I Tried Dairy Queen’s New Fall Menu, and DQ Has a Winner on Its Hands

It seems like every summer, well before a single leaf has struck the ground, fast-food chains across the country make their latest attempts to break the spell that pumpkin spice has on many of us each fall. However, most of them fail—and pumpkin spice emerges again and again as the dominant flavor profile of the season.

This year, just in time for the Labor Day holiday weekend, Dairy Queen is adding not one, but two new contenders for the fall flavor crown, and you just know we had to get a taste of them as soon as we could.

What’s on Dairy Queen’s new fall menu? 

The two new fall items at Dairy Queen this year are a Caramel Toffee Cookie Blizzard Treat and a Maple Cookie Shake. They are joined by the return of DQ’s popular seasonal Pumpkin Pie Blizzard Treat.

The Caramel Toffee Cookie Blizzard Treat features caramel, toffee, and thick, chewy cookie pieces, blended with the chain’s signature soft serve. The Maple Cookie Shake consists of soft serve blended with milk and maple cookie crumbles, all topped with whipped cream.

What do the new Dairy Queen fall menu items taste like?

I ordered both new items through Dairy Queen’s website, and they arrived promptly at my front door. I had to start with the Maple Cookie Shake.

Because I already love the flavor of maple in maple recipes, I had a suspicion I would enjoy the shake—and that suspicion was correct. It was sweet but not overly so, evoking a strong fall nostalgia. The maple flavor came through strongly, with a slight hint of caramel I was also detecting, and it was nicely balanced by the vanilla soft serve and milk. The cookie crumbles broke up the shake’s richness by offering a contrasting texture. All in all, this shake was delicious.

I was less enthusiastic about the Caramel Toffee Cookie Blizzard Treat, as all the different elements felt a bit at odds with each other. For me, the crunch of the toffee and chew of the caramel didn’t pair together seamlessly with the flavor and texture of the soft serve and cookie pieces. But most importantly, it didn’t scream “fall” to me, which is what I was looking for—I think an apple element paired with either the caramel or the toffee would be even better.

Overall, the Maple Cookie Shake was my personal favorite between the two new fall Dairy Queen menu items—and, yes, I’d definitely order it again. Although it had fewer elements than the seasonal Blizzard, sometimes I think simpler is just better.

Your move, pumpkin spice.

Related:

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• 16 Dairy Queen Copycat Recipes