As all of my readers already know, I love DQ – Dairy Queen. My love for DQ is unabashed and unabated. When I see a DQ sign my heart races. My spirit rises. My mouth opens.
Having said that, I must admit that I am a one track pony when it comes to what I order at DQ. I always order the exact same thing – a mint chocolate chip Blizzard. Never fails.
Not only do I love to consume the Blizzard, but also I can’t wait to watch the DQ employee just before she hands me the Blizzard, watch her turn the cup of mint chocolate chip upside down. Yes, indeed. The act of turning the Blizzard upside down is sooooo cool. The Blizzard stays in place even though you think it shouldn’t, as shown by Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway is the owner of the DQ holding company.
It sends me a message – a message that my Blizzard is a real one, not a phony one. It tells me that my Blizzard has character. It has its own hutzpah. It knows who it is. It is a way of telling me that this Blizzard is specially made for me. it is more than a transaction. It is something that has some meaning.
As you can tell from my words, having a Blizzard is more than just consuming some “ice cream.” It is so much more.
I put “ice cream” in quotes because technically a Blizzard is not ice cream. In order to be ice cream you have to have a minimum butter fat content of 10%. DQ’s Blizzards only have 5% butterfat. What is it then? Some call it a milkshake-esque concoction. I call it a Blizzard.
DQ believes so much in its product that if the staff does not turn your Blizzard upside down before handing it to you, you are promised your Blizzard at no cost – free. I have learned that the reason that Blizzards do not fall out of their containers when turned upside down is that they have a high viscosity – the state of being thick and sticky. The reason their viscosity is so high is that they use emulsifiers, which are compounds that basically keep the ingredients from separating. The most common synthetic emulsifiers used are mono- and diglycerides and polysorbate 80. I realize that this is more information than you needed or wanted to know.
Blizzards were first introduced in 1985, almost 40 years ago. That year alone, DQ sold more than 100 million Blizzards. Wow!!
But, you may be asking, why am I recounting for you the reasons that I love DQ. I have already written about DQ in the past. Please refer to my May 17, 2021 blog. Here is the link. https://neilstrips.com/dq/
There are two reasons I am writing about DQ again.
One, the DQ on Martha’s Vineyard has the smallest DQ sign that I have ever seen. And I have seen a lot of DQ signs in my day. It is so small that I almost missed it as I drove by. My guess for the reason this DQ sign is so small is that the Town of Edgartown has a sign ordinance that limits the size and location of commercial signs.
Two, to my knowledge there are NO fast-food outlets on Martha’s Vineyard – no McDonald’s, no Burger King, no Wendy’s, no Taco Time, no KFC. The one and only exception is the DQ in Edgartown. My question is how did this happen.
There are over 7,000 Dairy Queens in some 20 countries. 4353 are in the United States. The only state not to have a DQ is Vermont. How did DQ get to be the one and only fast food outlet on the island of Martha’s Vineyard? That is the question.
The best answer I can come up with after talking to Denise, the Manager of the DQ in Edgartown, is that DQ was there first. According to her, DQ started in Edgartown in 1940. If she is correct, that means that Edgartown’s DQ started in the very first year there were any Dairy Queens anywhere in the country. Apparently on Martha’s Vineyard Dairy Queen was there before the other fast food chains tried to get in.
There may be other reasons too. My research into this question is just starting.
What I do know is thank goodness that we have a DQ in Edgartown. And thank goodness DQ’s have Blizzards. And thank goodness that DQ Blizzards have the flavor of mint chocolate chip.
Do you think there will be a DQ in heaven? I sure hope so.
Years ago Dairy Queen ahd super tasty soft ice cream that I enjoyed even though they did not upset it in front of me. About the time they backed off the “cream” to only 5%, jammed in the diglyserides so they could upset the cup they changed the name to DQ. Perhaps to accurately mean Diglyseride Queen?
Here in Canada they sadly quit serving the Dilly Bar (round ice cream on a stick, dipped in chocolate and refrozen), which was Liz’s favorite DQ item.
Oops, read ahd =had
Neil you bring back many childhood memories….that’s a Bee and a Bye and a Bow and a Bop…that’s Dairy Queen with a curl on top!
I love how often DQ has appeared in your blogs! A true love affair!
Wow, memories! As a Rhode Island teen, I spent four summers (‘55-‘59) working with my best buddy on Cape Cod—3 as kitchen boys at summer camps for kids who could afford to send them there, and one delivering milk! Two summers were at Camp Quanset for girls (no contact allowed) off Quanset Road. We lived at a shack at the camp, behind the kitchen and played BB on our breaks. Then, sometimes after work, to have something different to do, we’d walk/thumb a coupla miles or more to Orleans and buy ice cream at the DQ there. And walk/thumb back! Big night out!