I’ve always had a bone to pick with Dairy Queen in that it usually gives its Blizzards boring, unimaginative names, and most new flavors look the same with some shade of brown populated by chunks of a similar hue. But after the new Oreo Snowdrift Blizzard, I consider that bone to be sufficiently picked, whatever that means. And even better, this tastes as good—or perhaps even better—than it looks. I do have a smaller bone to pick with DQ, however, and that’s the lack of proofreading that goes into their website, as the included screenshot from January 5 shows the wrong name for this Blizzard when you select the Mini size.

But what really matters is how this thing tastes, and I can tell you it tastes wonderful and unlike any Blizzard I’ve had. I know it’s my job to describe to you what to expect when a spoonful hits your mouth, but this one is tricky. Obviously, it includes Oreo cookies, along with sky-blue cake batter (the same was used in the briefly available Superman Blizzard to promote the movie this past summer) and a marshmallow swirl.

The cake batter is where I’m going to struggle. My taste buds didn’t get anything that had them thinking about batter, and yet they were still quite pleased. My best attempt to explain the flavor is somewhere between a sugar cookie and angel food cake. What makes this spectacular is the marshmallow swirl, which makes this taste how I imagine a sugar cookie-infused angel food cake would taste with marshmallow creme frosting. And then for an added bonus, there’s the beautiful chocolate crunch and a bit more creme from the Oreos. It’s really one of the best of the Blizzards I’ve tasted.

As an extra added bonus, you get to consume what I believe to be two of the best-named ingredients known to humankind. This includes something called “Brilliant blue FCF,” which sounds awesome until I learned it’s derived from petroleum and is “generally considered safe” by the FDA as long as you don’t exceed a certain amount per day. Luckily, I got a small Blizzard.

The other component is called “Superman base” on the DQ website. I was disappointed yet again because this has nothing to do with the Fortress of Solitude, where Superman hides out somewhere in the Arctic. Rather, it’s something that, as far as I can tell, DQ just made up and consists of various sugars, flavors, and dyes, including the aforementioned Brilliant blue FCF. I’m sure it’s all fine.

That minor concern about the ingredients notwithstanding, this one is definitely worth a trip to DQ, even if you do have to drive through a snowdrift or two.

Purchased Price: $4.99
Size: Small
Rating: 10 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 670 calories, 22 grams of fat, 12 grams of saturated fat, 1 gram of trans fat, 50 milligrams of cholesterol, 340 milligrams of sodium, 107 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 82 grams of sugar, and 13 grams of protein.

Just in time for Thanksgiving, Dairy Queen gives us the new Peppermint Bark Blizzard. Sure, December might have been a more logical time to introduce this flavor, but I am glad that DQ only loosely follows the calendar because this is a delicious early Christmas gift.

I can’t give DQ any points for creativity with the straightforward name of this Blizzard, and it has an equally uninspiring look, as the peppermint bark pieces have a lot of white, which helps them hide in the vanilla soft serve. But once they get into your mouth, they deliver a wonderful flavor.

The DQ website says the peppermint bark has “white and milk chocolatey layers sprinkled with peppermint candy cane pieces,” and I truly could taste all three components. The white chocolate was a nice addition, as that’s not a typical Blizzard ingredient, and the candy cane pieces added a pleasant crunch despite being quite small. The milk chocolate was perhaps the least noticeable of the three, but it provides some contrast and a familiar flavor.

I don’t mean this in a bad way, but this Blizzard is kind of like a Liam Neeson movie in that you pretty much know exactly what you are going to get. No, this Blizzard does not have giant plot holes or gratuitous violence, and it won’t threaten you in a deep, guttural voice, but it delivers what is promised. It’s just vanilla ice cream with peppermint bark. There are no surprises, but if you like ice cream, candy canes, and chocolate, well, then you are going to like this. Yes, it’s rather simple, but that’s OK. In fact, this one is more than OK.

This is a splendid Blizzard, and unlike Neeson’s latest flick “Ice Road: Vengeance,” which is somehow both predictable and unbelievable, I highly recommend it.

Purchased Price: $4.49
Size: Mini
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 350 calories, 13 grams of fat, 9 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 30 milligrams of cholesterol, 110 milligrams of sodium, 54 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 47 grams of sugar, and 7 grams of protein.

Have you ever been excited to see a new movie, and as you are leaving the theater, or more likely getting up off your couch, all you can think is, “Well, that was disappointing?” Let me introduce you to the rare Dairy Queen Blizzard that I might turn down if offered it for free. The new Caramel Toffee Cookie Blizzard is a classic case of over-promising and under-delivering.

The DQ website describes this one as having “chewy cookie pieces, buttery toffee and golden caramel,” which is all technically accurate. Then things go off the rails a bit with this sentence, which apparently someone got paid to write: “Picture your favorite autumn moments—the crunch of leaves underfoot, the warmth of a bonfire and family outings filled with laughter—all brought to life in this Dairy Queen Blizzard Treat.”

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a bonfire nearby; otherwise, I might have tossed a mostly full cup into the flames. This one made me rethink my belief that you cannot really have a “bad” Blizzard, because anything with ice cream and various other sweets will at least be palatable.

This one barely clears that bar. For starters, the cookie pieces (which, according to the ingredient list on the DQ website, are blondie cookies) are immense. They certainly are chewy, as promised, but not much else. The flavor of the cookie pieces is nondescript, but their size overpowers the other parts of the Blizzard, and they were so chewy that it distracts from the other parts.

I really wanted to like this Blizzard, and I’m a big fan of toffee. OK, I’m not enough of a fan to have ever purchased a Heath or Skor bar, but I always snatched a few in the process of “checking” my kids’ Halloween candy. And I’ve enjoyed other toffee Blizzard variations. This one just missed the target. The toffee pieces did bring a bit of crunch, but there didn’t seem to be enough of them in my Blizzard, and the caramel flavor was barely there.

Maybe this would be a bit better with more toffee and without the Godzilla-sized cookie pieces, but I can’t imagine it would make a big difference. The overall taste combination of the cookies, toffee, and caramel was inexplicably almost a little bitter. So, this one gets the rare Do Not Recommend classification in my book.

Purchased Price: $4.99
Size: Small
Rating: 5 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 680 calories, 22 grams of fat, 14 grams of saturated fat, 1 gram of trans fat, 60 milligrams of cholesterol, 430 milligrams of sodium, 106 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 81 grams of sugar, and 13 grams of protein.