Does Dairy Queen Still Serve The Orange Julius Drink?

Dairy Queen's Orange Julius is the perfect treat –- not quite a soda, not quite a milkshake, with a unique orange creamsicle flavor and light yet creamy texture. It's tart, it's refreshing, it's frothy, and it's basically a smoothie. What more could you want in a beverage? The only problem with the Orange Julius is that it can be tough to find. Just a few decades ago, this would have been unthinkable. Orange Julius was once a shopping mall food court staple, with hundreds of locations across the Americas and Asia. There was nothing better than strolling through the mall, washing down your favorite Auntie Anne's pretzel with a fresh Orange Julius. 

Unfortunately, as shopping malls have declined, so, it seems, has Orange Julius. Around 2019, Dairy Queen discontinued the citrusy beverage at its Grill & Chill locations. Nowadays, the Orange Julius can only be purchased at some Dairy Queen Treat Centers. The Dairy Queen website claims, rather vaguely, that the Orange Julius is available at participating locations only. On the official Orange Julius website, you can look up locations near you by city, state, or zip code.

Orange Julius wasn't always owned by Dairy Queen -– the company was founded by a man named Julius (shocking, we know). As legend has it, this particular Julius was named Julius Freed, and he opened an orange juice stand in Los Angeles in 1926. The stand was modestly successful until 1929, when Freed's friend Bill Hamlin suggested that he mix his fresh-squeezed orange juice with a few other ingredients to make it less acidic. Hamlin's motivation was to create a citrusy beverage that wouldn't upset his stomach, but the frothy result was, as we all know, quite delicious in its own right. When Julius started selling the newly formulated orange beverage at his stand, sales skyrocketed and the Orange Julius quickly became a classic.

In 1987, Orange Julius was purchased by Dairy Queen. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, it thrived as an iconic shopping mall brand with hundreds of locations across the country, embedding itself in the core mall memories of millions of Americans. Some even say Orange Julius helped inspire the creation of wildly successful smoothie chains like Jamba Juice — now named just Jamba) and Smoothie King.

If you're not lucky enough to live near one of the select Dairy Queen Treat Centers that offer Orange Julius, we're truly sorry. Luckily, it is possible to recreate the iconic taste of an Orange Julius at home. According to Dairy Queen, the frothy drink contains real orange juice blended with a secret ingredient. The official Orange Julius ingredient list includes frozen concentrated orange juice, sugar, egg white solids, and a slew of gums and stabilizers you probably don't keep in your home kitchen. As for that secret ingredient, some speculate that it's baking soda, powdered egg whites, malt powder, or even instant vanilla pudding mix. 

The good news is, you can whip up a fairly spot-on Orange Julius at home, no mysterious powder necessary. Many variations and copycat recipes can be found online, but most call for some blend of frozen concentrated orange juice, ice, egg whites, vanilla extract, and sugar. For a fun twist, you could even make an Orange Whip, a creamy orange juice cocktail which some have compared to an alcoholic Orange Julius. Who needs Dairy Queen?