Finding Minnesota

EDINA, Minn. (WCCO) ― Do the words "Dilly Bars, Blizzards, Buster Bars" mean anything to you? If so, then you know the Dairy Queen menu pretty well and you are not alone. The fast food restaurant has been around for almost 70 years.

What you may not know is that the international corporate headquarters for Dairy Queen are in the Twin Cities. When you've been around since 1940 like Dairy Queen has, you have lots of stories to share.

Dairy Queen beefed up its menu when it started selling hot food in 1958 and added the Blizzard in 1985.

Today there are 255 Dairy Queen restaurants in Minnesota and nearly 6,000 worldwide. You'll find them in China, Mexico, the Philippines and even on military bases in Afghanistan.

Right off Highway 100 in Edina, you'll find Dairy Queen worldwide headquarters. The first CEO was from Minnesota, so he chose the Twin Cities for its international corporate center in the 1960s.

Executives in the state believe people feel connected to the Dairy Queen brand.

"In many ways it's one of those things that if you enjoyed it as a kid and now you're an adult, you want to introduce it to your kids. It sort of creates this cycle that doesn't stop," said Dairy Queen Chief Marketing Officer Michael Keller.

The first Dairy Queen opened in 1940 in Joliet, Ill.

A man nicknamed "Grandpa" McCollough and his son are credited with experimenting with the ice cream-making process in an effort to make something different.

Keller described the pair's predicament.

"One of the things that they believed is that ice cream, as it was up until then, which was served rock hard, solid and served near zero degrees, that ice cream had the effect of numbing your taste buds, making it almost harder to taste. They wondered if there wasn't a way to serve ice cream warmer, softer so that more of the flavors could be released," said Keller.

The result is what you find at Dairy Queen today -- reduced fat ice cream called "soft serve."

That little curl you consistently see at the top of a Dairy Queen cone takes some training to learn how to do properly. It's also trademarked.

As you may have guessed, the Blizzard is Dairy Queen #1-selling treat. Among the Blizzards, the Oreo flavor is the best selling.

At corporate headquarters in Edina, Dairy Queen research and development laboratory is where the magic happens. It's where food technologists, jokingly called "blizzard wizards" or flavor-meisters," come up with new recipes for treats and food.

"This is where we do a lot of our blizzard work. We have all the same equipment that you would find in our stores ...and we're able to store a lot of the ingredients. A lot of the mixing and testing and experimenting and tasting all goes on in this room," said Keller.

You'll find historical photos of Dairy Queen's early days on the walls of most of the new "Grill and Chill" Dairy Queen. It's an effort to connect with the community and show off the company's proud past.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffet owns Dairy Queen parent company. The folks at Dairy Queen headquarters said they think Buffet bought Dairy Queen in 1998 because he really likes Dilly Bars.

The Blizzard of the month for May is Raspberry Truffle and in June they are bringing back the popular Brownie Batter Blizzard.

On Dairy Queen's Web site you can sign up to receive coupons or join the Blizzard Fan Club.

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