REVIEW: Dairy Queen Mixing Bowl Mashup Blizzard

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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.

REVIEW: Dairy Queen Dipped Strawberry Cheesecake Blizzard

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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.

REVIEW: Reese’s PB&J Big Cups

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I’m a big fan of the current Renaissance Reese’s is having these days. It feels like we’ve had more peanut butter cup innovation over the last 12 months than the previous 12 YEARS, and I, for one, am there for it. I have to admit, I’ve had mixed feelings about some of the newer creations, but on the whole, I am just happy for all the new treats.

In addition to some heavy hitters that dropped recently, like the Caramel Big Cup and Red Velvet, we now have PB&J with strawberry and grape flavors! Honestly, the only real surprise is how long it took Reese’s to come out with such a classic peanut butter pairing, especially as we’ve had things like cereal, sugar cookies, and pretzels featured in peanut butter cups. But the wait is over! It’s peanut butter jelly time sans baseball bat.

Let’s start with the grape, if only because it comes first alphabetically.

After opening the package, there is a whiff of chemically grape and then the familiar peanut butter and chocolate combo. That fruity scent almost brings to mind the grape flavor of Big League Chew. I cut the first cup in half to get a view of the inside and was disappointed at the ratio of peanut butter to jelly inside. If this were a sandwich, it would absolutely not pass muster. This is disappointing for two reasons: 1) It throws off the flavor balance in the candy. 2) I KNOW Reese’s can and has done better! The ratio in the recent Chocolate Lava Cup and the aforementioned Caramel Cup was much better.

The chocolate and peanut butter you know and love are the same as you’d expect, with the artificial grape flavor playing a distant third. It tastes very fake when my tongue could pick it up. I even pulled apart the cup to get a better taste, and it was hard to get much flavor, even with a finger swipe of just the sticky purple goop itself. What is there is very reminiscent of grape Kool-aid with a bit too much water mixed with it.

Now, onto the strawberry.

The initial scent upon opening these is oddly both stronger *and* weaker. Stronger in that there’s definitely more there, more present than the grape, weaker in the sense that it smells less like the intended flavor. It’s less of a specifically strawberry fragrance and more of a generically sweet, fruity candy scent. That didn’t bode well.

As with the grape, the strawberry layer is pitifully thin and utterly lacking. Interestingly, it had a stickier consistency though. It reminded me of the squeeze tube-type candy like Ooze Tubes.

Just like with the grape, the flavor was faint and very artificial. It reminded me of mixing green gummy bears into Sprite and letting them sit long enough to start dissolving. It was like someone turned down the flavor without turning down the sweetness.

All in all, both flavors are good for peanut butter cups but really weak if you’re specifically looking for peanut butter AND JELLY cups.

Purchased Price: $3.19 each
Size: 2.8 oz
Purchased at: CVS (Grape), Cumberland Farms (Strawberry)
Rating: 5 out of 10 (both)
Nutrition Facts: (1 cup) 190 calories, 10 grams of total fat, 4.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, less than 5 milligrams of cholesterol, 105 milligrams of sodium, 24 grams of total carbs, 0 grams of dietary fiber, 22 grams of total sugar, and 3 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Taco Bell Toasted Cheddar Street Chalupa

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Taco Bell is gonna Taco Bell when it finds something that sticks. When that happens, it attempts to add that thing to every menu item possible. The thing that has stuck for a while now is making cheese literally stick to the exterior of tacos, burritos, fries, regular Chalupas, and now compact Chalupas with its Toasted Cheddar Street Chalupa.

These mini Chalupas come in two per order and feature Cantina chicken or marinated steak with onions, cilantro, cheddar cheese, and chile lime crema sauce. I ended up purchasing the chicken one, but I’m a little disappointed I couldn’t get one chicken and one steak with an order since there’s no upcharge for the steak one.

While they look a bit appetizing with the cheese attached to the shell, that cheese doesn’t make these taste as cheesy as expected. However, they do add some crispy texture to the soft-ish Chalupa shell. Now that I look at it again, the cheese adhesions remind me of zombie movie makeup. Okay, now it’s less appetizing.

Despite the cheese and the decent amount of ingredients within the shell, the most dominant taste was the Chalupa shell’s breadiness. While the shell is the eye-catching highlight of the menu item, it shouldn’t also be the most tongue-catching ingredient.

I tried the other components separate from the Chalupa shell, and they have a nice flavor, with the marinated chicken, onions, and chile lime crema sauce standing out the most. It’s pleasant enough that I wish I could’ve tasted it more with the Chalupa shell.

Now, let’s talk about their size. By calling them “Street Chalupa,” I know they’re supposed to be small like street tacos. However, even though there are two, their size makes them seem more like a value menu item. So what I paid for them, and even the advertised price of $5.49, is a hard price to swallow.

Taco Bell’s Toasted Cheddar Street Chalupa won’t be sticking around permanently because it’s a limited-time item. But if it ever comes back, I’m sure I won’t be sticking it and its bread-y flavor in my mouth again.

Purchased Price: $6.99*
Size: 2 Chalupas per order
Rating: 5 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 order) 580 calories, 38 grams of fat, 10 grams of saturated fat, 60 milligrams of cholesterol, 1030 milligrams of sodium, 37 grams of carbohydrates, 5 grams of fiber, 4 grams of sugar, and 23 grams of protein.

*Because I live on a rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, things are a bit pricier here. You’ll probably pay less than I did.

REVIEW: Baskin-Robbins Paloma Paradise Ice Cream

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Baskin-Robbins is bringing the summer vibes during a spring month with the introduction of its Paloma Paradise Ice Cream, April 2025’s Flavor of the Month. The pink-colored scoop features paloma-flavored ice cream and sorbet with mild chili pepper lime swirls.

What’s a paloma? You’d be correct if you think it sounds like a place in California. If you said it’s a community in Illinois, I am impressed with your geography genius. But this treat was inspired by the tequila-based cocktail called the paloma. It’s a mixture of tequila, lime juice, and grapefruit soda (like Fresca) or grapefruit juice. However, you need not worry about alcohol in the ice cream or sorbet.

I’ll admit that grapefruit hasn’t been the first citrus fruit I’ll grab when experiencing scurvy because the fruit’s infamous sourness turns me off. However, I enjoy sipping on a Fresca whenever it’s in a cooler at a barbecue. Thankfully, the ice cream and sorbet base have all the grapefruit flavor but without much sourness. It’s a sweet, citrusy, creamy, and refreshing base. I’m surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The sorbet has an icy texture that could give the impression that there are icy chunks in the ice cream itself. However, I didn’t experience that too much so there probably wasn’t much sorbet in my scoop.

The most intriguing ingredient is mild chili pepper lime swirls. But while I could see chili pepper specks in the swirl, they disappointingly provided a subtle chili pepper kick that’s as silent as the letter B in the word “subtle.” So, if you’re worried about this having a bit of spiciness, you have nothing to fear. Instead, the swirls provide a punchy lime flavor that complements the grapefruit taste without adding any sourness.

While you need not worry about puckering, there’s a little flavor twist that might be weird to some. Despite not containing any alcohol, I tasted a hint of an alcohol vibe with several spoonfuls. It’s not off-putting and adds a little authenticity to the scoop, but I can understand how it might be a turnoff to some.

Baskin-Robbins’ Paloma Paradise is a lovely summery flavor to enjoy during the spring.

Purchased Price: $3.79
Size: 2.5 oz scoop
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 130 calories, 4.5 grams of fat, 3 grams of saturated fat, 15 milligrams of cholesterol, 60 milligrams of sodium, 22 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 18 grams of sugar (including 16 grams of added sugar), and 2 grams of protein.

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