The Date Shake: A Recipe From the Farm That Grows the Dates

The date shake was invented a few miles from our farm. The story most people tell credits a roadside date shop down-valley in the 1930s, and the drink has been the Coachella Valley’s signature ever since — if you’ve driven through Palm Springs or out to Joshua Tree, somebody probably told you to stop for one. Here’s the thing the roadside stands know and the recipe blogs usually miss: the shake is only as good as the dates. There are four ingredients and one of them does all the work.

The farm recipe (one blender, five minutes)

Makes two shakes:

• 6 jumbo Medjool dates, pitted (about 5 oz)
• 1 cup whole milk, cold
• 3 big scoops vanilla ice cream (about 1½ cups)
• Pinch of salt

The trick: blend the pitted dates with just the milk first, a full 60 seconds, before the ice cream goes in. Dates are fibrous — dumped in all at once they stay as flecks. Milk-first, they dissolve into a caramel base, which is why a stand’s shake tastes smoother than most homemade ones. Then add the ice cream and salt, pulse until just combined (over-blending melts it thin), and pour.

If your dates are firm: soak them in the cup of milk for 15 minutes before blending. Shortcut version: 3 tablespoons of date paste straight into the blender does the same job.

Variations we actually drink

Breakfast shake — swap the ice cream for a frozen banana and a cup of ice. All fruit, still tastes like dessert.

Coffee date shake — add a shot of espresso or 2 tablespoons cold brew to the base. The valley stands sell this one as fast as the original.

Salted almond — 1 tablespoon almond butter and a bigger pinch of salt.

Which date to use

Medjool, and it isn’t close — soft enough to blend, caramel enough to carry the drink. That’s what every stand in the valley uses. Ours are in stock from $19, this season’s harvest, and when the crop sells through it’s gone until next fall. A firmer Zahidi works if you soak it, but the shake comes out nuttier and less sweet.

If you’d rather buy one at a counter

No hard feelings — the roadside date stands are a genuine piece of California, and we wrote honestly about the most famous one in Hadley’s vs Desert Sun Dates. Headed to the high desert instead? Here’s our Joshua Tree page. And a cafe blending shakes by the dozen should look at our bulk cases from $9.00/lb.

More ways to use the crop in our recipe collection.

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Written by Jason Shopshear, who grows Medjool, Zahidi and Barhi dates at Desert Sun Dates in Sky Valley, California — in the valley that invented this drink. Questions? The farm phone is (760) 501-1845.