Review: Dairy Queen Pumpkin Pie Blizzard
Author: indianapoliseater | Filed under: Food Reviews
Dairy Queen
http://www.dairyqueen.com
Every October, Dairy Queen releases the Pumpkin Pie Blizzard as their Blizzard of the Month. Ever since I started loving ice cream again about eighteen months ago, this one has been high on my to-do list, but I’ve never had a chance to grab it and try it. If you read this blog or read my Ben & Jerry’s Pumpkin Cheesecake ice cream review at CrazyFoodDude.com (if you haven’t checked it out yet, do so!) from this past Friday, you’ll know that I’m a HUGE fan of Pumpkin flavored ice cream, especially that from Culver’s (technically, theirs is custard). So, after a long delay, I was finally able to try this to this one out and was excited to do so. I’ve read positive reviews before (On Second Scoop), so I had high expectations for this one.
What I Got: Pumpkin Pie Blizzard (medium); $4.02.
Dairy Queen describes this one as ”pumpkin pie blended with creamy vanilla soft serve and crowned with whipped topping and nutmeg” and I can confirm that was at least the case visually. What they didn’t mention in that description, although you can see them in the picture, is that there are also pie crust pieces mixed in as well. All in all, they delivered everything they promised from a description standpoint.
On the other hand, the taste was a different story. First, I didn’t taste hardly any nutmeg at all, which is not a bad thing because I’m not the world’s biggest fan of nutmeg. Still, it would have been nice to have tasted it in the Blizzard so that I at least felt like I was eating a pumpkin pie. The pumpkin pie crust pieces were mixed in too and while there weren’t a lot of them, they were at least sufficient.
Where this Blizzard failed, in my mind, is the pumpkin flavoring. It just wasn’t strong enough. It felt like I was eating vanilla soft serve with only a faint amount of pumpkin pie flavoring added in. Dairy Queen’s vanilla soft serve is fine ordinarily, but if I am going to eat something pumpkin flavored, I want the flavoring to be strong like it is at Culver’s. This was definitely not the case with this one and it was very disappointing.
Would I Buy It Again? No. Honestly, this was boring and nearly flavorless in my mind. I posted on my Twitter feed that I didn’t like this one and some followers responded that I was nuts, so maybe I just got a bad Blizzard, but I’m not going to risk that again by buying this a second time. So, in this case, I think I owe someone an apology: Culver’s, I apologize for “cheating” on you and trying someone else’s pumpkin treat. I’ll never do it again!
By the way, you’ve only got until the 31st to try this out before it goes away again, so if you want to try it yourself to see if I am right or if I just got a bad Blizzard, you better do so quickly!
-IndianapolisEater
Tags: blizzard, blizzard of the month, dessert, diary queen, Food, Ice Cream, nutmeg, pumpkin pie
all blizzards seem to be pretty hit or miss dependent on location. I mentioned in my own (favorable) review of this one that I had gotten maybe the only bad nutter butter blizzard on previous visit.
Blizzard quality control needs to improve.
@Rodzilla: Completely agree on quality control. It’s gotten to the point (I forgot to do it this time) that I specifically ask when ordering for them to not skimp on the mix-ins when putting together my treat. They can ignore me if they choose to do so, but it’s the only way I can think of to try to avoid the issue of getting shorted.
I had one last year and would have written the same review you did. I thought it was really lacking in pumpkin flavor and was pretty bland. I love pumpkin and now wish we had a Culver’s in NJ.
I completely agree that the pumpkin blizzard is a total letdown. I had to go to Denny’s to get an actual slice of pumpkin pie to satisfy my craving.
I think blizzards vary a ton on the DQ, or even by who makes them at one DQ. I have had this one twice. Once it sucked and sounded like the one you had. The other time it was awesome, full of flavor and pie chunks. I reviewed that one (check below).
Either way I totally get how you would not have it again. Damn DQ blizzard gambling.
http://smidview.blogspot.com/search/label/Dairy%20Queen
That’s sad because my DQ makes AWESOME blizzards the the pumpkin pie blizzard was great! I completely agree that each location is either good or bad at making these.
Oh, and Culvers custard is the best!
@Lindsay: Sure would be nice if they got some uniformity from location to location, eh? Oh well.
I work at a Dairy Queen and I can tell you that the quality of blizzards depends solely on the employee that makes them. Corporate gives us instructions on how much of each ingredient to put in the blizzards (ex. Small size- 1 scoop of cookie dough, half a pump of hot fudge) and whether you abide by their rules or not determines how good the blizzard will taste. I always make sure to put a little extra of everything into my blizzards to make sure they’re not bland, because I wouldn’t want an employee to screw me over with a bland blizzard either. To clear this up- the nutmeg doesn’t actually get blended into the blizzard, it’s dashed on top of the whip cream, and the pumpkin pie sauce is the exact same brand as the stuff you buy in grocery stores. Hope this clears things up!
@Erin: That makes sense and thanks for clearing that up with your insider knowledge! Also, thanks for checking out the blog!