What is it?

One of two returning Blizzards available on Dairy Queen’s Summer 2018 Blizzard Menu. The S’mores Blizzard adds marshmallow-filled chocolates and graham pieces to vanilla soft serve.

How is it?

Amazing, but I’m a sucker for seasonal flavors. Be it Starbucks’ PSL, carrot cake, or whatever the heck flavor red velvet is, I’m the reason flavor scientists can spend more time at the beach than in the lab.

S’mores in particular is a weakness of mine. Run out of new flavor ideas? Slap a seasonal cliché on the package, and I’ll devour it. Cookies, gum, hell if you made it smell good enough I’d even think about it for a s’mores deodorant.

OK, maybe not, but if my Google-fu had returned a result, I’d probably be wearing it right now.

Back to the ice cream. The graham flavor extends beyond the chunks of cracker and is exquisitely infused into the vanilla base. Graham’s golden-brown hue and gritty texture is a component of every bite. Pleasantly numerous, the milk chocolate candy is smooth and packed with gooey, marshmallow goodness. My wife says I’m crazy, in this context not just in general, but I swear I got a hint of a toasted marshmallow vibe. Maybe it was just a heavier graham presence on occasion that provided earthier notes.

Is there anything else I need to know?

There’s marshmallow topping mixed into the base as well, but it is overpowered by the graham and seems like an afterthought. If that’s a draw for you, you will probably be disappointed by the graham-first flavor. 

Conclusion:

This Blizzard has me begging for s’more as it sets the standard for s’mores-flavored ice cream. DQ nailed the rarely seen graham flavored base and, for me at least, conjured fond memories of the Hershey’s S’mores Candy Bar (R.I.P.) with the marshmallow filled chocolates.

Purchased Price: $2.99
Size: Mini
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (Mini) 400 calories, 17 grams of fat, 8 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 25 milligrams of cholesterol, 200 milligrams of sodium, 56 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of dietary fiber, 44 grams of sugar, and 7 grams of protein.

What is it?

One of two new blizzards available on Dairy Queen’s Summer Blizzard menu. The Summery Berry Cheesecake Blizzard adds real raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries along with cheesecake pieces to vanilla soft serve.

The emphasis on the use of “real” berries begs the question, does that mean the cheesecake and ice cream are part of the illusory world that is Ed Sheeran’s dream?

How is it?

The only flavor that distinguishes itself is blueberry despite equal representation of raspberries and blackberries. This created a mildly blueberry flavored ice cream base that was unexpected but welcome. Unfortunately, when it comes to whole berries mixed with soft serve, the cold most certainly does bother me.

While cheesecake topped with fresh, succulent berries isn’t Ed’s dream come true, these icy berries are texturally unpleasant and muted in flavor. Fortunately, the stark reality of boring berries is somewhat offset by the fantastic cheesecake pieces. They bring a deep cream cheese flavor with a bit of tanginess upfront and finish with graham cracker in all its soft, crumbly, brown sugary glory.

Enrobed in a creamy cloak of the blueberry-infused base, the intense cheesecake pops and almost delivers on the promise of its lofty name, sans frigid fruit faux pas that is.

Is there anything else I need to know?

Whoever said patience is a virtue is a big fat liar as letting the ice cream temper didn’t help matters. The fruit was no longer as problematic in the polar molars department, but that served to underscore that fresh off the vine these berries are not.

Conclusion:

In what I suppose works out to be the equivalent of taking a purple pill from Morpheus, the Summer Berry Cheesecake is seemingly two worlds colliding. The unreal cheesecake highs are brought down by the real lows of frozen, bland fruit that isn’t berry good.

Purchased Price: $3.59
Size: Small
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (Small) 560 calories, 21 grams of fat, 13 grams of saturated fat, 1 gram of trans fat, 75 milligrams of cholesterol, 260 milligrams of sodium, 79 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of dietary fiber, 64 grams of sugar, and 14 grams of protein.

What is it?

One of two new Blizzards available on Dairy Queen’s Summer Blizzard menu. What better time to release your summer specials than the second week of spring? The Jurassic Chomp mixes “colossal” choco dipped peanut butter bites with fudge topping blended vanilla.

How is it?

If you love peanut butter and chocolate, hold onto your butts. Listed in the ingredients as buckeyes, the choco-dipped peanut butter bites are colossal in taste if not size. While pleasantly abundant, they do not appear to be any larger than what I normally find in a Blizzard.

The candy is dominated by nutty peanut butter deliciousness with just the right amount of salty grittiness and a chocolatey finish. The choice to infuse the vanilla base with fudge topping hatches an Indominus rex of a flavor by exquisitely balancing the heavier peanut butter of the buckeyes. The resulting combination had me devouring my Blizzard faster than a hungry Tyrannosaurus stumbling upon a lawyer in an outhouse.

Is there anything else I need to know?

Apparently, dinosaurs love peanut butter and chocolate as much they love wreaking havoc on theme parks. This is second time these flavors have been featured by Dairy Queen in Jurassic Blizzard.

Despite the similarity in name and general flavor, the Jurassic Chomp is significantly different than the Jurassic Smash Blizzard that was a cross promotion in 2015. Released alongside Jurassic World, the Smash was comprised of “smashed” peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip cookie dough, peanut butter, and choco chunks.

There is no Jurassic World themed container or other advertising for the Chomp currently, but that can change if this becomes June’s Blizzard of the Month to coincide with the new movie.

Conclusion:

With a peanut butter and chocolate flavor as impressively large as it’s real world namesake, this is one Blizzard I’m chomping at the bit to sink my teeth into again.

Purchased Price: $3.59
Size: Small
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (Small) 660 calories, 29 grams of fat, 19 grams of saturated fat, 1 gram of trans fat, 50 milligrams of cholesterol, 260 milligrams of sodium, 86 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of dietary fiber, 73 grams of sugar, and 15 grams of protein.

Let’s get this out of the way. Dairy Queen’s April Blizzard of the Month, Peanut Butter Cookie Dough, does NOT contain cookie dough that is peanut butter flavored. Rather, peanut butter topping is blended with vanilla soft serve and filled with chocolate chip cookie dough and choco chunks.

While I’m not the brightest tool in the shed, I expected peanut butter cookies and not merely “topping.” It’s not unlike the unfulfilled promise of the Star Wars prequels. Sure, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace has both “stars” and “wars”, but many expecting to see the “Star Wars” of the beloved original trilogy were sorely disappointed.

That said, the chocolate chip cookie dough and choco chunks work well together. The chunks add a pleasant snap and welcome contrast to the buttery base and soft, gritty cookie dough pieces.

The real draw though is the top-billed combo with peanut butter. The topping description is apt as it creates a uniform and smooth peanut butter ice cream with only a rare vanilla heavy bite. It’s not overly potent, but with no concentrated gobs of the luscious legume, that is to be expected.

Despite worshiping at the altar of Mr. Peanut, I feel, though tasty, the peanut butter topping flavored ice cream clashes with the mix-ins. The cookie dough, in particular, is slightly masked whereas the standard cookie dough Blizzard is enhanced by the complementary fudge.

In the end, I suspect chocolate chip cookie dough fans will be disappointed that the flavor is muted. Conversely, peanut butter lovers will wish they had fulfilled the tantalizing promise of the name by using peanut butter cookie dough. What we are left with is something Jar Jar would say “isa okeeday, no bombad and missa thinkin some people ganna be little bitty underwhelmt.”

Purchased Price: $3.59
Size: Small
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (Small) 730 calories, 31 grams of fat, 17 grams of saturated fat, 1 gram of trans fat, 50 milligrams of cholesterol, 360 milligrams of sodium, 99 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of dietary fiber, 76 grams of sugar, and 14 grams of protein..

St. Patrick’s Day is almost upon us which means enough mint-flavored products to choke a leprechaun.

Case in point, Dairy Queen’s Mint Oreo Blizzard is the returning flavor of the month for March. Oreo cookies and creme de menthe mint topping are blended with vanilla soft serve.

Mind you, I can find no evidence that mint has anything to do with the Emerald Isle or its icons like St. Patrick Star or Lucky the Leprechaun. Maybe I don’t have the firmest grasp on my Irish ancestry either.

Despite the description, I could not detect even a hint of the “creme de menthe” part of the mint topping. Given that the Mint Oreo Blizzard has been described as “cool mint” in past years, I suspect this is a marketing change only — reinforced by conflicting advertising — but I cannot be certain as I have not tried this previously.

Perhaps the change is due to the mint flavor being decidedly not cool. It’s not so uncool as to be caught hanging out with me playing Magic: The Gathering after chess club in high school. More like, this mint was voted most likely to have a white picket fence and 2.5 kids. It’s a consistently mellow companion that enhances the vanilla base, but it doesn’t ever truly excite the taste buds.

Meanwhile, the Oreo cookie pieces range from tiny bits to reasonably sized chunks that pair as well with the reserved ice cream base as they do with most things…except for Swedish Fish.

Seriously, Nabisco, even Dr. Moreau would have been too squeamish to pull the trigger on that abomination.

Bottom line, this is a regular Oreo Blizzard with a mild mint-flavored base. There’s nothing to complain about here, but it also won’t leave you dancing a jaunty jig either.

Purchased Price: $2.99
Size: Mini
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (Mini) 400 calories, 13 grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 30 milligrams of cholesterol, 230 milligrams of sodium, 61 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of dietary fiber, 47 grams of sugar, and 8 grams of protein.