Every time I visit the Coachella Valley, I make a beeline for a sweet frozen treat I can only find in the California desert: a creamy date shake made with fruit picked right from the palm trees at Shields Date Garden.

I’ve been visiting California’s Coachella Valley every winter for more than a decade. During this time, I discovered a new favorite spectator sport (tailgating at polo matches), a new favorite landscape (the San Andreas Fault), and a new favorite snack: the date.

Maybe you view the date as a small, wrinkled, brown staple of sad dried fruit and nut platters. But in the desert, it’s a sweet sensation. To sample a date at its most succulent, take a trip back in time to Shields Date Garden in Indio. At this palm-filled farm, retro shop, café and soda fountain, the humble fruit gets its due.

Make a date at Shields Date Garden.

Back in 1924, Floyd and Bella Shields established Shields Date Garden in up-and-coming Indio. To stand out, Floyd did two things that endear him to me to this day. First, he created a presentation about date farming called The Romance and Sex Life of the Date, parts of which can still be seen today in the farm’s free, air-conditioned theater (it’s G-rated, I swear on my grandmother’s dried fruit compote). Second, he created date crystals; these freeze-dried dates resemble coarse sugar and are an integral part of my favorite desert dessert, the date shake.

Partake in date shake delights.

A date shake is a unique dessert creation. First, crystallized dates are blended with water to become a paste. That paste is frozen, then it’s blended with rich vanilla ice cream and cold milk to create a very sweet, icy milkshake. It’s so sweet, the first sip is reminiscent of sugar-coated Easter Peeps and a sack of frozen Halloween candy blended together. And it’s cold — arctic cold. Brain-freeze cold.

So what’s the draw? The date shake — when imbibed in the desert air under the majestic palms and the glowing sun — quickly becomes the stuff of dessert dreams. As it melts, the date’s initial slap-your-face sweetness fades to a funky, earthy fruitiness, and the extreme iciness becomes the perfect foil to the 100+ degree Coachella Valley heat. To sum it up: every time I order one, I take the first sip, exclaim, “Holy smokes, that’s sweet!”  and then, before I even know it, the entire creamy concoction is gone.

Indulge in a taste test.

Shields Date Garden has an outdoor café as well, offering salads and sandwiches served with date nut bread. But usually I head to the room-length counter filled with free samples of 16 different kinds of dates. Then I nibble my way down the line to figure out what I’m going to take home.

Shields offers many varietals you won’t find anywhere else — including the “blonde” and “brunette” dates. I’m partial to the Medjool dates, often called the “queen of dates,” which are soft and creamy and as sweet as a ripe banana. I always buy a pound of the royal fruit and a bag of date crystals (which I often add to oatmeal) to satisfy my date cravings when I’m back home.

But the date shake? That I save for my winter visits to Palm Desert; it’s just not the same to sip one without the palm trees and sunshine.