The Discontinued Dairy Queen Treat You Can Only Find In Minnesota
With its global presence of 7,500 locations in 20 countries, Dairy Queen has become one of the most recognizable ice cream icons. Its innovations, from the Dilly Bar to the Blizzard and beyond, mean that Dairy Queen has been pushing the chilled dessert envelope to great heights. While many of its inventions have become Dairy Queen mainstays, others slowly disappeared from the menu. There are times, however, when there is no need to let go of something good, even when it has been widely discontinued. That is especially true for one Dairy Queen location: the Historic Moorhead site, located in Moorhead, Minnesota.
At the Moorhead location, menu items that have been removed from other Dairy Queens live on, one of which being Monkey Tails. Monkey Tails are frozen bananas on a stick and dipped in chocolate. They are a truly simple yet undeniably satisfying frozen dessert that gives chocolate-covered strawberries a run for their money. A far cry from the typical frozen chocolate bananas you might make at home, Monkey Tails are the perfect combination of crunchy chocolate and soft, sweet bananas.
Why can the Moorhead location serve Monkey Tails?
At most locations, Monkey Tails are just one of many discontinued Dairy Queen items that aren't coming back. Sometimes referred to as the "Rebel" Dairy Queen, the Moorhead location, which opened in August of 1949, still operates under an early franchise contract that allows them to continue serving discontinued items like Monkey Tails. If you ever find yourself in Minnesota, adding a trip to the Moorhead Dairy Queen and a Monkey Tail to your order is a must-do (plus, you can take a picture next to the world's largest Dilly Bar while you're there).
As time passes, the connection between Monkey Tails and Dairy Queen may weaken, but the idea of a chocolate-covered frozen banana will remain; there are already guides for using popsicle sticks and bananas to create frozen treats – undeniably similar to Monkey Tails — at home. The only thing missing from this is the Dairy Queen experience.