The Summer Blizzard Menu at Dairy Queen features five choices this year, and the star of the show, at least in my opinion, is the new Dipped Strawberry Cheesecake Blizzard.

Along with the Mixing Bowl Mashup, it’s the only one labeled as new, but I’m just going to label it delicious. Similarly to the Mixing Bowl Mashup, this one doesn’t blow you away with a unique mix of flavors, but the cheesecake pieces, choco chunks, and strawberry topping all do their jobs to create a sweet, satisfying treat.

The DQ website describes this Blizzard as “summer romance in a cup,” and while that’s going a bit overboard, there’s a lot to love about it. Sometimes, one ingredient in a Blizzard will be a bit too strong and end up overpowering the other flavors, especially with some of the chocolate variations, but that’s not the case here. Yes, there is chocolate in the form of choco chunks, but it delivers the perfect level of chocolatiness, which I was surprised to find out is a real word.

The strawberry topping is sweet, and the occasional real chunks of fruit are the best part. The cheesecake pieces were a little mushy, but still pleasantly creamy. To me, this is a somewhat rare Blizzard in that all three components are easy to taste individually and they all blend wonderfully together. Anyone with three children knows there will always be some fighting or one trying to control the others, but this Blizzard is just three happy, sugar-loaded siblings who get along quite well.

This is not all that different than the delicious but often forgotten Royal New York Cheesecake Blizzard, which has graham cracker crust rather than choco chunks, and more strawberry because of the loaded center core. But it does stand out for the way the flavors all work in harmony, and I’m definitely going to get this again before it disappears at the end of summer.

Purchased Price: $4.49
Size: Mini
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 350 calories, 14 grams of fat, 9 grams of saturated fat, 0.5 grams of trans fat, 40 milligrams of cholesterol, 150 milligrams of sodium, 50 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 42 grams of sugar, and 8 grams of protein.

I think we should all chip in and send a calendar and dictionary to Dairy Queen headquarters. Why, you ask? First, it launched this year’s Summer Blizzard Menu on March 31, which is just 11 days into spring and a whopping 81 days before summer.

But whatever, I’m always down for a new Blizzard.

That’s issue number two. The “new” Mixing Bowl Mashup Blizzard that is one of five on the summer menu is perhaps new according to the Taco Bell definition of the word, which is just rehashing the same ingredients, but it hardly tastes new. It’s still good but quite familiar.

Despite the name implying a smorgasbord of ingredients, this Blizzard has just two: brownie batter and chocolate chip cookie dough. I really have no big complaints about it; this one is really chocolatey and the cookie dough has a great chewy texture. Because the brownie batter flavor is so powerful, it almost made my mind think that the cookie dough was instead brownie chunks, and only occasionally could I tell it was indeed the former.

If I walked up to you, handed you this Blizzard, and asked if it was new, I’m guessing most of you would say no. But please don’t accept a free Blizzard from a total stranger, not that I’m in any financial position to just be slinging around treats all willy-nilly. However, if a trusted friend who is better at budgeting their money than me offers you this one, then go ahead. Take it and enjoy it. There’s nothing wrong with it, as long as you are not expecting something you’ll swear you haven’t already had before.

Purchased Price: $4.49
Size: Mini
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 490 calories, 21 grams of fat, 9 grams of saturated fat, 0.5 grams of trans fat, 30 milligrams of cholesterol, 290 milligrams of sodium, 68 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 49 grams of sugar, and 9 grams of protein.