I've been the in the Palm Springs/Palm Desert area for about 3 weeks, this area is famous for the date shake. My first date shake was last year, when we drove up from the Slabs to Oasis Date Garden and had shakes and many date samples. This year I tried three different stores, all recommended for the date shakes. Besides Oasis, I tried Shields Date Garden and Hadleys Date and Fruit Stand. While Oasis has a good shake and they use date puree, Shields tastes better, more date flavor and you could taste date through the last drop, whereas the Oasis, after a while, you could not taste the dates. Shields uses date flakes, and it's important for them to sit a while in the ice cream for full flavor.
However, neither have the flavor and creaminess of the Hadleys Date Shake, made with real ice cream and date puree, plenty of it, the Hadleys shake was creamy and tasty to the last drop, and then I wanted more, if I wasn't 50 miles away from the store, I would be tempted to have one every day. So far, of the ones I've tried, Hadleys takes the WIN. The sampling room at Oasis make the stop worth while, you can get your fill of dates for free, then you want to take some home too.
