What happened to the Butter Tart Blizzard?
Dairy Queen’s super-secret Ontario menu item has disappeared
This week in sort-of-secret collaborations you never knew you needed until now: Dairy Queen’s most iconic ice cream dessert mashed up with Ontario’s most iconic pastry to form the Butter Tart Blizzard. The off-menu item was available only at the Port Colborne store (which also happens to be the oldest free-standing DQ in Canada).
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It’s unclear exactly when local sweet tooths started picking up treats at the Butter Tart Shack, just three minutes away, and bringing them in to DQ for the Blizzard treatment. But don’t pack up the car for a road trip just yet.
Word got out about Port Colborne’s sweet ritual earlier this month when local food influencer Tastes of Niagara posted about it on TikTok, attracting the attention of butter tart enthusiasts but also of—sigh—Dairy Queen’s corporate overlords. (The controversial video has since been removed from Tastes of Niagara’s account.)
“We got a visit from Dairy Queen HQ,” says an employee at the Butter Tart Shack, explaining that they had been instructed to cease and desist. Thus, the unsanctioned marriage of American soft serve and Canadian confectionery is no more—at least for now.
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It’s possible that everything could still work out: the same Butter Shack team member said that they’re currently in talks with DQ and working on the possibility of doing something on a bigger scale. So maybe by next summer the Butter Tart Blizzard will be a reality. Until then, please send thoughts and prayers—but no raisins.
Courtney Shea is a freelance journalist in Toronto. She started her career as an intern at Toronto Life and continues to contribute frequently to the publication, including her 2022 National Magazine Award–winning feature, “The Death Cheaters,” her regular Q&As and her recent investigation into whether Taylor Swift hung out at a Toronto dive bar (she did not). Courtney was a producer and writer on the 2022 documentary The Talented Mr. Rosenberg, based on her 2014 Toronto Life magazine feature “The Yorkville Swindler.”
