Greek Coffee Part 2: The Frappe
In the medieval village where I stayed on Chios, there were no fancy iced coffees.
Bah! The village cafe owners were clear: if you didn’t drink traditional hot, foamy, briki-heated coffee, you were not drinking Greek coffee.
However, in Athens, a huge, historic, metropolitan city located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa, there are no such limitations.
View of Athens from Mount Lycabettus, July 2021
Athens is chock full of espressos, cappuccinos, lattes, and their freddo (iced) cousins. And these Italian favorites aren’t even the famous iced Greek frappes that everyone talks about. Be it a freddo version of your favorite Italian coffee or the Nescafe-swirled frappe, everywhere I turned I saw locals and tourists alike walking around with dome-topped takeaway cups, thin black straws peeking out the top, dark iced coffee on the bottom half and a light frothy foam all the way to the top of the dome.
Greek Frappe to Go
Here’s what I learned:
1. The first Greek frappe was invented in 1957 at the Thessaloniki International Fair. A vendor working for Nestlé company was exhibiting an early version of Nestle Quik for kids (chocolate powdered beverage mixed with milk or water). This particular employee wanted his usual instant coffee during his break but could not find any hot water, so he mixed the instant coffee with cold water and ice cubes in a shaker, et voilà, the Greek frappe was born.
2. The Greek frappe is made by mixing instant coffee (usually Nescafé, thanks to Dimitris Vakondios, the Nestlé vendor) with a little bit of water, either in a cocktail shaker, or nowadays, with a little portable milk frother until the coffee crystals are completely dissolved. Sugar to taste can be added at this point as well (see my Greek coffee post from a few weeks ago). After a nice foam is created, cold water is added and poured over ice. If you want it with milk (“me gala”), that can be added last. Just like the traditional hot Greek coffee, the frothy top is key. Click here for the science behind the amazing all-day-long foam of a Greek frappe.
3. When I arrived in Greece, I thought that the only cold versions of coffee would be the frappes, ordered just like the hot coffees (sketos, metrios, glykos, me gala or horis gala). However, it seems that Italian coffee culture has blended with Greek coffee culture, such that the freddo lattes and cappuccinos are more popular in the city. I don’t know if it is coffee snobbery and modern coffee drinkers hating on instant coffee, but I definitely saw more freddo than frappe versions of coffee during my time in Greece. I even broke down and ordered a few freddo cappuccinos myself. Peer pressure!
Freddo Cappuccino, Port of Chios, Greece
Before this trip, I couldn’t remember the last time I had instant coffee. Maybe Starbucks culture in the US has turned us all into coffee snobs, but I can say with conviction that the Nescafé frappes I drank in Greece were as good as, and many times better than, the freddo cappuccinos and lattes I ordered.
For a DIY version, get some Nescafé instant coffee and either a shaker or a milk frother, watch this video from Six Clever Sisters, and enjoy a little bit of Greece in your own home!
#greece #greekcoffee #coffeeculture #frappe #freddocappuccino #freddoespresso #freddolatte #megala #sketos #metrios #glykos #athens #nescafe #instantcoffee #foam #drinklikealocal #travel #adventure #nimble_spirits
