Tag: Dairy Queen

St. Patrick’s Day is almost upon us which means enough mint-flavored products to choke a leprechaun.

Case in point, Dairy Queen’s Mint Oreo Blizzard is the returning flavor of the month for March. Oreo cookies and creme de menthe mint topping are blended with vanilla soft serve.

Mind you, I can find no evidence that mint has anything to do with the Emerald Isle or its icons like St. Patrick Star or Lucky the Leprechaun. Maybe I don’t have the firmest grasp on my Irish ancestry either.

Despite the description, I could not detect even a hint of the “creme de menthe” part of the mint topping. Given that the Mint Oreo Blizzard has been described as “cool mint” in past years, I suspect this is a marketing change only — reinforced by conflicting advertising — but I cannot be certain as I have not tried this previously.

Perhaps the change is due to the mint flavor being decidedly not cool. It’s not so uncool as to be caught hanging out with me playing Magic: The Gathering after chess club in high school. More like, this mint was voted most likely to have a white picket fence and 2.5 kids. It’s a consistently mellow companion that enhances the vanilla base, but it doesn’t ever truly excite the taste buds.

Meanwhile, the Oreo cookie pieces range from tiny bits to reasonably sized chunks that pair as well with the reserved ice cream base as they do with most things…except for Swedish Fish.

Seriously, Nabisco, even Dr. Moreau would have been too squeamish to pull the trigger on that abomination.

Bottom line, this is a regular Oreo Blizzard with a mild mint-flavored base. There’s nothing to complain about here, but it also won’t leave you dancing a jaunty jig either.

Purchased Price: $2.99
Size: Mini
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (Mini) 400 calories, 13 grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 30 milligrams of cholesterol, 230 milligrams of sodium, 61 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of dietary fiber, 47 grams of sugar, and 8 grams of protein.

Strawberries and chocolate are as synonymous with Valentine’s Day as the Patriots are to the Super Bowl. Siding with the 99 percent of the country that does not associate romance with Tom Terrific emblazoned bed sheets, Dairy Queen is taking inspiration from the chocolate-covered fruit for February’s Blizzard of The Month -— Dipped Strawberry with Ghirardelli Blizzard.

An apparent upgrade of the bygone Choco Chunk Strawberry Blizzard, this treat features strawberry topping blended with vanilla soft serve and Ghirardelli chocolate chunks along with a sexier title.  

With a creamy pink pelagic canvas bestrewn with dark chocolate isles and ruby red strawberry reefs, it certainly looks like a dessert from Cupid’s freezer. The vanilla base combined with the strawberry syrup create a flavor closer to the fruit’s Fragaria roots than that of artificial chemical.

As for the advertised Ghirardelli pieces, they come in both dark and white chocolate and are immediately recognizable as the genuine article. The occasional strawberry chunk and bitter chocolate pairing is as good as a Brady to Gronk Iso slant, but unlike their NFL counterparts, the connection is infrequent.

The chocolate pieces are smaller and more numerous which leads to many bites of bitter chocolate that overwhelm the strawberry topping alone. The white chocolate chips on the other hand deserve their own Lombardi, but they are too sparse for my liking. I found only three or four of them in my bowl, but the hint of buttery flavor meshed exceptionally well with the other elements.

Overall, the topping and fruit pieces create a delightful base and the Ghirardelli chocolate pieces are the real deal if a little darker than I would have liked. Quasi-retuning flavor or not, I’m glad DQ opted to give us the holiday-inspired Dipped Strawberries and Ghirardelli Chocolate over something more novel like “Brady’s Deflated Brownie Bash.”

Purchased Price: $2.99
Size: Mini
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (Mini) 350 calories, 15 grams of fat, 10 grams of saturated fat, 0 gram of trans fat, 30 milligrams of cholesterol, 115 milligrams of sodium, 48 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of dietary fiber, 40 grams of sugar, and 8 grams of protein.

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Dairy Queen subscribes to the same belief as me that the only thing better than chocolate candy is even more chocolate candy. In that vein, January’s Blizzard of the Month is the returning Triple Truffle Blizzard which consists of vanilla soft serve blended with chocolate topping mixed with fudge, caramel, and peanut butter truffles.

Caught up in the excitement of this announcement, I celebrated by channeling Chunk with my best Truffle Shuffle. Having never seen The Goonies apparently, my wife was less amused and more poised to call an ambulance, clearly unimpressed and rather disturbed by my spasmatic gyrations.

After consulting with my divorce attorney (what monster has never seen The Goonies?!) I chose to sample each of the candy pieces individually before going in for the ménage à truffle.

As a card-carrying peanut butter-holic, the salty, gritty quality of the peanut butter candy is particularly satisfying and well balanced in its chocolate shell. The caramel truffle is no Sloth though as it provides a sweet, syrupy texture that finishes with a deeper but faint coffee note. The fudge truffle is less potent but lingers more than the other Goonies with a pleasantly fudgy aftertaste.

When multiple pieces converge on one’s spoon, the Triple Truffle becomes, dare I say it, three times as good. The peanut butter and caramel complement each other particularly well while the fudge pieces lend a needed cohesive backdrop. Unfortunately, the chocolate topping they advertise as being included is so faint and has less depth than One-Eyed Willy’s vision.

In the end, the bites with healthy truffle representation are excellent but infrequent, leaving many a naked spoonful of the somnolent base. While a decent romp through the Goon Docks, this adventure doesn’t lead to a long-lost trove of pirate rich stuff.

Purchased Price: $2.99
Size: Mini
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (Mini) 380 calories, 15 grams of fat, 10 grams of saturated fat, 0 gram of trans fat, 30 milligrams of cholesterol, 140 milligrams of sodium, 54 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of dietary fiber 46 grams of sugar, and 8 grams of protein.

Oreo is ostensibly milk’s favorite cookie, but it is an unrequited love. Especially of late, Oreo is swiping right on everything from chocolate bars to Android operating systems. Selfishly, I was happy to hear its latest dairy dalliance is with Dairy Queen as a new treat, the Oreo Hot Cocoa Blizzard. Oreo cookie pieces and cocoa fudge are blended with vanilla soft serve and topped with whipped cream.

With a classic whipped spiral atop a dark brown base, the Hot Cocoa Blizzard certainly dons the appearance of its namesake. Digging in, it definitely presents as a chocolate dessert, but I did not find it to be overwhelmingly so. It’s easy to see why the Oreo cookie chunks never spend a night alone; they add a pleasant crunch and are predictably tasty despite their flavor being a bit masked by the fudge.

Speaking of the headlining “hot cocoa” flavor, it appears to have a bit of stage fright. If I closed my eyes, I could almost convince myself I was detecting a slight cocoa powder like aftertaste, but it is very mild and instead reminds me mostly of cold, hot fudge topping.

A bit of needed creaminess is added by the whipped topping, but there isn’t enough to provide a consistent or remarkable flavor combination on the whole. Perhaps I would have an easier time buying into the hot cocoa moniker if marshmallow bits or a swirl had been included; alas, no marshmallows were harmed in the making of this Blizzard.

I love the idea of an Oreo fling with the oxymoronic hot chocolate flavored ice cream. Unfortunately despite being a respectable chocolate and Oreo Blizzard, I find little in the way of hot cocoa in it beyond the name.

Purchased Price: $3.59
Size: Small
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (Small) 790 calories, 34 grams of fat, 16 grams of saturated fat, 1 gram of trans fat, 50 milligrams of cholesterol, 460 milligrams of sodium, 111 grams of carbohydrates, -1 gram of dietary fiber* 83 grams of sugar, and 15 grams of protein.

*Dairy Queen lists fiber incorrectly as a negative value

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I have an odd relationship with candy canes. They are undeniably a minty herald of the holidays. Still, something about food that sharpens to a point while being eaten makes me uneasy. I can’t help but think that a partially consumed candy cane would be the improvised weapon of choice for elves doing time in Santa’s Secret Gulag.

Fortunately, Dairy Queen has come to my rescue with the returning favorite Candy Cane Chill Blizzard. Vanilla soft serve is mixed with choco chunks and peppermint candy cane pieces, no soap on a licorice rope required.

I had never tried the chocolate chunk version before; my experience had been solely with its sibling, the excellent Oreo Candy Cane Blizzard. This version of the treat greets you with colorful red specs nestled between chocolate chunks that paint a pleasing festive picture.

Chocolate pieces in vanilla ice cream are nothing new to Dairy Queen fans, so it’s left to the candy cane bits to differentiate this offering from the standard fare. They are more than up to the task, imparting a refreshing and enjoyable peppermint taste that is powerful but not overbearing.

The mix-ins are prominent and plentiful with the hard candy providing a pleasant crunch that never fades while the chocolate pieces linger and melt pleasantly in your mouth. I don’t feel overly hyperbolic when I say that this tastes like Christmas.

This is some of Dairy Queen’s best work, both in taste and as a balanced representation of the Christmas season. It is distinctly different but equally as enjoyable as its fraternal Oreo twin. Bribing Santa with a Candy Cane Chill on Christmas Eve may move you off the naughty list, or, at the least, keep you beyond the reach of the striped shanks of North Pole gen pop.

Purchased Price: $3.59
Size: Small
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (Small) 630 calories, 17 grams of fat, 170 milligrams of sodium, 109 grams of carbohydrates, and 11 grams of protein.

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