I’ve been a little preoccupied all month, hence the lack of reviews, but I found some free time on the first day of the month to check out Dairy Queen’s Blizzard of the month for October: Pumpkin Pie. This combination of pumpkin pie pieces blended in creamy vanilla soft serve crowned with whipped topping and nutmeg sounded like the perfect way to reward myself after a strenuous leg workout with plenty of heavy squats and lunges. Since starting this blog last year, I’ve been waiting for someone to churn out a product that does the pumpkin pie ice cream concept justice. Turkey Hill’s version with a cinnamon graham cracker swirl was the best I’d had, but I'd still seen plenty of room for improvement. After driving down the street to my local Dairy Queen and seeing the picture on the drive-thru sign, I went ahead and splurged for the medium.
I paid my $3.69 plus tax and pulled around to await my 770-calorie introduction to the fall season. The cup handed to me by the attendant was by far the best-looking Blizzard I’d received to date. It even looked better than the one on the advertisement; something that rarely happens. All the components were easily identifiable and had been left thick and chunky. The whipped topping dusted with orange nutmeg made this one of the most aesthetically pleasing ice creams I’ve photographed. Perhaps the most surprising part of all were the large concentrations of actual pumpkin pie filling. This also happened to be one of those cups that made it practically impossible to taste the vanilla base by itself. My best option was to just dig right in the way Dairy Queen had intended and that's what I did.
As expected, there was no lack of texture in this one. The pumpkin-infused, vanilla soft serve envelopes the light whipped topping, thick pumpkin pie puree and the same crunchy pie crust pieces that we’ve seen in their Lemon Meringue Pie and Banana Cream Pie Blizzards. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what component contributes the most, but they result is an easy A. My Dairy Queen always seems to impress with the amount of mix-ins they include in my cups, but this one was just outrageous. I would be willing to say the ratio of soft serve to pumpkin pie pieces was close to even. This also managed to come off as the most authentic pumpkin pie flavored ice cream I’ve had; largely because it’s mostly made up of pumpkin puree and pie crust squares. Hopefully, like the S’mores Blizzard from summer, Dairy Queen will keep this one around all season instead of just this month. With that said, it would still be nice to see this same concept and over-the-top mix-ins used by a super-premium ice cream company.
Where I Found It: Dairy Queen
Grade: A
