15 Secret Menu Dairy Queen Blizzards To Satisfy Your Ice Cream Craving
Nothing seems to hit quite as right as a Dairy Queen Blizzard, regardless of the temperature outside. Blended smooth with any mix-ins of your choice, Blizzards have an option for just about anybody, whether you're a chocoholic, a lover of classics, or a fruit fanatic.
The Dairy Queen Blizzard menu is extensive with endless topping combinations, so much that it can feel impossible to pick. Dairy Queen regularly updates its seasonal menu to give us fresh options, but have you ever longed for a Blizzard of the past? Or craved a shake version of one of your other favorite desserts? Just like with other beloved drive-through chains, Dairy Queen fans and employees have curated a secret menu to either replicate past limited edition Blizzards or create something entirely new.
We've gone ahead and tried 15 of these secret Blizzards to let you know if they're worth a trip to DQ or if they're ... better off kept as secrets. Check out our list and then head to your local Dairy Queen and ask for your favorite.
Butterbeer Bilzzard
Harry Potter fans love to see a good Butterbeer replication. Since there is unfortunately no official recipe for this magical flavored ale from one of our favorite fictional worlds, the interpretation of what Butterbeer should taste like varies from person to person and place to place. The secret Dairy Queen Butterbeer Blizzard is made by ordering a vanilla Butterfinger Blizzard with butterscotch (or caramel if butterscotch isn't available) mix-ins. And in our opinion, the witches and wizards of Diagon Alley would be disappointed.
The taste of Butterfinger candies in this Blizzard didn't seem quite right for mimicking Butterbeer, and we liken that to the peanut butter in Butterfinger. Most Butterbeer copycats we've tried, whether it be ice cream or coffee or a soda-like beverage, taste mostly of butterscotch and caramel. If you're hoping for a Butterbeer rendition that Harry would approve of, either pass this Blizzard up or try asking for butterscotch and caramel mix-ins, sans Butterfinger.
Of course, it's hard to make a Blizzard taste bad, so this one, in fact, did taste very good. It's not to say you wouldn't enjoy it — it just doesn't scream Butterbeer. We give it a 5 out of 10.
Caramel Pie Delight Blizzard
There's one problem with trying to replicate pie-inspired Blizzards: Some Dairy Queens have run out of pie pieces. The secret Dairy Queen Caramel Pie Delight Blizzard calls for a vanilla Blizzard mixed up with caramel, fudge, chocolate chunks, and pie pieces. We had to substitute Nilla Wafers for the pie pieces.
The source of this secret shake says it's inspired by chocolate turtle pie — we don't feel like chocolate turtle or caramel delight describes this pie Blizzard. A turtle implies chocolate, caramel, and a nut of choice (often peanuts or pecans), but there were no nuts in this recipe. The fudge and chocolate chunks also distract from the caramel.
We recommend nixing the fudge and chocolate chunks and asking for extra caramel to really stick to what this Blizzard is supposed to be. If anything were to describe this one, we think it would be Twix. There's caramel and chocolate and a nougat-like crunch from the wafers. Is it as delightfully caramelly as the name claims? No. Is it still a decadent Blizzard that you'll enjoy ever last bite of? Of course. We say 6 out of 10 for this not-quite-caramel delight, not-quite-turtle Blizzard.
Samoa Blizzard
The Girl Scout cookie cravings seem to always be the strongest when it's not selling season. Samoa — one of the best Girl Scout cookies out there, in our opinion – is a mix of buttery shortbread, caramel, toasted coconut and dark chocolate. As a cookie, these ingredients are great, but as a Blizzard? Sounds like heaven. The online recipe for the secret Dairy Queen Samoa Blizzard calls for a Twix blizzard with chocolate cone dip and coconut added in. However, our local Blizzard didn't have Twix — Twix candy pieces were kept in stock for a special summer Blizzard in 2018 — so we had to substitute fudge, caramel, and Nilla wafers instead.
Our expectations were high and, unfortunately, not met. The first three or four bites of this Blizzard yielded no coconut taste at all. The flavor did finally join the party about a quarter of the way into the Blizzard, but we were hopeful for a strong coconut flavor from the start — because that is, after all, the leading flavor in the Girl Scout Cookie.
We also think the chocolate cone dip can be left out if you too have to substitute fudge for Twix. The chocolate was just a touch too strong with both. Overall, the Samoa Blizzard comes in at a 7 out of 10 — a bit more coconut next time and we'll give a few points back.
Birthday Cake Blizzard
Birthday cake flavor and ice cream are like peas and carrots, only tastier. This secret Dairy Queen menu item is a vanilla Blizzard with cookie dough, rainbow sprinkles, and vanilla syrup. Sounds delicious in theory, looks like a yummy heap of cake-flavored goodness ... but let's just say that, if this were given to us on our birthday, we'd be too bummed out to even open presents.
While the flavor of vanilla is very strong because of the added syrup, there is no cake-like element to this Blizzard at all. Cake batter in ice cream has a distinctive flavor, but the cookie dough falls short in replicating that. The texture is all off, too; cake batter is normally smooth and mixed entirely into the shake, but DQ cookie dough comes in chunks.
Because of what we were expecting, this secret Blizzard is a disappointment. Sadly, we don't really think there is a way to create a birthday cake flavor in a Blizzard without actual birthday cake flavoring or batter (sprinkles, while pretty, don't do the trick on their own). Just 3 out of 10 for this not-so-happy Birthday Blizzard.
Banana Bread Blizzard
This one was actually a big, delightful surprise. We can admit that we feared the worst here — some kind of bread dough fused with bananas just didn't appeal. However, leave it to the internet to come up with something even better. If you're looking for a treat that hints at your favorite banana bread recipe without going hardcore on the loaf side of things, give this one a try.
For our secret menu hack, we ordered three fairly common mix-ins for the classic vanilla soft serve — banana, chocolate chunks, and graham crackers. Depending on the location, you may get either graham cracker pieces or crushed graham crackers. Our Blizzard contained crushed graham cracker dust, and it was pretty great; it gave us the banana bread taste without any questionable crunchy bits. The addition of chocolate was fine with us as well. If you're not adding big old chunks of dark chocolate to your banana bread, you're missing out on something great. To top it off, our Blizzard wizard had never heard of this combination (and was looking forward to trying it themselves), so we assume that it's not something that your average ice cream hacker knows about. We were quite pleased with the taste and would order it again, maybe even with a pump of peanut butter just to take it over the top. But as is, this delicious secret menu sweetie gets a nine out of 10 from us.
Banana Creme Pie Blizzard
Calling banana lovers everywhere: This is the Blizzard for you. The secret Dairy Queen Banana Creme Pie Blizzard is a way to keep a fan favorite all the way from 2012 alive. It's made with vanilla soft serve, sliced banana, pie pieces (or Nilla Wafers, depending on your store's stock), and whipped cream both blended in and on top.
This was easily one of our favorites out of all the Blizzards we tried, and the closest to tasting like what it replicates. The banana gets blended completely so the ice cream is still smooth, and it's extra creamy with the added whip. We think the Nilla Wafers tasted even better with the banana than pie pieces would have — more on par with banana pudding than banana creme pie, and not as overbearingly sweet as other Blizzards can be with its lack of syrup mix-ins. Where the sweetness of other Blizzards might be too much before you're finished, this one is enjoyable all the way to the end.
Of course, there's no reason to order this one if you hate bananas, but the banana flavor is not nearly as strong as you may think, since it has so many other ingredients to harmonize with. The Banana Creme Pie Blizzard gets a 9 out of 10 in our book, losing a point only because we ordered a small. It's not that weird to ask for seconds ... right?
PB&J Blizzard
Another treat that's only made better by the addition of those seasonal pie pieces, the PB&J Blizzard will appeal to those of you who love either peanut butter or nostalgia. Add a pump of the peanut butter topping, a scoop of strawberry sauce, and a handful of pie pieces to plain soft serve to make this whizzed-up ice cream treat taste a lot like your favorite after-school snack. We found that, again, we would play around with the proportions of the mix-ins but that might just be because we're vehemently weighted on the peanut butter side of the PB versus J debate. Honestly, there's never enough peanuts as far as we're concerned.
Want to shake it up a little? Even if peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were once considered pretty fancy, you might want to expand your options. Swap out the super-sweet strawberry sauce for Dairy Queen's tangier raspberry or go even more old school with banana instead of jam. Finally, you can forego fruit altogether and aim for a Fluffernutter experience by combining peanut butter topping with a portion of marshmallow cream. We do advise you to stick with the addition of pie pieces, if possible, as they add a nice crunch to your Blizzard. This one was pretty good, even if we could have used more peanut flavor, so we're giving it a tasty seven out of 10.
Mocha Latte Blizzard
The secret Dairy Queen Mocha Latte Blizzard is for all those times you're stuck between getting coffee and getting ice cream. Ask for this Blizzard by ordering chocolate soft serve with coffee and dark chocolate syrup added. The recipe calls for whipped cream, which you can leave off.
For coffee lovers, this Blizzard is rich and enjoyable. The coffee flavor is on the stronger side, which may be a reason to skip this one for some. However, the taste of this shake is still very balanced: The strong coffee is equalized by the sweet ice cream, which is toned down by the dark chocolate, which is accented by the strong coffee (again). The Mocha Latte Blizzard is lacking in texture since it has no mix-ins, which are most of what makes Blizzards unique, but the scrumptious flavor did more than enough to compensate.
Our only beef with the Mocha Latte Blizzard: When the heck do you order it? As much as we hate to say it, you can't (and shouldn't) have an ice-cream based coffee drink in the mornings when you would normally have coffee. But there's caffeine in this Blizzard, so you may not want it as an after-dinner dessert if you're sensitive to caffeine. This Blizzard may be best as an afternoon treat. We dub the Mocha Latte Blizzard a 7 out of 10, but we recommend choosing a candy mix-in to spice it up a bit and ranking it yourself.
Cinnamon Toast Crunch Blizzard
The Cinnamon Toast Crunch secret menu item has gotten a lot of attention since Dairy Queen re-introduced the Snickerdoodle Cookie Dough Blizzard. It seems that fans went a little off the rails when DQ first pulled the fall flavor, so the company decided to bring it back. Luckily for us, the regular Snickerdoodle version is super tasty without any extra add-ons, but we were still pretty excited to try this secret menu item: Just ask for a couple of scoops of those fall-only delicious pie chips mixed into a Snickerdoodle Cookie Dough Blizzard. Online reviews have said that this combo truly tastes a lot like Cinnamon Toast Crunch, which we thought would be pretty hard to live up to.
So did it measure up? Oh baby, did it ever. It tasted so much like the cereal that we were a little stunned. The creamy soft serve, the crispy pie pieces, and the super sweet, cinnamon cookie dough came together to make this Blizzard another top hack. It had the taste of traditional Snickerdoodle cookies — meaning loads of brown sugar and cinnamon — but the crispy, buttery pie pieces combined with the creamy soft serve nudged it even closer to the real thing. This is another of our top picks, easily scoring a 10 out of 10 for both taste and ease of ordering.
Puppy Chow Blizzard
Midwesterners unite! The secret Dairy Queen Puppy Chow Blizzard is about to become your favorite dessert. Everyone else, don't be alarmed: This beloved regional snack is not made with dog food, as its name might suggest. Traditional Puppy Chow is Rice Chex cereal doused in peanut butter and melted chocolate, then coated in powder sugar. It's messy, sugary, and oh-so-good. The Blizzard version is vanilla soft serve, graham pieces, fudge, and peanut butter, blended up and topped with whipped cream. The online recipe also called for Dairy Queen's graham base, but our location didn't have this in stock, so we omitted it.
As delicious as all of these Blizzards were, this one is our favorite. It tastes just like this Midwestern childhood treat, but better. (Because adding ice cream to something can only improve it, right?) Peanut butter can easily overpower other flavors, but it was very balanced in this Blizzard (there could have even been just a touch more peanut butter, in our opinion). We would have liked just a bit more texture in this Blizzard and will ask for extra graham pieces next time, since actual Puppy Chow is meant to be crunchy, after all.
Even if you've never had the real thing, you'll be happy you gave the Puppy Chow Blizzard a try. An easy 10 out of 10 for this secret menu item.
Chocolate Orange Blizzard
This one was a bit of a wild card for us and our Blizzard master, if we're being totally honest. This was the only one on the list that raised eyebrows with Dairy Queen staff, and we're pretty sure they've seen everything when it comes to crazy concoctions. In fact, the employee helping us out admitted that many customers like to play fast and loose with their orders and just let the staff decide on what kind of Blizzard they end up with.
We took full advantage of DQ's affiliation with Orange Julius to try out this particular taste innovation. Start with a plain vanilla soft serve base and add the beloved chocolate chunks and a pump of orange concentrate. This made for something that was both sweet and super tangy. This hack was pretty good, we admit. Maybe a little too heavy on the orange concentrate, but orange and chocolate are such a great combo that, with a little tweaking, we think this could be actually craveable. This one was so easy that we might even try making a Blizzard-inspired treat at home, tinkering with the ratio of orange to chocolate chunks, but that's just us. A better balance of flavor would have taken this to an easy eight out of 10, but with the overwhelming amount of zingy orange concentrate, this version only landed at a six.
Sugar Cookie Blizzard
Have you ever craved a sugar cookie, but just didn't have the gusto to spend the whole afternoon in the kitchen? The secret Dairy Queen Sugar Cookie Blizzard is an easy compromise. Made with vanilla soft serve, rainbow sprinkles, marshmallow creme, and graham pieces (we substituted this in for the out-of-stock pie chips), this is the perfect DQ treat for sweet-tooth-havers out there who aren't big on chocolate. At this time of year, it's possible the location nearest you will have a Frosted Sugar Cookie Blizzard — with sugar cookie pieces, icing, and sprinkles — available on the menu for a limited time.
We went with the DIY version. This Blizzard is creamy and very sweet, no doubt thanks to the marshmallow creme. You could leave it out if you really wanted to; however, it seems to be a necessary component for the sugar cookie flavor. The sprinkles and graham pieces add nice texture, but we think the graham flavor altered this Blizzard slightly, and that pie chips would have worked better for this recipe.
Don't wait until pie chips are back in stock to give this a try, though. You'll enjoy it all the same with graham pieces, because they add that crunchiness of a cookie you'd expect in a cookie-inspired Blizzard. It's a 9 out of 10 for the Sugar Cookie Blizzard, and once pie chips are back in stock, we just might try this again to redeem that lost point.
Cookie Jar Blizzard
Who took the cookie from the cookie jar? Whoever did decided to throw the cookies into a blender with ice cream and see what happens — and we approve. The Cookie Jar Blizzard is made with vanilla soft serve, Oreo cookies, cookie dough, and hot fudge. This secret menu resident is actually fans prolonging the special flavor of the month for April 2019, and since all its components are permanent menu fixtures, cookie monsters everywhere need not worry about getting their fix.
The chunks of cookie dough and Oreo pieces mesh well in this cookie mash-up, but there is more Oreo flavor than there is cookie dough. The crushed Oreo throughout the Blizzard can be tasted in each bite, but no cookie dough flavor is evident until you're lucky enough to scoop up a chunk.
If you're lucky enough to visit a Dairy Queen offering the limited time Frosted Sugar Cookie Blizzard, you could add those cookie pieces in as another delicious element to this Blizzard — or you could try adding in Nilla Wafers for more crunch and vanilla flavor. On its own, this secret menu treat is perfect for when you can't decide what dessert to have. A 7 out of 10 for the Cookie Jar Blizzard.
Tropical Sunrise
The Tropical Sunrise Blizzard might cause a little confusion, depending on your location. When we ordered this secret menu item, we were told that it contained pecans, coconut, and pineapple while at a second location, we were given banana, pineapple, and coconut. But that's more likely because of the nebulous nature of secret menu hacks — their secrecy can make them kind of hard to pin down (just ask anyone who's ever been met with a blank stare after ordering something they saw online). Apparently, the banana, pineapple, and coconut version was a limited-time offering known as the Hawaiian Blizzard and is still regularly requested, so that's the one we went for.
To be honest, we had some misgivings about this one before we tried it. But it was quite good, to our delight. The pieces of coconut were really tiny — small enough that they didn't mess up the texture of the smooth ice cream while still infusing the Blizzard with a nice touch of coconutty flavor. And who can deny the appeal of pineapple chunks with that DQ ice-milk ice cream? The banana addition might be overwhelming for some palates, but we found that it was still a decent hack, especially for something that contained absolutely no chocolate. We gave this one a solid seven out of 10 — maybe not our first choice but certainly not a disappointment.
Sneaky Ninja Blizzard
If you'd like to partake in a fun game played by Dairy Queen employees, try out the secret Dairy Queen Sneaky Ninja Blizzard. This employee-made secret shake is made of vanilla soft serve with four ingredients added: cake crunch, fudge, marshmallow creme, and one more mystery ingredient of the DQ team member's choice — the "something sneaky."
Your fourth mystery ingredient could be anything from flavor syrup to candy to coffee. Our local Blizzard master decided on a banana — and it was, in fact, sneaky. We had no idea what was in our Blizzard until taking the first bite, and while we weren't sure what to expect, we definitely didn't expect banana. This just so happened to taste like a banana split, so the surprise was thoroughly pleasing. If you are up for a surprise and want to let a DQ employee have a laugh, ask for the Sneaky Ninja — and brace yourself, because you never know what you're going to get. Of course, be sure to share any food allergies or sensitivities you have first.
We give the Sneaky Ninja a 7 out of 10. The concept is fun, and we enjoyed interacting with the people making our ice cream. And as an added bonus, our Sneaky Ninja was delicious ... a banana split in a cup.