Hadley Fruit Orchards | Trail Mix & Date Shakes in California

California’s Date Shake

Long ago, when America saw California as paradise, dates were an emblem of its appeal. Grown in the stately palm groves of the Coachella Valley, the luxury fruit inspired the date shake. Date shakes have since gone beyond the desert. All of Southern California embraces them. Health food cafes everywhere make their own versions. Hadley Fruit Orchards, which claims to have invented trail mix, is a great place to confront a date shake.

How Rich Is It?

As if an ordinary milk shake isn’t creamy-rich enough, chopped dates blended with ice cream make this beverage as intense as sweetened condensed milk. Hadley Fruit Orchard, just off I-10, makes some of the best. They crowd the prodigious drink with so many bits of fruit and blend it so thick that sucking it up a straw presents a challenge. Get a hunk of date stuck in the straw and you’re in big trouble. Hadley offers them in regular, large, and giant sizes. Giant devastates appetite as much as a pint of superpremium ice cream. For further enrichment, lusty customers ask to have bananas included in the shake.

The Origin of Trail Mix

Hadley company history says that Paul Hadley invented trail mix. He conceived it as “a nutritious snack food to sustain hikers in the neighboring San Jacinto Mountains.” Hadley’s original trail mix includes Ruby raisins, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, peanuts, almonds, and cashews. They make it salted and salt-free, raw and roasted. Modern variations include a spicy/hot combo, an Aztec mix with chocolate dots, and an “Orient meets West” mix that features crispy green peas and sesame sticks.

Have a Fluffernutter!

A small cafe adjoins the giant provisions store that anchors Hadley’s spiffy location just off the interstate. Hungry travelers come for such casual sit-down dishes as sandwiches, burgers, soups, and salads. Among the panini you will find a unique version of the Fluffernutter. In addition to traditional marshmallow Fluff and chunky peanut butter (Hadley’s own), it contains a layer of Nutella. Grilling melds ingredients together and creates a supremely messy sandwich that is indulgence incarnate.