Tristan holding a Blizzard and McFlurry.
This Opinion article is part of a Narcity Media series. The views expressed are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Narcity Media.
As the warm weather starts to come to Canada, you might be looking for the perfect summer treat to help cool you off. And what better way to do so than with some ice cream from McDonald's or Dairy Queen?
So, to find out what tasty treat you should consume this summer, I sat down with three McFlurries and three DQ Blizzards to figure out what soft-serve-mix-in concoction is worth checking out. But I will admit that it's hard to go wrong with most ice cream treats.
Of course, it should be noted that part of the appeal of both is the varied and special new flavours each offers. But to determine who won this showdown, I ordered the exact same flavours from each and compared them.
I ordered the Skor, Smarties and Oreo varieties of both the McFlurry and the Blizzard, then determined who does it best.
Keep in mind, this is all my own opinion and there are probably new flavours at each that would probably knock my socks off, but that's not what we're doing today.
Along with that, I also know that DQ Blizzards are, across the board, more money than a McFlurry and that is always a huge factor when making your choice. But more expensive doesn't necessarily mean better... am I right?
So, here is the match-up in soft-serve ice cream flavours of three McDonald's McFlurry and Dairy Queen Blizzard treats.
Oreo
An Oreo Blizzard.
To me, the Oreo flavour is the gold standard of the blended soft-serve treat. And I have no science to back that up, it's vibes based.
However, I think if you can successfully pull off a cookies and cream treat, you're in a good place. It's simple and there's not a lot to hide the basic flavours of the soft serve and the cookie bits.
I think, generally, the Oreo McFlurry and the Oreo Blizzard do a pretty good job. But one definitely edges out the other.
When trying the McFlurry, the first thing I noticed was that the cookie crumbs were exactly that, crumbs. They weren't bits of broken-up cookie, which allowed for more of a crunch.
And while the soft-serve isn't as good as the stuff you get at DQ, I have a pretty solid nostalgic connection to it, so it's hard to discredit that.
When I scooped deeper into the treat, I, unfortunately, noticed that the cookie pieces weren't mixed very deep into the ice cream, and the bottom was mostly just plain soft serve.
As for Dairy Queen's Blizzard, it had much bigger chunks that were better distributed. Plus, the cookie pieces felt and tasted more like real cookie pieces as opposed to little crunchy crumbs.
The DQ soft serve was also rich and tasted like "real" ice cream.
Ultimately, I give a slight edge over to Dairy Queen for their Oreo Blizzard, even though I have a deep nostalgia for ice cream from those Golden Arches and their crunchy little bits.
Price:
Snack Sized Oreo McFlurry $3.29
Mini Oreo Blizzard: $4.59
Winner: Dairy Queen
Smarties
A Smarties Blizzard.
Moving on to the classic of Smarties. There was a nice mix-in of crushed-up smartie for both of these treats.
For some reason, neither opted for M&M's, which strikes me as maybe the more popular candy but definitely not the more Canadian.
When it comes to the McFlurry, McDonald's figured out a quite good dispersion of the pieces. They were well mixed in and they were a great size for providing the perfect amount of crunch in each bite.
Unfortunately, the Blizzard comes in with an added wrinkle to their treatment that almost doesn't make it fair. They've added a bit of chocolate sauce that swirls with the vanilla-flavoured soft serve really nicely.
The Smarties pieces in the DQ Blizzard also tasted and seemed a bit fresh.
While I'll give the trophy to Dairy Queen, I will admit they had an unfair advantage with that addition of the chocolate sauce.
But, on the other hand, Michael Phelps was born with the "unfair" advantage of really long arms and that doesn't mean he didn't win all those gold medals.
Price:
Snack Size Smarties McFlurry: $2.99
Mini Smarties Blizzard: $4.59
Winner: Dairy Queen
Skor
A Skor McFlurry.
Skor is another popular ice cream treat variety and it was a really close competition. However, spoiler alert, David seems to have slain Goliath.
Taking a few bites of the McFlurry from McDonald's, I found the pieces of crunchy, caramelly and chocolatey Skor were nice and crisp. They weren't too hard, but not so soft that you're eating them and not noticing there are mix-ins.
The chocolate from the candy came off into the ice cream just enough to give it a bit of a chocolatey tinge, especially as it started to melt slightly in the Toronto heat.
As for the Skor Blizzard from Dairy Queen, I think either the Skor bits weren't fresh enough, or maybe they were crushed into tiny pieces, but I found that I didn't get the texture of them in my bites.
While they, of course, tasted good and the flavour was there, I wasn't getting the full fun of a Blizzard — crunching into those bits.
And while the DQ soft serve is better, generally, I think the quality of the Skor mix-ins was better at McDonald's.
So, I'd say save your cash and get that McFlurry.
Price:
Snack Size Skor McFlurry: $3.29
Mini Skor Blizzard: $4.59
Winner: McDonald's
And now there you have it. While Dairy Queen won two out of three of the battles, McDonald's was able to clinch a win before the buzzer rang.
It should also be said that it's all ice cream at the end of the day, which means it's almost automatically pretty good. You'd have to really mess this up for it to be completely bad.
However, if you're like me and want to get into the nitty-gritty details, you can hopefully plan your summer ice cream eating a bit better with this guide.
Happy ice-creaming, Canada!
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