The Truth About The Largest Dairy Queen Blizzard Ever Made
It's safe to say that Dairy Queen's Blizzard, a hefty mashup of ice cream and candy that's served with an upside down gimmick, is a uniquely American invention. It's a little over the top, but very delicious. So, it will come as no surprise that someone set out to engineer the biggest Dairy Queen Blizzard ever made, because it's hard to get more American than with the title "largest blended soft-serve dessert" in the Guinness World Records.
The Blizzard, for some background, was introduced to stores in 1985 and became an immediate hit (via New York Times). An owner of some 67 Dairy Queens in the area, Samuel J. Temperato in St. Louis, pitched the idea to senior Dairy Queen execs — although he credited a competitor selling frozen custard "Concretes" for the idea. The rival frozen dessert hawker wasn't a fan of candy in ice cream — but some might argue that extra element is what sold so many millions of Blizzards. Give the people their M&M's, Oreos and Snickers in a cup.
What brought on the biggest Blizzard ever?
Mark Cowles, another more recent franchise owner in Massachusetts, set out to create a giant dessert like the world had never seen in 1999, and did just that, making a Guinness World Record with a 5,316.6 pound Blizzard (via The Franchise Mall and Dairy Queen). But for Cowles, that just wasn't good enough. As part of the Blizzard's 20-year anniversary, he set out to break his own record in 2005. In that he succeeded, with a towering 22-foot Blizzard, weighing in at 8,224.85 pounds and using 700 gallons of ice cream.
The stunt, which took 20 volunteers, two weeks and over 3,000 pounds of crushed Oreos, was actually part of an event to raise money for the Children's Miracle Network, which helps children's hospitals around the U.S. and Canada. Oreo, according to The Franchise Mall, was DQ's most popular flavor, so of course it made sense to recreate a giant Blizzard with the iconic cookies. Was there a giant cup built for enough Blizzard to feed an entire state? The answer: of course there was. Well, it was more of a tube, and got filled by a trash can via a construction lift, per Facebook. Where all that ice cream went? We may never know.