Tag: Dairy Queen

What is the Dairy Queen Heath Caramel Brownie Blizzard?

It’s the new Blizzard treat you spotted after you went back to Dairy Queen for your eleventh Pumpkin Pie Blizzard in the last two weeks. With Heath candy pieces added to a mix of chewy brownie pieces, caramel, and Dairy Queen soft serve, the new treat is trying to be a caramel brownie with a bit of toffee crunch.

How is it?

Surprisingly complex for what seems like a flavor that would have already been tried before. Since Heath pieces tend to be the most overlooked candy mix-ins ever, you never quite know what you’re getting when they’re included. But the hard crunch of the pieces is a good textural contrast to the slightly chewy and chocolatey brownie pieces, which are plentiful enough to give the Blizzard a chocolate flavor that makes the caramel aspect taste both rich and familiar.

While the caramel flavor hangs in the background, the burnt sugar toffee of the Heath gives the Blizzard a new appeal that keeps it from getting boring.

Is there anything else you should know?

The level of your enjoyment for this will likely vary by the quality and quantity in which yours is made. That’s because the vanilla base seems like the wrong choice to host the established chocolate-caramel synergy, which was a letdown in the spoonfuls that didn’t get brownie pieces. And while the Heath pieces give the Blizzard an added element, they don’t define the baseline flavor the way that the brownie pieces do.

Conclusion:

Dairy Queen doesn’t make a bad Blizzard, and this Heath Caramel Brownie one is no exception. But I tend to think the line between very good and mind blown is pretty discernible, and this latest Blizzard doesn’t reach the latter category. It’s a shame Dairy Queen didn’t go all out and double down on the chocolate and caramel.

Purchased Price: $2.99
Size: Mini
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (Mini) 370 calories, 14 grams of fat, 8 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 35 milligrams of cholesterol, 210 milligrams of sodium, 54 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of dietary fiber, 44 grams of sugar, and 8 grams of protein.

What is the Harvest Berry Pie Blizzard?

It’s harvest time in the Dairy Queen kingdom, and the realm’s loyal subjects have rounded up a trifecta of berries – raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries — to mix with pie pieces and vanilla soft serve. It’s not the Blizzard of the Month for September though, as the retread Pumpkin Pie Blizzard gets that title, even though that version seems better suited for October or November.

How is it?

Berry good. I mean very good. Of course, my Blizzard looked nothing like the promotional photo with plump berries happily swimming with their pie piece friends in an ice cream vortex. I could only find one near-intact berry on top, but there were plenty of berry pieces throughout and the crunch of the pie pieces added a nice texture to the softness of the fruit.

It would be interesting to see how this Blizzard tastes with just one or two types of berries mixed in because the combination of all three creates an indistinct, somewhat tart berry flavor. What flavor is it? Is purple berry a flavor? It’s not a bad flavor. It’s just nothing special. Even when I got a decent size chunk of fruit in a bite, it was hard to tell which one it was with the other two berries also fighting for the attention of my taste buds.

Is there anything else you need to know?

You might think that with three types of fruit this Blizzard would be healthier than other DQ concoctions. Well, you’d be wrong. I guess it doesn’t matter what you mix in with soft serve and pie pieces because the result is going to be a high-calorie and high-carb sugar bomb. Even though this looks more like a smoothie than a Blizzard, nutritionally speaking it’s about the same as the ones loaded up with chocolate and candy. And most smoothies are not that healthy either. If you’ve ever looked at the nutritional info, they are also packed with sugar and carbs, which is precisely why they taste so good.

And as the photos attest, my local DQ apparently has no mini Blizzard cups, nor did they last time I visited. The coffee cup certainly did the job to insulate my treat and keep it from melting, but it’s still a bit off-putting to see a picture of steaming coffee as I wolf down a Blizzard.

Conclusion:

You can safely order this Blizzard without fear of having your mind blown, socks knocked off, world being rocked or other cliché of your choice, but the Harvest Berry Pie Blizzard is a nice change of pace if you are looking for something without chocolate and candy that will give you or your loved ones the false impression that you are trying to eat something healthy.

Purchased Price: $2.99
Size: Mini
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (Mini) 380 calories, 16 grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 25 milligrams of cholesterol, 190 milligrams of sodium, 52 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of dietary fiber, 39 grams of sugar, and 7 grams of protein.

What is the Snickers Peanut Butter Pie Blizzard?

It’s Dairy Queen’s co-Blizzard of the Month for August with its less fancy cousin Snickers Blizzard, which is a returning flavor. In addition to the titular candy, the Snickers Peanut Butter Pie Blizzard includes peanut butter and graham blended with vanilla soft serve.

How is it?

Straightforwardly solid. There’s not a whole lot of surprise in this Blizzard. If you like Snickers and peanut butter, then you are going to love this. As one who falls into that category, I figured this would be pretty good, and it was. The graham adds a nice layer of flavor, and all three elements blend together without any of them overpowering each other.

With the peanuts in the Snickers and peanut butter, I thought there might be a little peanut overload, but I didn’t find that to be the case. This Blizzard is the opposite of Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates — you pretty much know what you are going to get…a pretty tasty treat. Nothing more, nothing less.

Is there anything else you need to know?

You are supposed to learn something new every day. I don’t know who made up that rule, and I’ve lived my life choosing to mostly ignore that advice. My brain can only hold so much information. But during this review, I learned Dairy Queen has coffee, or at least I’m pretty sure they do since my Blizzard was served in a generic coffee cup, presumably because my local DQ ran out of mini Blizzard cups.

OK, the fact that DQ serves hot brown caffeinated water is not an earth-shaking revelation, and perhaps you already knew that. But not being a coffee drinker, I had no idea. I also learned that using an actual Snickers bar as a spoon is a great idea, despite the weird looks I got. So I learned two things today, freeing up my schedule to learn absolutely nothing tomorrow.

Conclusion:

With so many Blizzard combinations over the years, it’s hard for any mixture to rise above the rest without throwing in a truly unique ingredient or flavor. Of course, neither Snickers nor peanut butter qualifies as such. But even so, this is a good addition to the Blizzard lineup and a tasty, if unspectacular, way to wind down summer.

Purchased Price: $2.99
Size: Mini
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (Mini) 450 calories, 21 grams of fat, 8 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 30 milligrams of cholesterol, 230 milligrams of sodium, 57 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of dietary fiber, 45 grams of sugar, and 9 grams of protein.

When I saunter into my local Dairy Queen and order a Blizzard, I do so because it tastes good and is the most efficient way to significantly exceed my recommended daily allowance of sugar and saturated fat. I don’t buy one because it’s pretty and will get me likes on Instagram. With many Blizzards featuring varying shades of brown with a mix of chunks, they don’t really match up with some of those made-for-social-media drinks at the place that sells overpriced coffee.

But the new Zero Gravity Blizzard — here for a limited time to celebrate the upcoming 50th anniversary of the July 20, 1969, moon landing — is a bit different.

For one thing, the name doesn’t even hint at its contents, unlike most Blizzard variations that pretty much give away the composition if you just ignore the superfluous superlatives, like outrageous or ultimate. This version offers Oreo cookie pieces mixed with cotton candy topping and vanilla soft serve, plus “space inspired iridescent blue and black swirls and galaxy sprinkles.” Even that description leaves some mystery, like what the heck is that whole last part? Well, it’s basically a lot of words and not a lot of taste.

I do have to give DQ credit for trying to up their game with this Blizzard and making an Instagram-worthy treat without going full Starbucks on us and using dragon fruit, passion fruit, or some other fruit that I’m not 100-percent certain really exists but don’t care enough to check.

Even so, this one is a bit of a letdown, starting with the name. In fact, Zero Gravity would be a good name for virtually any Blizzard variety except this one. We all know the standard presentation method for a Blizzard is a quick upside-down flip by the server, possibly followed by a smile and/or thank you (but those are optional). With the Zero Gravity, however, the DQ employee sheepishly explained that she was not going to turn it upside-down because “a lot of it would probably fall out.”

Huh? Does this even qualify as a Blizzard?

She hurried off before I had a chance to question this shocking revelation or inquire whether said Blizzard would be free because I vaguely remember that being the deal between the Queen of cow juice and her loyal subjects—that a Blizzard presented without the wrist-flip would be free.

So what did I do? Not wanting to fully test the power of gravity, I gave my “Zero Gravity” Blizzard a very slight and quick tilt. Gravity did indeed respond at a level well above zero and promptly sent some of my Blizzard on to the table of questionable cleanliness, as the photo attests.

So what I had was an inaccurately named yet pretty spiffy-looking Blizzard. Now here’s the second letdown…it doesn’t taste that great. Sure, the mix of soft serve and Oreo is good, but the cotton candy flavor is very faint and hard to distinguish. The mysterious blue and black swirls have virtually no taste, and neither do the sprinkles; all that added was some shimmer and sparkle. Essentially what you have is a very colorful Oreo blizzard, which after you get past the top layer is considerably less colorful.

The Zero Gravity Blizzard is like one of those checks you get in the mail for some class action lawsuit about defective jelly beans in which you had no idea you were involved. You can tell from the envelope that it’s a check and perhaps get a little excited, until you open it and see that it’s for $1.21. An unexpected check like that is not bad, but it’s a bit disappointing and not what you had hoped for. Just like the Zero Gravity Blizzard.

Purchased Price: $4.29
Size: Small
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts:: (Small) 670 calories, 26 grams of fat, 14 grams of saturated fat, 0.5 gram of trans fat, 45 milligrams of cholesterol, 300 milligrams of sodium, 98 grams of carbohydrates, -1 grams of dietary fiber*, 80 grams of sugar, and 13 grams of protein.

*It would seem to defy the laws of mathematics to have -1 grams of fiber, but that’s what it says on the DQ website and the Internet never lies.