How The Date Shake Became The "Unofficial" Drink of Palm Springs

Above, Hadley Fruit Orchards in Cabazon, where I discovered date shakes. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

There is an "unofficial" drink of Palm Springs.

I have been aware of this drink since the 1960s when we would visit my grandmother in 29 Palms, California and stop at Hadley Fruit Orchards on the way home and buy ourselves some.

It is the date shake.

Condé Nast Traveler has an article on how the date shake became the unofficial drink of Palm Springs.

They begin with:

Although southern California's Coachella Valley is better known for the annual music festival bearing its name, it's also the place where more than 90 percent of the world's dates are grown. The warm, dry climate is perfect for the sweet fruits and the palm trees they grow on, but not all of the dates are exported. The founders of Shields Date Garden in Indio, which features a series of sculptures portraying events from Jesus's life alongside their date palms, came up with a way to crystallize the dates, turning them into something resembling oatmeal. Someone—no one is positive who—then came up with the idea of mixing them with ice cream, thus creating the unofficial beverage of Palm Springs: the date shake.

To read more, go here.