Tag: Dairy Queen

What is the Dairy Queen Caramel Apple Pie Blizzard

It’s one of the stars of the Dairy Queen Fall Blizzard Menu. It contains apple topping, pie pieces (or more accurately, pie crust pieces as I’ll explain below) and caramel coated truffles with vanilla soft serve and the obligatory garnish for all pies, whipped topping.

How is it?

Let me ramble a bit before I answer that question. I had high expectations for this Blizzard because I love me some apple pie. I’m not talking about grandma’s secret recipe pie with the steam rising from the top as it emerges from the oven. Yes, I’m sure your Gammy’s pie is delicious, but for some reason I’ve always been partial to the industrial strength versions.

The main reason I went to middle school every day (OK, most days, unless I could successfully fake a stomachache) was to get one of those tasty, sugar-loaded Hostess apple pies at lunch. And even now, I still tear up a little thinking about the long-extinct fried apple pie at McDonald’s, despite the real risk of permanent mouth injury caused by its hot-as-lava filling. This Blizzard reminds me of that Hostess/McDonald’s pie taste, without the latter’s third-degree burns. And the addition of the truffles make this something special.

There’s so much going on with this Blizzard, but everything blends together beautifully. This certainly isn’t the best-looking Blizzard ever, and even when you take away the whipped topping, it’s ordinary looking. But as I learned in middle school when I wasn’t eating Hostess pies, don’t judge a book, or a Blizzard, by its cover.

Because I am dedicated to my craft, I took the time to extract the three different pieces for you to examine (crust, apple, truffle from left to right). If it disgusts you to know that I had to suck and lick the soft serve off each piece, then just don’t read this sentence. I even dissected the truffle so you can see its guts spill out.

The crust pieces maintain their crispness even while encased in soft serve, the apple chunks deliver a subtle but satisfying fruit flavor, and the caramel coated truffles are very indulgent with their ooey-gooey center. It seems like most new Blizzards either feature chocolate or some sort of berry as the main component, so this one also stands out for being unique.

Anything else you need to know?

One of the other Blizzards on the fall menu, the Pumpkin Pie Blizzard, has “real” pumpkin pie pieces. But this one is worded a bit differently on the DQ website, which proclaims that it contains “apple topping” and “pie pieces.”

After perusing the list of ingredients and skipping over many, many words that I can neither pronounce nor define, I confirmed that the pie pieces here are indeed just pie crust pieces. That, of course, raises the question of whether a pie crust on its own is a pie, but I’ll let those more scholarly than I debate such topics. So to answer the question at hand — no, you didn’t need to know any of that.

Conclusion:

The only thing that kept me from giving this Blizzard a perfect score is that the apple pieces are a bit small and rubbery, like they were harvested from a fruit cake. And if you take a bite that doesn’t contain a chunk of apple, there’s really no fruit flavor in the soft serve, so it might have been nice to get some kind of apple flavoring or sauce in there. But those are just minor grouses; overall, this is an exceptional Blizzard, and I’m happy it will be around all fall.

Purchased Price: $4.39
Size: Medium
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (Medium) 930 calories, 37 grams of fat, 26 grams of saturated fat, 1 gram of trans fat, 65 milligrams of cholesterol, 420 milligrams of sodium, 133 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of dietary fiber, 103 grams of sugar, and 16 grams of protein.

What is the Nestle Drumstick Blizzard?

It’s the ultimate timesaver! Have you ever wanted to enjoy a Nestle Drumstick and a Dairy Queen Blizzard but simply could not find the time for both in your busy schedule? Your problem is solved with the Nestle Drumstick Blizzard. Crowned as the Blizzard of the Month for July, it contains chocolate-covered Drumstick pieces, peanuts, and, of course, vanilla soft serve.

How is it?

We all know that the best part of a Drumstick is the butt piece. Sure, that doesn’t sound very appetizing, but you know what I’m talking about — that last bite at the bottom of the cone filled with solid chocolate. For me, that’s really the only reason to eat one because the ice cream part is not great, and it’s not even ice cream but rather “vanilla frozen dairy dessert.”

The “Drumstick pieces” are chocolate-coated sugar cone, just like the butt chunk! I did manage to rescue a couple of them intact from my Blizzard for your viewing pleasure.

Technically they are Drumstick pieces, but DQ isn’t smashing up full cones here. Instead, it is using small square pieces. I’m sorry to say that the rescue of the two pictured above was short-lived, and I’m not sorry to say they were quite delicious on their own.

The peanuts didn’t add much to the taste, and their texture is similar enough to the cone pieces that they kind of get lost in the mix. They don’t detract from the overall taste, but don’t expect a strong peanut flavor.

Anything else you need to know?

Apparently, the Drumstick Blizzard was available at Dairy Queens in Canada for a time in 2015, but if you want to know why it took five years to make it to the United States, I have no answer for you.

Also, the Drumstick was invented in 1928 by one of the Parker Brothers — not the Parker Brothers responsible for Monopoly and a bunch of other board games, though. The two sets of Parkers were both around about the same time (Monopoly came out in 1935), so I wonder if they knew of each other and had some sort of rivalry. It seems, however, I’m the only one to wonder that because the internet has nothing to offer on the topic.

Conclusion:

This Blizzard tastes exactly how you’d expect if you chopped off a bunch of Drumstick end pieces and blended them with peanuts and DQ soft serve. In other words, it’s awesome.

Purchased Price: $4.09
Size: Medium
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (Medium) 1,030 calories, 53 grams of fat, 37 grams of saturated fat, 1 gram of trans fat, 60 milligrams of cholesterol, 350 milligrams of sodium, 116 grams of carbohydrates, 4 grams of dietary fiber, 93 grams of sugar, and 22 grams of protein.

What is the Dairy Queen Oreo Cheesecake Blizzard?

For those keeping track of such things, the Oreo Cheesecake Blizzard is technically the Blizzard of the Month for June, even though it was already part of the previously announced Summer Blizzard Menu, which launched on April 1, just 12 days after the start of spring.

DQ is marketing this one as “new,” although there are a few mentions online of it being available back in 2014. But getting back to the original question, even though I trust you could figure it out on your own, the Oreo Cheesecake Blizzard has Oreo cookie chunks and cheesecake pieces.

How is it?

Regardless of whether this Blizzard is truly new or not, it is truly good. It doesn’t have a fancy name, a superhero tie-in, or any unique ingredients like some of its Summer Blizzard Menu friends, but sometimes simpler is better.

Oreo cookies have been a staple of Blizzards since the frozen treat debuted in 1985 (although DQ apparently had a thick milkshake in the 1960s, also called a Blizzard) and cheesecake pieces have been a common component in recent years. So I can’t give DQ much credit for creativity here, but I’ll take great-tasting over great creativity any day.

I’m going to take a leap of faith and assume you all know what an Oreo taste like. If you like them and you like Blizzards, then the only issue here is what the cheesecake pieces bring to the party. Well, they are bringing a keg (and not Natural Light), a bunch of pizzas, and a high-end sound system because they are awesome and know how to party.

The chunks are sizable and plentiful, and their texture is a perfect contrast with the crunch of the Oreo. I almost named my dog Cheesecake, so you can be confident that I am fully qualified to judge the quality of cheesecake. And I really want to know where DQ gets its cheesecake pieces because they are perfectly sweet and creamy. The vanilla soft serve takes on a chocolate flavor from the pulverized pieces of Oreo, and it blends beautifully with the cheesecake. This is how the Queen of Dairy would want a Blizzard to be.

Anything else you need to know?

Kudos go out to my Door Dasher, who challenged the already outrageous pre-summer Texas heat and prevailed to deliver my Blizzard still fully frozen. He even gave it that trademark DQ upside down-flip as he left it at my doorstep. Fun fact: Kudos granola bars were introduced in 1986, one year after the Blizzard. Not so fun fact: Kudos are no longer being made, and I really want one, especially the kind with chocolate and M&M’s that was more candy bar than granola bar.

Conclusion:

This Blizzard is not royal or outrageous and doesn’t involve any kind of “quake” like some prior cheesecake versions, but it tastes great and has earned a spot as one of my favorites.

Purchased Price: $3.99
Size: Medium
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (Medium) 1,220 calories, 58 grams of fat, 24 grams of saturated fat, 1.5 grams of trans fat, 95 milligrams of cholesterol, 740 milligrams of sodium, 159 grams of carbohydrates, 5 grams of dietary fiber, 115 grams of sugar, and 20 grams of protein.