Tag: Dairy Queen

REVIEW: Dairy Queen Snickers Brownie Blizzard

Karen 2 Comments

Dairy Queen Snickers Brownie Blizzard Top

Dairy Queen’s website says that the Snickers Brownie Blizzard will “transform your taste buds forever.” Maybe it means you’ll be working so hard to determine the flavor that your taste buds will level up from sheer exertion? Maybe I can now be one of those people who can taste “notes of honeysuckle” in a glass of wine because I’ve become a flavor detective? It would be nice to think I got something out of this experience.

I had this twice and had a different reaction the second time. The first time, the brownie bits were missing chocolate flavor, and I was complaining that it was too bland. The second time, the brownie bits seemed much more flavorful. Was my palette fatigued the first time, or maybe I just got a few bigger brownie chunks in my mix the second time? The second event sounds more likely. When I properly tasted them, the brownie bits had a satisfying unctuousness and chocolatey bitterness.

Moving on to the Snickers, I think this would have worked if the candy bar pieces were a little bigger, but as it stands, it’s hard to discern much flavor. I didn’t taste major Snickers components like nougat and peanuts; there was caramel flavor, but it was kind of muted. The caramel did stick to my teeth though, so at least it was definitely present.

Dairy Queen Snickers Brownie Blizzard Spoon

The DQ description states that the Blizzard has “caramel topping,” which in this case means that the topping was mixed into the vanilla soft serve ice cream. This manages to make the soft serve even sweeter than normal, but it doesn’t really register as caramel flavor; it just amps up the vanilla.

Because of the brownie bits’ chewiness and the caramel’s sticky nature, there was textural variation, so the treat has that going for it. It’s just a little underpowered in the flavor department. This is the first Blizzard I can remember having where I felt the vanilla soft serve, bolstered by the caramel bits in the mix, completely overpowered any other flavors.

Look, Dairy Queen has a lot of Blizzards on its menu, and most of them are pretty darn good. Everyone has an off day once in a while, and I have compassion for that. I allow Dairy Queen a swing-and-a-miss, and that’s what we have here. If you want a Blizzard and are tempted to get this, unless you’ve got a real yen for brownie bits, you may want to get an Oreo Blizzard instead. In that treat, the bitterness of the chocolate contrasts with the vanilla soft serve in a truly delightful way, consistently. I’m actually sitting here feeling kind of cheated because I could have got an Oreo Blizzard (twice!) but got this instead. Blizzard Remorse is a sad, sad thing.

Purchased Price: $5.19
Size: Small
Purchased at: Dairy Queen
Rating: 5 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 410 calories, 15 grams of fat, 8 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 200 milligrams of sodium, 60 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 48 grams of sugar, and 9 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Dairy Queen Cinnamon Roll Centers Blizzard

Denis 10 Comments

Dairy Queen Cinnamon Roll Centers Blizzard Cup

What is it?

Dairy Queen’s Cinnamon Roll Centers Blizzard is the Co-September Blizzard of the Month (along with the Pumpkin Pie Blizzard) and also part of the Fall Blizzard Menu. This one has soft cinnamon roll center pieces with brown butter cinnamon topping and DQ soft serve.

Dairy Queen Cinnamon Roll Centers Blizzard Top

How is it?

I’ve never met a Blizzard that I didn’t like…until now. I thought this new flavor might be good after reading the description, but I was wrong. Very wrong.

Dairy Queen Cinnamon Roll Centers Blizzard Center

I think we can all agree that the center is the best part of a cinnamon roll. To me, the center part is wonderful because it’s soft, gooey and decadent. But these pieces had a strange texture and taste. They were a bit gritty, not really soft and didn’t even taste much like a cinnamon roll. They just tasted like semi-sweet pieces of cookie dough.

Dairy Queen Cinnamon Roll Centers Blizzard Spoon

And things did not get any better by avoiding the cinnamon roll pieces and just eating the ice cream with the cinnamon topping. I could tell the topping was in there because of the color, but it had only a faint cinnamon taste. This one was just disappointing all around.

Anything else you need to know?

Since this Blizzard isn’t particularly good to eat, perhaps you’d prefer it as a scented pillow? While the details are somewhat vague, the DQ website is promoting “The Fall Blizzard Menu Pillow Fight,” which is a collection of pillows that are supposed to smell like Blizzards. Most of the pillows appear to the standard square variety, but there’s also one in the form of a slice of pumpkin pie and another in the shape of a cinnamon roll. The website says to check back on September 7 for more information on how to order, or maybe win a set as there looks to be a sweepstakes component to this promotion.

Conclusion:

Dairy Queen Cinnamon Roll Centers Blizzard Digging

I’m guessing I’ve had at least 100 varieties of Blizzards over the years, and this might be the first one that I didn’t not finish. It’s just not good. But I will happily forgive DQ for this dud considering all the delicious Blizzards I have previously enjoyed.

Purchased Price: $4.49
Size: Small
Rating: 5 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (Small) 620 calories, 22 grams of fat, 14 grams of saturated fat, 1 gram of trans fat, 85 milligrams of cholesterol, 270 milligrams of sodium, 93 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of dietary fiber, 75 grams of sugar, and 13 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Dairy Queen Reese’s Take 5 Blizzard

Denis 2 Comments

Dairy Queen Reese s Take 5 Blizzard Top

What is it?

The Reese’s Take 5 Blizzard is the August Blizzard of the Month, and Dairy Queen says it’s the first time ever that its signature treat contains five flavors, even if the math is a little fuzzy, as I’ll explain. This doesn’t contain pulverized Reese’s Take 5 bars but instead mimics the candy with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, caramel topping, peanuts, and pretzel pieces.

How is it?

It’s a touch disappointing if I’m being honest, and I don’t mess around with dishonesty when I’m talking about Blizzards. Before trying this, I was certain it would land at or near the top of my list of all-time favorites, but it comes up a little short.

Dairy Queen Reese s Take 5 Blizzard Spoon

For me, there’s just a bit too much going on, and perhaps that’s why DQ has never put five ingredients in a Blizzard. And I’m not even counting this as five flavors anyway. In an actual Take 5 bar, there are five parts, as the milk chocolate lovingly embraces and surrounds the pretzels, peanuts, peanut butter, and caramel, while this Blizzard uses peanut butter cups. Yes, I know PB cups contain peanut butter and chocolate, but for reasons I can’t articulate fully, I just can’t count that as two things.

As for how this tastes, the peanut butter flavor gets lost in the mix, which doesn’t quite seem right for something branded as Reese’s. The pretzels do give it a nice salty component to offset the sweetness, but again, the pretzel taste is hard to distinguish as the pieces have the same kind of crunch as the peanuts. And stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the caramel flavor is somewhat sparse because it’s fighting for attention against all its Take 5 friends. The four (or five) ingredients still combine for a pleasant taste experience, but instead of being distinctive, it’s almost more generic, like it should just be called a chocolatey peanutty Blizzard.

Dairy Queen Reese s Take 5 Blizzard Dig

Anything else you need to know?

I guess I haven’t followed candy bar branding closely in recent years because I didn’t realize that this bar was simply called TAKE5 until the “Reese’s” name was added in 2019. Also, Hershey’s needs to hire a proofreader for its website because on the same page, it alternates between a space and no space in TAKE 5 (and the DQ website doesn’t use all caps, so I have no idea what the official name really is). Regardless, Hershey’s has said that the peanut butter in the bar has always been Reese’s since it debuted in 2004.

Conclusion:

Even if you ignore the minor mathematical issues with this Blizzard, it doesn’t quite add up to a perfect 10. It’s good — actually very good — but it’s a classic case of more is not always better.

Purchased Price: $4.49
Size: Small
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (Small) 770 calories, 34 grams of fat, 15 grams of saturated fat, 0.5 grams of trans fat, 50 milligrams of cholesterol, 580 milligrams of sodium, 99 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of dietary fiber, 76 grams of sugar, and 21 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Dairy Queen Caramel Drumstick with Peanuts Blizzard

Denis Leave a comment

Dairy Queen Caramel Drumstick with Peanuts Blizzard Cup

What is it?

Dairy Queen’s Caramel Drumstick with Peanuts Blizzard is proof that whoever decides the new Blizzard flavors used a bunch of vacation time recently because this “new” treat isn’t really that new. It’s similar to the Nestle Drumstick Blizzard we reviewed a couple years ago with Drumstick pieces and peanuts, except this version adds caramel (and drops the Nestle name). DQ is also offering a Drumstick Blizzard without caramel.

How is it?

I gave the original Drumstick Blizzard a 9-rating, and the addition of caramel to this version is an improvement, so the laws of math dictate that I must give this a perfect 10!

Dairy Queen Caramel Drumstick with Peanuts Blizzard Top

I’d also like to congratulate the DQ person who greenlit this flavor for getting maximum results with minimal effort, which is something I strive for every day. This might not be how it actually happened, but I can’t help thinking the Chief Executive of Blizzards was on a beach in Tahiti when his or her phone rang. It was DQ headquarters asking what the next new flavor was going to be. Now this person didn’t get into their position without being a quick thinker, so they pretended like all kinds of extensive research and focus group interviews went into this new flavor, even though all they did was add caramel to that Drumstick Blizzard from two years ago. OK, maybe that’s not how it went, but the results are wonderful just the same.

Dairy Queen Caramel Drumstick with Peanuts Blizzard Choco Chunks

The best parts of this Blizzard are the Drumstick pieces, which are waffle cone squares covered in chocolate. The cone pieces remained delightfully crunchy inside their little chocolate blankets and the peanuts, which were pulverized into tiny morsels, added a bit of a different texture and a subtle but welcome saltiness. Then the caramel jumps in and hits you with a rich, creamy sweetness that makes this one of my all-time favorite Blizzards.

Anything else you need to know?

This flavor appears to just be a late addition to the DQ Summer Blizzard Menu rather than officially being named the July Blizzard of the Month (even though it was launched on July 1). So this flavor will probably hang around until at least the end of August.

Conclusion:

Dairy Queen Caramel Drumstick with Peanuts Blizzard Spoon

Even with Blizzards that I really enjoy, I can usually come up with at least a minor gripe or a suggestion to make it just a little bit better. In this case, I really can’t, and I’ll be sad to see this one go, whenever that might be.

Purchased Price: $4.49
Size: Small
Rating: 10 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (Small) 690 calories, 33 grams of fat, 22 grams of saturated fat, 0.5 grams of trans fat, 45 milligrams of cholesterol, 250 milligrams of sodium, 82 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of dietary fiber, 66 grams of sugar, and 16 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Dairy Queen Caramel Fudge Cheesecake Blizzard

Karen 4 Comments

Dairy Queen Caramel Fudge Cheesecake Blizzard Spoon

Cheesecake is a relatively new presence in my life. That may seem strange, but you have to understand: for most of my life, I was firmly on Team Chocolate. If I had the opportunity to get dessert at a restaurant, I got the chocolate cake. If I was getting ice cream, I got chocolate ice cream with hot fudge, and so on. It’s really only over the past year or so that I had the important revelation that that chocolate is not always the best choice in every scenario. Stuck in a diner recently, eating a bone-dry chocolate layer cake, I realized that the moist cheesecake would have been a much better choice.

Granted, my first forays into ordering cheesecake since then invariably took the form of chocolate cheesecake, but that was all part of the process: Baby steps, baby steps.

All that said, I don’t go out for dinner that often, so I don’t have too many opportunities to explore my new interest in tangy dairy delights. Enter Dairy Queen’s Caramel Fudge Cheesecake Blizzard, an opportunity to enjoy cheesecake in a different format without having to break the bank on a trip to The Cheesecake Factory. Unfortunately, this Blizzard doesn’t sate the cheesecake craving as well as I would have liked.

Dairy Queen Caramel Fudge Cheesecake Blizzard Top

First, the ice cream has little chocolate bits in it, giving the Blizzard a cookies-and-cream flavor to start with. I really liked this, and had to keep stopping myself from just inhaling the thing in a few gargantuan bites. Once I slowed down enough to breathe, I realized that the Blizzard had two other components: little fudge squares filled with caramel and tiny cheesecake wedges. The fudge squares were prominent, while the cheesecake pieces were rather rare. DQ definitely could have been more generous here.

Dairy Queen Caramel Fudge Cheesecake Blizzard Fudge

It was satisfying to get one of the fudge squares in my mouth and dissolve the fudge coating to get to that unctuous, slightly salty caramel inside. Unfortunately, the same was not true of the cheesecake: the wedges (or little balls, as they sometimes were) started out bland and finished with a fairly weak cheesecake aftertaste. I don’t know if the flavor was too mild or if it was just hard to discern the cheesecake flavor in the middle of tons of chocolate-packed ice cream, but it wasn’t robust.

Dairy Queen Caramel Fudge Cheesecake Blizzard Cheesecake

However, the real problem was not with any of the mix-ins but with the blend overall. Try as I might, I couldn’t get this Blizzard to feel like a coherent dessert. There was the fudge-and-caramel component, then there were the little blobs of cheesecake, and the two didn’t seem to have anything to do with one another. The flavors just didn’t seem to marry. Maybe it’s too much to expect the ingredients to all sing harmoniously in a Blizzard, which is all about “Let’s take ice cream and dump random things into it!”, but I couldn’t get past it.

I enjoyed the treat, but Dairy Queen just hasn’t fully conquered cheesecake yet, and if I’m going to take time out from my busy chocolate schedule to get something else, that something else had better be stellar.

Purchased Price: $4.89
Size: Small
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 660 calories, 27 grams of fat, 17 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 85 milligrams of cholesterol, 420 milligrams of sodium, 97 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 78 grams of sugar, and 15 grams of protein.

Click here to read our previous Dairy Queen Blizzard reviews.