Date Shake

The date shake grew out of the Coachella Valley date industry, planted in the California desert from imported Middle Eastern and North African offshoots around the turn of the twentieth century. Its birth is usually credited to Russell Nicoll, who founded the Valerie Jean Date Shop near Thermal in 1928 and is said to have blended chopped dates into a vanilla milkshake; the drink was described in the Los Angeles Times by 1932 and was a known local specialty by the late 1930s. There is no single undisputed inventor, but it became a valley institution through the famous date-garden purveyors — Shields Date Garden in Indio, founded 1924 and which patented its own date crystals in 1936, and Hadley's near Cabazon, founded 1931 — whose roadside stands turned it into a desert-tourism tradition.

Thick enough to climb up the straw, cold and creamy, with the clean vanilla of the ice cream carrying a deep brown-sugar, honeyed date sweetness underneath. Tiny soft bits of date give it a faint chew and a fragrant, almost malty finish; it is rich and dessert-sweet without tasting of added sugar.

Dates are the engine. They are roughly two-thirds sugar by weight — mostly glucose and fructose — concentrated in soft flesh, so a handful sweetens the shake while also adding body and the toffee notes that form as the fruit cures and its sugars brown. Blending shears the date flesh into a fine pulp whose pectin and fiber thicken the drink and help hold it together. The ice cream supplies fat and air: its emulsified butterfat coats the tongue for creaminess, and the air whipped in during freezing (its overrun) gives the shake lightness, while just enough cold milk loosens everything to a pour. Soaking firmer dates in warm milk first softens them so they purée smoothly instead of leaving gritty bits.