Date Shake

Date Shake

At the beginning of the health food movement in the early 1950’s, Kayser’s opened in Santa Barbara. It was one of the first health food stores, a trend that over the years became more mainstream. Jonathan Kauffman writes about this movement in his excellent book titled Hippie Food, which, by the way, was listed as one of The New Yorker Magazine’s Best Food Books of 2018. 

In addition to the vitamins, nutritional powders, herbs, and teas, that Kayser’s offered,  for many of us Kayser’s was synonymous with the Hercules Flip, a smoothie made with protein powder, milk, and raw egg (back when we ate them uncooked and lived to tell). The New York Times even came once to review the place and the flip.

In my teenage years, my friends and I would belly up to the blender bar and order a Hercules flip or one of the other that were offered like the Monkey Flip (with banana and peanut butter), or Fruit Flip (with blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, or whatever else was on hand behind the counter). Kayser’s was an institution with a soundtrack of whirring blenders. 

They also made a Date Shake. I never got the recipe for it, but I think this might be as close as you can get. Smoothies offer plenty of latitude for experimentation and variation. Enjoy! 

One of my favorite views ever…the Santa Barbara Mission.

Print Recipe

5 from 2 votes

Date Shake

A taste of my younger years growing up in Santa Barbara. 

Ingredients

• 5 or so Medjool Dates take the big pits out
• 1 banana
• 1/4 cup cashews
• 1 cup almond milk or other milk of your choice

Other Addition Ideas:

• Apple
• Cocoa powder
• Nutritional powder of you choice
• Vanilla extract
• Orange Extract

Instructions

• Place the dates, banana, cashews, and almond milk in the blender.
• Be sure to put the top on the blender. Blend until smooth-ish.
• Enjoy!

Notes

Notes: If the shake is too thick, thin it with a little more milk or water.