Greek Frappe
Φραπέfra-PEH
A tall glass of iced coffee under a thick, long-lasting tan foam, made from instant coffee in a shaker or with a hand frother. Greece drank it all summer for fifty years before the freddo arrived, and plenty still do.
At a glance
- Instant : water
- 1:30
- Active time
- 3 min
- Total time
- 3 min
- Makes
- 1 tall glass
- Serve
- Over ice, with straw
- Kit
- Shaker or frother
Ingredients
Note: Order it with milk, me gala, or without, horis gala. The sugar must go in before shaking.
Method
-
Coffee, sugar and a little water
Put the instant coffee, sugar and 60 ml of cold water into a shaker, a jar, or a tall glass if you are using a frother.
-
Shake or froth hard
Shake hard for fifteen to twenty seconds, or froth with a spindle frother, until it turns into a thick, pale tan foam.
Little water and a lot of coffee is what makes the foam stiff. Add more water now and it stays thin.
Shake 15 to 20 seconds -
Ice, then top up
Pour the foam into a tall glass if you shook it, add the ice, then slowly top up with cold water or milk, pouring under the foam so it rises.
-
Straw and water
Serve with a straw and a glass of water. A frappé is sipped slowly, for an hour if the company is good.
Why this works
The frappé foam is one of the most stable in coffee, and it comes from instant coffee's chemistry. Instant is concentrated coffee extract, dried to a powder, and it carries dissolved compounds that behave like surfactants, collecting at the surface of bubbles and holding them. Shaken hard in a small amount of water, the coffee forms a dense foam, and sugar dissolved into it thickens the liquid around each bubble so it drains slowly. A good frappé foam lasts as long as the drink.
The small amount of water at the start is the technique. The more concentrated the coffee and sugar, the more viscous the liquid, and the stiffer and longer-lasting the foam. Top it up afterwards, pouring under the foam, and it floats. Spray-dried instant, the fine powder, tends to foam better than freeze-dried granules, which is why Greek cafés use it.
The drink has a well-known origin. At the Thessaloniki International Fair in 1957, a Nestlé representative, Dimitris Vakondios, wanted a coffee during a break, found no hot water, and shook instant coffee with cold water and ice in a shaker meant for a children's chocolate drink. The foam was so good that the company began promoting it.
For the next forty years the frappé was the Greek summer coffee. From the 1990s it was gradually overtaken by the freddo espresso and freddo cappuccino, which use the same idea of frothing coffee with ice, but with fresh espresso. It is the ancestor of dalgona coffee too, by about sixty years.
Variations
- Sketos: no sugar.
- Metrios: two teaspoons, the usual order.
- Glykos: four teaspoons, properly sweet.
- Me gala: topped up with milk, or half milk, half water.
- With ice cream: a scoop of vanilla in place of the milk, the Greek café dessert version.
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Questions
What is a Greek frappé?
An iced coffee made by shaking instant coffee, sugar and a little water into a thick foam, then adding ice and topping up with water or milk.
Who invented the frappé?
Dimitris Vakondios, a Nestlé representative, at the Thessaloniki International Fair in 1957, when he shook instant coffee with cold water for want of hot.
What instant coffee is best for frappé?
Spray-dried instant powder, which foams more readily than freeze-dried granules.
What is the difference between a frappé and a freddo espresso?
A frappé uses instant coffee shaken into a foam. A freddo espresso uses fresh hot espresso frothed with ice. Freddo is now more common in Greek cafés.