What is it?
One of two 4th of July themed treats, the limited release Star Spangled Blizzard mixes blue candy with cherry flavored soft serve topped with a signature DQ ball and curl; red, white, and blue DQ Stars; and a Stripes StarKiss frozen treat.
How is it?
The saying beauty is only skin deep applies to ice cream too apparently. The StarKiss bar is a clever marketing gimmick that adds nothing to the taste experience while making it more difficult to actually eat the Blizzard.
Its rapidly melting form forces you to consume it immediately. Ironically not the star of the show, I’ll briefly say that beyond the cherry stripe there is only a nondescript artificial and substandard sweetness.
After extracting the not so bomb pop, the cherry syrup flavored soft serve is buried beneath the vanilla curl where I wish I had left it. While visually striking, the cherry substrate’s flavor is, in a word, bad. In more words, it is as authentic to cherry as Robitussin watered down with corn syrup.
While the plain, but classic, vanilla helps, at no point did the cherry component enhance the Blizzard. Meanwhile, the blue candy provides a fun crunch but no discernable flavor of its own. Probably a good thing if the rest of the Blizzard is any indication.
Is there anything else I need to know?
I was asked what size I wanted despite the website and menu listing mini as the only option. It could have been asked out of habit, but I also paid $3.99 whereas the menu listed $4.29. Still a premium, but clearly there was a discrepancy.
Conclusion:
It’s a bad sign when I find myself wishing upon a StarKiss bar that this Blizzard was only plain vanilla and blue candy. As I learned with fireworks as a kid, some things are better seen than eaten.
Purchased Price: $3.99
Size: Mini
Rating: 3 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: Unavailable on DQ’s website as of July 4, 2018.
Like so many fireworks of the day, it was a dud, but I hope that doesn’t keep them from trying to innovate the blizzard menu just because of one failure. More flavors of soft serve (just soft serve blended with different syrups) plus new toppings could really make the menu interesting. It makes me wish they hadn’t simplified the blizzard menu recently but instead made a build your own blizzard menu.
I agree Eden. I was cautiously optimistic going into this one and was obviously disappointed, but I hope others enjoy it more than I did. I always look forward to unique offerings even if the end result isn’t to my liking.
I actually loved it,but I’m in the middle of a diet,and everything aside from the approved lot is sinful and delicious. Plus starkiss bars are special from my childhood,and I hadn’t had one in over a decade. xD The price made me rage inside though.
I’m with you on the price TB, and I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Dang, that read like someone was just having a bad day and taking it out on DQ.
I thought it was delicious, so did my husband. The cherry flavoring that permeated the entire contents of the cup was a welcome change from their normal vanilla with bits of flavor that maybe make it halfway down. The pop rocks were the bomb, bad pun intended. Didn’t care for the DQ Stars & Stripes StarKiss Frozen Treat only because I’m not a fan of watermelon flavoring in general. But still, overall, a fun treat.