History of the Blizzard®

A Blizzard-like product was in the DQ® system since the early 1950s. But it was a very loose affiliation of franchisees back then and the idea struggled. At that time it was a shake with less milk. They tried no milk at all...just soft serve and fruit topping. Though customers liked it, it was extra work and the shake was too thick. Franchisees got tired of burning out mixers, so it just faded away.

Fast forward 35 years and we began seeing independent ice cream shops that were mixing slabs of hard ice cream with candy. In St. Louis, one of our entrepreneurs added milk and blended everything together (spring of 1984). The idea traveled to Minneapolis and we knew it was a very big idea and we could market it nationally.

We needed to determine how thick the product needed to be, whether we would add milk (we decided no milk) or add candy...we originally decided no candy. A name? We tried the Concrete Blizzard. It didn't perform well with consumers. We pulled the product and started over again.

After two DQ franchisees developed a high-powered mixer, we looked at the product once more and determined that by adding branded candy we would have instant equity at no charge. We approached Heath, who bought a candy crusher and supplied DQ stores with bags of Heath bar bits. Soon, their Illinois plant went to capacity, crushing Heath candy bars 24 hours a day.

Oreo® originally told us we were crazy. Mars® said they would never alter their product (M&Ms). However, Hydrox® cookies said "yes."

By the end of 1985, Oreo and Mars changed their minds and signed up but none of them wanted to crush the product, so our operators did it themselves. However, that was too labor intensive. We accidentally created a cottage industry of candy and cookie crushers.

Though the product was introduced to franchisees at our 1984 DQ convention in Hawaii, it went into brief test market in the winter of 1984-85 and was officially launched in the spring of 1985. It was available in 10, 16 and 24 ounce cups. It was served upside-down with a spoon on the side.

The Blizzard Flavor Treat became an overnight sensation.

On May 2, 1985 the DQ system launched a network TV campaign for the Blizzard treat, combining the power of TV, the brand equity of Oreo, Mars and the like and the allure of DQ soft serve. We sold more than 75 million Blizzard Flavor Treats that first year.