30 Scoops in 30 Days: Hadley's Fruit Orchard (Day 27)

By Elina Shatkin Fri., Jul. 8 2011 at 1:00 PM

The road to Palm Springs is dotted with three inevitable roadside attractions: Indian casinos, outlet malls and date shakes. None of these are much fun, but date shakes may be the worst. Date palms aren't native to the region (you'd have to travel to the Persian Gulf area to find their roots), but the Coachella Valley has taken to the crop with ferocity and now produces about 95% of the dates consumed in the United States. Unfortunately, the region's signature preparation of the fruit, the date milkshake, is possibly the worst way to experience the fruit.

The date shake is a monotonous concoction, drowning all the subtlety of date varietals in a sea of sugar and ice cream. It's sweet on top of sweet on top of grit. That hasn't stopped restaurants and roadside stands from marketing the hell out of the date shake, and few places are better known for it than Hadley Fruit Orchards.

As the Coachella Valley's own version of Casa de Fruta, Hadley trades in dried fruit, candy, nuts, snacks and, naturally, dates. They sell several varieties -- medjool, barhi, deglet noor, abbada -- but it won't matter if you're getting a date shake. The employees won't know what kind of dates they're putting in, and even if they did, you probably wouldn't be able to taste the difference.

Order a date shake from Hadley's and you get a styrofoam cup of sweet, gritty milkshake flecked with the occasional tidbit of chewy date and rife with an intense but undistinguishable sweetness. There's no fast-food chain on the planet that makes a more mouth-puckeringly sweet dessert than the typical date shake. Hadley's also offers a date-banana shake, which simultaneously paradoxically has the effect of giving the shake more depth of flavor but further blanketing the date flavor. Why not just cut out the middleman and pour a half a cup of sugar straight into your mouth?

Dates have a profound sweetness but a subtle flavor. If you want to enhance a loaf of bread or a lamb tagine or even a milkshake, they're excellent natural sweetners. If you want to actually experience the date qua date, skip the milkshakes and stick to the fruit.

Previously...

Day 26: Lappert's

Day 25: Handel's

Day 24: Farrell's

Day 23: Saffron Spot

Day 22: Milk

Day 21: Paradis

Day 20: Pazzo

Day 19: Bulgarini

Day 18: Bennett's Ice Cream

Day 17: GO Burger

Day 16: Carvel 90210

Day 15: Delicieuse

Day 14: Manhattan Beach Creamery

Day 13: Jerry's Soda Shoppe

Day 12: N'ice Cream

Day 11: Gelato Bar

Day 10: Kind Kreme

Day 9: Rite Aid

Day 8: Saffron & Rose

Day 7: Carmela Ice Cream

Day 6: Mikawaya

Day 5: Grom Gelateria

Day 4: Sweet Rose Creamery

Day 3: Fosselman's

Day 2: Mateo's Ice Cream & Fruit Bars

Day 1: Scoops Westside

Day 0: It Begins!

Location Info

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Hadley Fruit Orchards

48980 Seminole Drive, Cabazon, CA

Category: General

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Cabazon, Date Shake, Dates, Elina Shatkin, Hadley Fruit Orchards, Ice Cream, Milkshake, Palm Springs

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darshan

This place is amazing. i mean it i wasn't in the neighborhood i wouldn't stop by, but it is a nice place to get trader type of items. I am still dreaming about their amazing oriental mix.I strongly recommend dropping by on your next trip up the coast.

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darshan

I read this post..it is very nice posting..The milk and produce in Israel is so divine, there's really no need to ruin it with processed sugar. thank s for posting this..

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darshanemallindias

It is nice article.This article reflects just one person's opinion. .The date shake is a monotonous concoction, drowning all the subtlety of date varietals in a sea of sugar and ice cream...

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CV Native

This article reflects just one person's opinion. Date shakes are delicious, quircky and ought to be tried at least once if you like sweets. Not everything needs to be so refined. BTW - Hadley's is not in the Coachella Valley; Palm Springs is the western boundary...

Aaron Stein-Chester

Who drinks a milkshake in the middle of Palm Desert to experience, "the subtlety of date varietals?" Really? You were maybe expecting Scoops? Hadleys isn't a chic urbanite creamery. It works like this: it's a 100 degrees, you're in a hot car driving to Palm Springs, and you stop for a frosty milkshake that so happens to be made at a date orchard. And yes, it's sweet. It's a milkshake, one, which is flavored by an intensely sweet fruit. Don't take the writer's advice. This place is absolutely worth a stop and is way, way better than the crummy outlet malls.

Watching the Riverflow

So why waste time on a place that tempts almost no one from Los Angeles when there are many more good ice-cream specialists to cover and you have but three dots left? To justify the trip to Palm Springs? LA Weekly should focus more on Bus 605: Customer Satisfaction, less on Acctng 101.

@Glutton_In_LA

Aw, this makes me sad. Growing up I used to love Hadley's date shakes... not that I knew any better. But when I went to Israel at 16 years old it was the first time that I really, fully was able to experience the beauty of the date shake, its creamy simplicity, not overly sweet, but just sweet and chunky enough. The milk and produce in Israel is so divine, there's really no need to ruin it with processed sugar. Sigh.