Blizzard Top

If your bucket list includes trying every DQ Blizzard ever released, then I guess go ahead and give this one a whirl. But if not, then you are not missing out on much by picking another Blizzard variety.

Purchased Price: $4.79
Size: Medium
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (Medium) 770 calories, 34 grams of fat, 13 grams of saturated fat, 1 gram of trans fat, 50 milligrams of cholesterol, 450 milligrams of sodium, 105 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of dietary fiber, 79 grams of sugar, and 15 grams of protein.