Great Shakes
Buttered Pecan Shake – Housemade Butterscotch Sauce and Toasted Buttered Pecans with Whipped Cream and a Miniature Donut
Date Walnut Shake – Coachella Valley Dates and Fresh Walnuts with Whipped Cream and a Miniature Donut
Said by many to be Palm Spring’s most essential eatery, a cumulative 5-star score amongst nearly 1,000 Visitors on Yelp and high marks on Tripadvisor as well as several national polls suggesting that Great Shakes lives up to its name in every way, it was just past noon on Saturday that a visit was paid to the small shop tucked next to a kitschy gift-store on South Palm Canyon Drive, the Halloween decoration suggesting “Enter if you Dare” really only applicable to those on a low-calorie diet.
Claiming to make “the world’s best Shakes, Malts and Floats” with a formula focused on using only All-natural antibiotic and hormone-free Ice Cream and top-quality ingredients including Organic local Produce as often as possible, guests entering Great Shakes will immediately be met by a smiling young clerk standing behind baskets of Candy, the chalkboard to her/his left listing some three-dozen selections available in sizes small, medium and large.
Offering free upgrades with Social Media Check-in, a deal that will save those looking for a little extra one dollar, it was after lengthy perusal of the list that a decision was made to order two $5.95 Shakes that are each delivered with a “Money-back Guarantee,” an admittedly nice touch though it seems hard to believe that such a thing is often necessary.
Eschewing Corn Syrup and even Milk in their Shakes, the Ice Cream instead chilled to a temperature that is neither so hard as to be clumpy nor too thin while several of the Syrups and Sauces as well as Whipped Cream are made on-site, it was immediately following payment that the young woman who took the order began to carefully measure and blend each drink before topping it with a swirl of Cream, crumbled Nuts and a Donut-hugged Straw, first sips finding the concoction a bit difficult to suck up but the flavors pure and rich with a velvety mouthfeel.
Undoubtedly a challenge to select just two flavors from a collection including everything from Chocolate Malt to Salty Caramel and Key Lime Pie, the endorsement as home of “Coachella Valley’s Best Date Shake” even seeing competition from seasonal Pumpkin Pie and Pistachio, it was nonetheless that tasting began with the local delicacy, some freshly ground Walnuts helping to mellow the Date’s intrinsic sweetness while childhood favorite Buttered Pecan was actually even better as a result of the housemade Butterscotch Sauce and plenty of house-buttered and toasted Nuts.
https://www.greatshakes.com/
