Why The Dairy Queen Oreo Blizzard Almost Didn't Happen

Though Kurt Vonnegut was onto something when he wrote, "Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, 'It might have been'" (via Goodreads), we think the words "Dairy Queen without the Oreo Blizzard" would make us pretty weepy. Lucky for us, this delicious combination of crunchy Oreo cookie chunks and sweet soft serve ice cream does exist today — but there was a time when its future was as speculative as science fiction.

When Dairy Queen first proposed the collab with Oreo, they were met with a hard "no." Oreo even went so far as to say the idea was "crazy," according to Franchise Times! What was DQ to do but go with another cookie? The franchise made a deal with Hydrox, a similar sandwich cookie, and created a new cookie-infused Blizzard flavor. 

In their first year of launching Blizzards, Dairy Queen sold 100 million of the popular new treats (via Franchise Times). Of course, it quickly became obvious to Oreo that Blizzards were taking the ice cream world by storm and, unfortunately for Hydrox, they finally took DQ up on its original offer. According to Mental Floss, Oreo is now one of the best-selling Blizzard flavors in the country.

Dairy Queen has launched quite an impressive number of Blizzard variations over the years. As you may have guessed, we are big fans of this classic American treat, and we have even gone so far as to rank their most popular flavors. (No reason to reach out to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, we are just doing our jobs.) But new Blizzard flavors seem to be popping up all the time.

The ever-innovative restaurant chain does not disappoint with more recent collaborations on their summer Blizzard menu, like the tempting Girl Scout Thin Mints Blizzard with chopped up thin mint cookies and mint blended with soft serve ice cream, and the just-try-to-stop-me Drumstick with Peanuts Blizzard that includes chocolate-coated waffle cone pieces and chopped peanuts (via Taste of Home). 

Though we are still sulking over the discontinued Nerds Blizzard — but, hey they brought back the Frosted Animal Cookie Blizzard for the summer, per Thrillist, so there is still hope! — we are willing to risk a brain freeze anytime to throw back a spoon of any one of these summertime specialties!