Ranking the 20 Dairy Queen Blizzard Flavors from Worst to Best

Dairy Queen’s Blizzards hold a hallowed spot in my heart. Since childhood, these have been a favorite treat among my family members. We got them on vacations or after big events, or sometimes just for fun, since my mom loves them as much as we do. They have remained a way to treat ourselves to this day, which is why my family — one husband, one small boy, and one small girl — was so delighted to have a chance to taste test every single Blizzard Dairy Queen has to offer.

We were greeted at the 12870 SW Farmington Road location in Beaverton, Oregon, by a whole smiling team, which made us feel like kings. By the end, we felt more like heroes, since tasting 20 Blizzards in a row is a test of anyone’s devotion. But we did it, it was delightful, and we lived to tell this truly epic tale in the fast-food culinary arts. Without further ado, here’s our epic ranking of all 20 options. You’re welcome.

Although Dairy Queen’s soft-serve doesn’t meet the fat requirements set by the Food and Drug Administration and therefore isn’t technically ice cream, you’d never know it. It is rich and creamy, and even our lowest-ranked treat, the Turtle Pecan Blizzard, has a depth of flavor you’d appreciate on any hot day.

Thus, even though this flavor was kind of ho-hum compared to anything else, it was still tasty, especially if you like a classic turtle pecan. It’s very nutty, which, according to the others in the family, was a detraction, but I love pecans, so it’s a bonus to me. This one comes down to what you like. And I feel it’s important to say at this point that, come on, Blizzards are Blizzards. They’re ice cream with candy in them. How bad can one be?

Snickers Blizzards have been around for a while. I never ordered them when I was younger because, hello, Butterfinger was on offer, but I know people who did and enjoyed them. Our family, however, felt that Snickers and ice cream are two things that are better separate. Once again, it had nuts in the mix, which most of the family didn’t like.

That said, if you like frozen Snickers, you will like this Blizzard. It has the same creamy ingredients in peanuts, chocolate, and caramel, with the addition of thick ice cream. So thick, in fact, that it will hang in the cup upside down, or some locations will give you your treat for free. You’ll have to check with your local Dairy Queen to see.

Oreo is a classic Blizzard flavor, and I liked it when I was younger. Again, Butterfinger usually won out, but when I’m feeling that cookies-and-cream urge, this does the trick. The only downside? It’s not the Mint Oreo, a heavenly concoction that will win out every time in a head-to-head ranking.

Now, that implies we wouldn’t eat it without the mint, which is a lie. If someone handed this to me on a summer day, I wouldn’t think twice. But if you don’t like mint, have an allergy, or simply take your cookies and cream plain (like the small girl does), then this is a good option. Its placement so low in the ranking is mostly a reflection of the fact that you can get this flavor pretty much anywhere.

Tasting just like Pillsbury Funfetti Cake, the Confetti Cake Blizzard was indeed a fun experience. Its little sprinkles and cake bits tasted exactly like Dairy Queen took a piece of Funfetti and mixed it into soft-serve. The cake bits were a bit too big for our liking, but we all loved the sprinkles — because, for real, what kind of monster doesn’t appreciate sprinkles?

Compared to a lot of other Blizzard flavors, though, this one wasn’t that distinct. We tried it right at the beginning of our taste test, too, so it wasn’t that we were flagging. Still, it was pretty tasty, so if you have a small and picky eater (yes, that exists even with dessert), then this mild flavor could work well.

Heath Blizzard is a flavor I associate with the hot summer days of childhood, so it was amusing to try it on a rainy Oregon day while other DQ patrons gave us weird looks. (Trust me, you’re going to get some weird looks once you accumulate a few dozen Blizzard cups on your table.)

Just as I remember it being, and even on a cold day, Heath was both rich and refreshing. The kids thought it was kind of boring, but they like a lot going on. However, if you’re a millennial who grew up with, like, seven flavors, then this will be right up your alley. It’s got chocolate, toffee, and soft-serve all in a cup, with the classic red Dairy Queen spoon … of which I now also have two dozen.

If you don’t like M&M’s, are you even an American? Now, again, millennials grew up with a whole lot of M&M’s branding up in our business. Those anthropomorphizing ads came out. They were a constant holiday presence. Mars, Incorporated had just realized that they could take one bestselling recipe — chocolate center, candy coating — and turn it into a thousand variations. So it was a whole thing, and I didn’t infrequently go the M&M’s route in my younger years.

Let’s just say we thought the flavor was just as good today. Unlike the McDonald’s M&M’s McFlurry, which uses whole M&M’s that pose some difficulty to the diner due to their overly chunky nature, DQ crushes them a bit, making them easier to mix in. The only complaint is that some of the chocolate chunks were still too large and thus too hard. However, in summer, when everything melts quickly, that’s probably an asset.

This is for all the brownie batter lovers out there: the lickers of spoons, the scrapers of bowls, the eaters of cookie dough. The ones whose mixtures often make it to the oven reduced by a third. (Ahem. Guilty.) Mixing Bowl Mashup combines brownie batter and chunks of cookie dough in a tasty formula, safely free of raw eggs but just as good as what you whip up in your kitchen.

The only reason Mixing Bowl Mashup didn’t rank higher is that, while the flavors were delicious, we felt the texture was a bit off. That cake mix granularity didn’t do the overall result any favors. For those who like the graininess of flour in batter, though, this will do the trick.

The French Silk Pie Blizzard is Dairy Queen’s answer to a traditional chocolate cream pie, but it is chunky. The recipe combines pieces of pie crust, fudge, and chocolate chunks into the soft-serve, then tops the whole thing off with a generous serving of whipped cream, which was the best part. (The team brought us an extra cup of whipped cream, so we’re a little biased.)

Overall, the result was chocolatey, smooth, and especially decadent combined with whipped cream, so it’s totally worth asking if you can pay a nominal fee for some extra. This was among my personal favorite options, mostly because I’m obsessed with whipped cream, but others in the family felt there were better chocolate options to be had.

If you like a strawberry milkshake, then chances are good you’ll enjoy the Strawberry Cheesecake Blizzard, because that’s exactly what it tasted like. However, since the Strawberry Cheesecake promises to be, y’know, cheesecake-y, it was a little disappointing to find that the overwhelming flavor was one of fruit. There were chunks of filling and Graham cracker in it, but if you tasted it with your eyes closed, chances are you wouldn’t be able to tell it apart from a normal strawberry shake. If you really care about cheesecake, give this one a pass.

Now, that said, this flavor did have a major selling point. It wasn’t overly sweet, which is good to know for someone who doesn’t like an overwhelming amount of sugar. The husband liked it, for instance, because too much sweetness makes him sneeze. Also, it was the favorite flavor of one of our generous hosts.

Okay, here’s a unique one. The Crunchin’ Cookie Blizzard is a blended treat that combines Oreo cookies with the blue, cookie-filled dipped cone topping known as Crunchin’ Cookie. Like Dairy Queen’s cake in a cup, the Crunchin’ Cookie Blizzard is actually a fan invention. Then, DQ, bowing to public obsession, officially came out with a Crunchin’ Cookie Blizzard you could order seasonally at some locations.

But that’s not all. You can also get a side of the dipped cone topping, which comes as a sauce that hardens once you stick your spoonful of Blizzard into it. Seriously, it’s pretty darn good. If you go to a location that doesn’t have the Cookie Monster-inspired treat on the menu (they couldn’t use the actual name due to copyright issues), then ask them to whip you up a bespoke version.

Wondering how that classic crunchy campfire treat, the s’more, can possibly blend into a Blizzard? Well, it can, and reasonably well, too. With chunks of chocolate and Graham cracker, along with the creamy non-ice-cream-that-tastes-like-ice-cream, it’s a little slice of the backcountry. Oh, did we mention that the chocolate bars are filled with marshmallow? Because they’re filled with marshmallow.

While we love Blizzards nice and thick, this is one example where you might want to warm it up a little, because the chocolate and marshmallow are a bit more accessible once you do. But, although the chunks were a bit too big in some cases, the overall result was a good one. The small girl absolutely loved it, but then, she absolutely loves s’mores, so if you’ve got such a camper in your family, they’ll likely love it too.

Salted caramels have become rather a thing in recent years. Add a chocolate coating, and you have yourself a lovely housewarming gift or accompaniment to a Friday night Netflix binge. Either way, it’s good, and it works pretty darn well as a Blizzard, too. This option tastes like it has real crunchy caramel candy in it, with all of the flavor and almost none of the getting stuck in your teeth — though there is some danger of that if you get too big of a chunk.

It also has a deeply rich, caramel flavor if you’re into that kind of thing. The husband and small boy, who both are, definitely appreciated it. And although caramel is normally quite sweet, this one wasn’t too overwhelming.

This was, personally, the second-best option of the lot after Mint Oreo. However, the rest of the family felt they’d rather keep their Reese’s and ice cream separate. As there are a lot of politics that go into ranking 20 menu items as a family, I bowed to public pressure and put it lower on the list. That said, if you like peanut butter and chocolate blended with ice cream, you’ll enjoy this one.

Don’t misunderstand me, the others liked it too. The small girl said it had a great combination of chunkiness and creaminess, while the husband said that it tasted like a peanut butter cup in ice cream form. Unless you actively dislike chocolate and peanut butter together, this is a win.

As if Blizzards aren’t decadent enough, let’s make them royal. How? Blend up one frozen treat, hollow out the core, and pour topping into it, then serve to drooling patrons. In the case of the Royal Reese’s Fluffernutter, we’re talking a Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard with a core of creamy marshmallow fluff. It comes out ooey-gooey on the spoon, even though it’s cold, and each bite is a true experience.

Personally, it reminded me of Little Debbie Nutty Buddy Bars, which were my favorite 7-Eleven treat in college. I honestly cannot get enough of this specialty flavor and advise you to run, not walk, to your nearest DQ to try the flavor for yourself. You never know how long greatness will last.

If you like chocolate brownies, you will like this Blizzard. That’s it. That’s the review. In all seriousness, we are diehard chocolate fans in our family, so we were predestined to embrace this flavor … and it was the personal favorite of the Dairy Queen staff member who brought it to our table, which is saying something.

Overall, it had a nice, chocolatey flavor without being too overwhelming or dark. The small girl loved it, and the small boy thought the brownie bits melted really nicely, with a chewy-but-not-too-chewy effect we all appreciated. Chocolate lovers will have no complaints, and if you simply want a cookie dough alternative to mix it up, you’ll find the brownies have that same toothiness you’re looking for.

We pretty much love anything that has chunks of cookie dough in it, so the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Blizzard was kind of a shoo-in. It has a nice mild flavor, tasting exactly like a scoop of chocolate cookie dough ice cream you’d get at an ice cream shop. The chunks were soft rather than overly hard, as they sometimes are in store ice cream. They mixed perfectly with the vanilla soft-serve, and if that’s not enough, there was fudge blended in as well.

The best thing about this flavor is that the dough chunks tasted like something you might actually make in your kitchen at home. Some ice cream brands come off really fakey, but this one didn’t.

And here we have another specialty flavor with a gooey core: the Royal New York Cheesecake. This is basically the Strawberry Cheesecake Blizzard, but cored and filled with strawberry sauce. Obviously, you already know that strawberry goes well with rich, toothy cheesecake chunks and Graham cracker pieces. But I don’t think you can really imagine how good it is when doused with an extra serving of strawberry sauce that actually has big chunks of strawberry in it.

The only real complaint here is that if you’re not already a huge cheesecake fan, you might not love it. As discussed, the Strawberry Cheesecake flavor itself was, while good, not the most impressive flavor on the menu, so keep that in mind when ordering.

Soft-serve ice cream is a true godsend, transforming fast food desserts nearly 100 years ago. In all that time, it has never been put to better use than in the Butterfinger Blizzard, at least in my humble opinion. This one did not win first place because the children had other opinions, but the husband and I thought it was truly perfect. (That was the literal word he used to describe it: perfect.)

The Butterfinger came in chunks with substance but weren’t so large that they froze and became hard to chew. Instead, they blended perfectly with the soft-serve, the little pieces of crispy peanut butter core melting into the overall flavor. The small boy and girl, who’ve grown up in a time of more Blizzard options than we had, weren’t as into it, but they still thought it was good.

If you’re thinking that Cotton Candy sounds like a weird flavor for a Blizzard, you’re not alone. We were initially puzzled on a few levels. First, how well would the flavor of pure sugar blend into a cup of soft-serve? And second, how do you even combine cotton candy — known for its airy-fairy lightness — with a medium that is sure to melt it?

We needn’t have worried. The mix-ins came in crunchy bits that perfectly mimicked the clumps that cotton candy forms when you suck on it. So good. As for the flavor, it really did taste like what it was purported to be. Overall, it was purple and pink and delicious, and you should absolutely order it next time you’re at a DQ.

Here is a frozen treat truly worthy of Gwen Stefani, a queen who got her start at Dairy Queen (like a lot of other celebrities who started their careers in fast food). Plenty of offerings have landed on DQ’s list of discontinued menu items, but I don’t hesitate to claim that this will never be one of them. The Mint Oreo Blizzard combines mint flavor, pieces of classic Oreo cookies, and ye olde soft-serve to make something that is, in the truest sense of the word, inimitable.

Once again, you’ll enjoy pretty much anything on this menu, especially if the day is hot and you’re craving a sweet treat. But if you want to experience heaven in a paper cup, Mint Oreo is the way to go.

To determine our ranking, we tried each Blizzard in turn. The team that served us included CY Park, a business consultant for DQPNW, along with Store Manager Hanna Gonzalez, Franchisee Mohan Grewal, and his daughter Tara Grewal. They scheduled extra personnel just for us, so we got to try each Blizzard cold and right after the next. This gave us a true representation of the thickness and coldness of each treat as it came out. (Blizzards are meant to be sturdy enough to cling to the inside of an upside-down cup for 90 seconds, so temperature is important.)

We then photographed and tried each type in turn, learned a bit about each one from the people at the store where necessary, and discussed the merits of each. Factors included creaminess, blendability, flavor, and how much we liked the mix-ins. Afterwards, we ranked them by committee. While obviously opinions differed on exact placement, this ranking represents the agreement of your average and mostly sane American family of four.