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A tall glass of frappé

Greek frappé (Greek : Φραπέ ) is a beverage derived from freeze dried instant coffee that is consumed cold. It is very popular in Greece especially during summer but also found in other countries.

Frappé dates back to the 1957 International Trade Fair in Thessaloniki. The representative of the Nestlé company, Yiannis Dritsas, was exhibiting a new product for children, a chocolate beverage produced instantly by mixing it with milk and shaking it in a shaker. Dritsas' employee Vakondios was looking for a way to have his usual instant coffee during his break but he could not find any hot water. So he took the decision to use cold water and a shaker, creating the first frappé coffee.

Since then, the product has been marketed chiefly by Nestlé and has had great success in Greece. More recently, Kraft, under the Jacobs label, have launched their own brand of frappé.

Frappé is also consumed in Thailand, Malaysia, and in recent years Balkan immigrants in Greece have taken frappé to their homelands, where it has been adopted with some differences. In Bulgaria, coca-cola is sometimes used instead of water, and in Serbia, ice-cream is always added. In Italy, an iced-coffee called cappuccino frédo has emerged.

Greek frappé coffee (*)

The word frappé is french and means shaken. In France and in New England a frappé is a milkshake beverage produced by mixing milk or fruit juices in a shaker without coffee and thus it has no relationship to Greek frappé.

Frappé comes in various tastes, determined by the amount of coffee, sugar or milk used.

A frappé glykós (IPA /ɣli'kos/) is sweet, a metrios is medium, and a sketos contains no sugar. A frappé gala (/'ɣala/) or φραπόγαλο frapógalo (/fra'poɣalo/) comes with milk, a frappé horis gala without milk.

Ingredients

2 tspoons instant coffee (add 1 tspoon if you prefer your coffee light)
3/4 cup of cold water
1 tspn sugar (optional)
Milk (optional)
2-4 ice cubes

Directions

a nice view greatly enhances the enjoyment of frappé!

Put the coffee and sugar into a tall glass and add a finger of water (4-5 tspn).
Mix with a small handleld blender until a thick and foamy mixture is produced.
Add the rest of the water, the ice cubes and milk.
Slowly sip with a straw, which can be used to mix the coffee and sugar if some settles on the bottom of the glass.
Add more cold water if required.

Alternatively (and traditionally), a shaker can be used. In this case the first two steps are substituted with the following:

Put the coffee and sugar into a shaker and add a finger of water (4-5 tspn).
Shake until you cannot hear the water. A thick and foamy mixture has been produced.
Pour the mixture in a tall glass.

Variants

Use iced filtered coffee instead of instant coffee and water.

Use iced cubes made of coffee.

See also

Cuisine of Greece

Ancient Greece

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