REVIEW: Dairy Queen Maple Cookie Shake

Just in time to make those brisk fall months feel a bit chillier is Dairy Queen’s new Maple Cookie Shake. It blends DQ’s soft serve, maple cookie crumble, milk, and whipped topping to create an off-white shake that doesn’t bring anything maple-related to mind.

What also doesn’t bring boiled tree blood to mind are the cookie crumbles floating within the shake. They’re as plentiful as the stars in the sky while gazing from a bed of orange leaves, and they maintained their crunchiness as I slurped up the entire shake, but they didn’t seem to add to the maple flavor. I expected additional maple bursts when I chewed on them, but didn’t get that. The shake’s description says maple cookie crumbles, but the ingredient list says shortbread cookie crumbs, so that probably explains the crumble’s lack of fall flavor.

However, that’s okay, because the maple-flavored soft serve does more than enough to make up for the cookie’s lack of flavor. The sweet maple in this shake is perfect, and I wanted to scoop some out and put it between some toasted Eggo waffles to create an ice cream sandwich, but being in the middle of a mall food court made that problematic. As for the whipped topping, it’s just there to add a bit of flair to the affair, just like this sentence does to this paragraph, as you might be aware.

Not into pumpkin spice or caramel apple, and want to experience another popular fall flavor through a straw? Dairy Queen’s Maple Cookie Shake is a sweet and delicious alternative to putting a straw in a bottle of pure maple syrup.

Purchased Price: $5.99
Size: Small
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 590 calories, 29 grams of fat, 16 grams of saturated fat, 1 gram of trans fat, 45 milligrams of cholesterol, 380 milligrams of sodium, 71 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 59 grams of sugar, and 12 grams of protein.

SPOTTED (SEASONAL EDITION): 9/4/2025

Here are some interesting new products found on store shelves by your fellow readers. If you’ve tried any of them, share your thoughts in the comments.

Johnsonville Leinenkugel’s Oktoberfest Beer Bratwurst
(Spotted by Phil at Redner’s.)
Betty Exclusives Wednesday Super Moist Dark Chocolate Cake Mix
Betty Exclusives Wednesday Whipped Frosting
(Spotted by Amanda Y at Walmart.)
Bettergoods Brown Butter Pecan Cookie Mix
Bettergoods Apple Cinnamon Quick Bread Mix
(Spotted by Amanda Y at Walmart.)
Bettergoods Premium Blend Pumpkin Spice Quick Bread Mix
Bettergoods Maple Brown Sugar Blondie Bar Mix
(Spotted by Robbie at Walmart.)
Our Specialty Treat Shop Pumpkin Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Icing
(Spotted by Amanda Y at Target.)
Betty Crocker Pumpkin Spice Soft Baked Cookie Mix
(Spotted by Amanda Y at Walmart.)
Favorite Day Witch Hat Dark Fudge Dipped Mini Waffle Cones
(Spotted by Robbie at Target.)
Unreal Halloween Snack Packs
(Spotted by Robbie at Target.)
Kernel Season’s Thrills & Chills Movie Night Popcorn Pack
(Spotted by Robbie at Target.)
Hallmark Frightful Fingers
(Spotted by Robbie at Homegoods.)
Jim Henson’s Monster Cereals Variety 3-Pack
(Spotted by Robbie at Sam’s Club.)

If you’re out shopping and see new products, snap a picture of them, and send them in via an email ([email protected]) with where you found them and “Spotted” in the subject line. Also, if you want to send in photos and are wondering if we’ve already covered something or if they’re new, don’t worry about it. Let us worry about it.

SPOTTED: Limited Edition Caramel Corn Chex Cereal

Limited Edition Caramel Corn Chex Cereal.

I just realized that there has never been a pumpkin spice Chex cereal. (Spotted by Amanda Y at Walmart.)

If you’re out shopping and see new products, snap a picture of them, and send them in via an email ([email protected]) with where you found them and “Spotted” in the subject line. Also, if you want to send in photos and are wondering if we’ve already covered something or if they’re new, don’t worry about it. Let us worry about it.

SPOTTED: Hostess Twinkies Mini Candy Pieces and Candy Bar

Hostess Twinkies Mini Candy Pieces.

Hostess Twinkies Candy Bar.

These have a soft creamy filling, like Twinkies. But do they also have a Twinkies’ oily exterior texture? (Spotted by Robbie at Winco and Hailey R at Hy-Vee.)

If you’re out shopping and see new products, snap a picture of them, and send them in via an email ([email protected]) with where you found them and “Spotted” in the subject line. Also, if you want to send in photos and are wondering if we’ve already covered something or if they’re new, don’t worry about it. Let us worry about it.

REVIEW: Trolli Limited Edition Mountain Dew Sour Brite Crawlers

If you’ve been waiting for your chance to “DO THE DEW” and “DO THE WORM” simultaneously (I wish I could take credit for this tagline, but alas, it’s ripped straight from the Mountain Dew website), you’d best slither on over to a package of the new limited edition Trolli x Mountain Dew Sour Brite Crawlers.

These candy critters aren’t the only option to fulfill all of your Dewy/wormy desires—this fruitful (ha) partnership also includes a Zero Sugar Cherry-Lemon soda—but I’m not opening that can of gummy worms today, so I’ll focus on this wriggly business.

As soon as I opened my pack, I was rewarded with a scent cloud that was certainly Mountain Dew-esque. The worms come in three flavors: the green Original Citrus, the red Original Citrus Cherry, and the blue Original Citrus Blue Raspberry.

You may, like me, be disappointed to note that there’s nary a “Code Red” or “Voltage” in sight—the savvy shopper suspects that this decision was made to broaden the pool of potential buyers to those who may be interested in gummies but unfamiliar with Mountain Dew’s intense yet vague naming conventions and while that is a bit of a bummer for Dewhards like Yours Dewly, fair enough. (What I can’t forgive as readily is the omission of Baja Blast, but maybe that’s another marketing thing—I concede that “Original Citrus Tropical Lime” does have a weird ring to it.)

Of course, I had to try the OG flavor first, and my verdict was… yeah, that tastes like what a Mountain Dew-flavored sour gummy worm should taste like! It starts with a burst of mild sourness that quickly recedes into sweetness, with a bright, refreshing throughline of fizzy citrus-ness. I usually don’t opt for snacks much sourer than a Sour Patch Kid, and fortunately for me, these fall on the lower side of the sour scale, such that even if you’re tentative towards tart treats, you shouldn’t have much of an issue. Because of the mellow flavor, if you told me these were Sprite gummies, I would have believed it, but they’re credible as Dew too. While I noticed an oddly artificial aftertaste (how dare my sugary snacks based on a radioactively-hued soda taste artificial!?), I found that to be minimized when I took smaller bites rather than gulping down a whole worm at once.

The red and blue variants had even more intense flavors, which I would say made me enjoy them more than the green, but the tradeoff was that they didn’t strike me as especially Dew-like. Rather, they tasted like pretty generic cherry and blue raspberry slushies. Appearance- and texture-wise, all of the worms are quite satisfying—they are thick, chewy but not too hard, and somewhat stretchy, with an appealing marbled pattern. (I tried to discern whether the lighter parts and the darker parts tasted different, but as best as I could tell, the difference was purely aesthetic.)

If you’re thinking about picking these up, I suggest you Mountain Dew it; they won’t be around forever, so make like an early bird and get that worm.

Purchased Price: $3.79
Size: 12.3 oz package
Purchased at: 7-Eleven
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (serving size of 5 pieces): 100 calories, 0 grams of fat, 45 milligrams of sodium, 23 grams of carbohydrates, 14 grams of sugar, and 1 gram of protein.

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