# Greek Frappé

Source: https://dailyextraction.com/drinks/greek-frappe/
Last updated: 2026-10-20

> A Greek frappé is instant coffee shaken with sugar and a little cold water into a thick foam, poured over ice and topped up with cold water, with evaporated milk if you like. It's ordered by sweetness: sketo (no sugar), metrio (medium) or gliko (sweet), and me gala (with milk) or horis gala (without).

## At a glance

- Chapter: Iced and blended
- Served: Iced
- Origin: Greece
- Glass: Tall glass, with a straw (400 ml)
- Also known as: frappé, frappe coffee, Nescafé frappé, frapé

## Ingredients

- 1 rounded tsp instant coffee
- 2 tsp sugar (optional)
- about 120 ml cold water
- half a glass ice cubes
- about 60 ml evaporated milk (optional)

## Steps

1. **Shake the foam**: Put the instant coffee, sugar and about 60 ml of cold water in a shaker or a jar with a lid. Shake hard for about 30 seconds (or blend for 10) until it turns into a thick, pale foam.
2. **Fill the glass with ice**: Half-fill a tall glass, about 400 ml, with ice cubes.
3. **Pour in the foam**: Pour the foam slowly down the side of the glass, over the ice.
4. **Add milk, if you like**: For a frappé me gala, pour in the evaporated milk down the side of the glass so you don't knock the foam flat.
5. **Top up and serve**: Top up with about 60–80 ml of cold water to fill the glass, and serve with a straw.

The **Greek frappé** (*φραπέ*, often written frappe) is iced coffee made from **instant coffee**: you shake the coffee with sugar and a splash of cold water until it turns into a **thick, creamy foam**, pour it over ice, and top it up with cold water and, if you like, **evaporated milk**. It's drunk slowly, through a straw, all summer long, and Vice calls it Greece's national drink. Here's how to make one, how to order one in Greece, and why its famous origin story is probably a legend.

## The short version

- **Instant coffee, sugar and cold water**, shaken into a foam, then poured over ice.
- **Ordered by sweetness**: *sketo* (none), *metrio* (medium) or *gliko* (sweet).
- **Milk on request**: *me gala* (with) or *horis gala* (without), usually evaporated milk.
- **About two minutes** to make, in a shaker, a jar or a blender.
- **Born in 1957 at the Thessaloniki fair**, says Nescafé; older adverts say otherwise.



## What's in a frappé?

Just [instant coffee](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/spray-dried-instant/), water, ice and, usually, sugar. The LA Times recipe by food writer **Daniel Young**, co-author of the book *Frappé Nation*, uses:

| Ingredient | Amount (LA Times) | Roughly |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Instant coffee | 1 rounded teaspoon | |
| Sugar | 2 teaspoons (metrio) | |
| Cold water for the foam | ¼ cup | 60 ml |
| Ice | Half a tall glass | 14 oz glass, about 400 ml |
| Evaporated milk (optional) | ¼ cup | 60 ml |
| Cold water to top up | ¼ to ⅓ cup | 60–80 ml |

The foam is the point. INeedCoffee explains that **proteins in the coffee act as surfactants**, forming a thin, elastic skin around each air bubble. Because instant coffee can be dissolved into a very **concentrated** solution with only a little water, there are plenty of those proteins, and shaking gives a thick foam that lasts. That's why you shake with a small amount of water first and add the rest afterwards. Vice notes that the foam stays in the glass for a long time, which is part of why a frappé is sipped over hours of conversation.

## How do you order one in Greece?

In two parts: sweetness, then milk.

| Say | Means | Sugar (LA Times, per teaspoon of coffee) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| *Sketo* | Plain | None |
| *Metrio* | Medium sweet | 2 teaspoons |
| *Gliko* | Sweet | 3 teaspoons |
| *Me gala* | With milk | Almost always evaporated milk |
| *Horis gala* | Without milk | |

Vice records a little frappé slang too: a watery one is *nerozoumi*, an over-sweet one *petimezi* (grape molasses), and one that's too strong *dynamitis* (dynamite).

## How do you make one without a shaker?

Use a **jar with a tight lid**, or a **blender** for about 10 seconds, as the LA Times suggests. Any instant coffee will foam when shaken with water, the LA Times found, though Greeks look for the bitter bite of their own Nescafé. Pour the milk and the final water **down the side of the glass** so the foam stays on top.

## Where did the frappé come from?

The story everyone tells comes from **Nescafé**: at the **Thessaloniki International Fair** in 1957, a Nescafé representative, **Dimitris Vakondios**, couldn't find hot water during a break, so he shook his instant coffee with cold water and ice in a shaker, and the frappé was born. INeedCoffee, telling it "according to popular legend", adds that he was working for **Andreas Dritsas**, Nestlé's Greek distributor, and grabbed a shaker meant for **Nesquik**. Thessaloniki's tourist board calls the city the "capital" of frappé.

Greek newspaper **Kathimerini** isn't convinced. Michalis Katsigeras found that the story is younger than the drink:

| Date | Evidence | Source |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1894 | A "cafe frappe" is served at a tea in Lakewood, New Jersey (*The New York Times*) | Kathimerini |
| 1948 | The Petrograd on Stadiou Street, Athens, advertises café frappé | Kathimerini |
| 1950 | An advert for iced Nescafé | Kathimerini |
| 1951 | In the film *Propantos psychraimia*, a character jokes that one slip and "they'll turn us into a frappé" | Kathimerini |
| July 1957 | Nestlé adverts recommend "Nescafé frappé" when it's very hot, two months before the fair | Kathimerini |
| Sept 1957 | The Vakondios story at the Thessaloniki fair | Nescafé, INeedCoffee |
| 1963 | A Nescafé advert says simply: beat Nescafé, sugar and cold water | INeedCoffee |

Kathimerini says the first doubts were raised by **Nikos Bakounakis** in *To Vima* in 2006. INeedCoffee adds that an early Nestlé brochure blended evaporated milk, water, Nescafé and vanilla ice cream, closer to the French café frappé, and that ice cream had dropped out of Nescafé's recipe by 1963. Where and when the shaken drink took the name frappé is, as INeedCoffee puts it, uncertain. Either way, Nescafé advertised it heavily, Vice notes, with jingles in the 1980s that a generation of Greeks still knows by heart.

*General guidance only. A frappé made with two or three spoonfuls of instant coffee is strong, so go easy if you're sensitive to caffeine.*

## Frappé vs other iced coffees

- **[Freddo espresso](https://dailyextraction.com/drinks/freddo-espresso/):** Greece's newer favourite, made with espresso instead of instant.
- **[Freddo cappuccino](https://dailyextraction.com/drinks/freddo-cappuccino/):** a freddo espresso with cold milk foam.
- **[Dalgona coffee](https://dailyextraction.com/drinks/dalgona/):** instant coffee whipped, not shaken, and spooned over milk.
- **[Caffè shakerato](https://dailyextraction.com/drinks/caffe-shakerato/):** Italy's espresso shaken with ice.
- **[Cold brew](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/cold-brew/):** the slow way to make cold coffee, brewed for hours.

Explore every drink in the [iced and blended chapter](https://dailyextraction.com/drinks/iced-coffees/).

## FAQs

### What is the difference between a frappé and a freddo?

A frappé is made with instant coffee shaken into a foam. A freddo espresso is made with espresso, shaken or blended with ice. Kathimerini notes that in Greece the freddo has been steadily taking ground from the frappé for around two decades.

### How do you order a frappé in Greece?

Say the sweetness first: sketo (no sugar), metrio (medium) or gliko (sweet). Then say me gala (with milk) or horis gala (without milk). The LA Times notes that "with milk" almost always means evaporated milk.

### Was the frappé really invented at the 1957 Thessaloniki fair?

That's the famous story, and Nescafé tells it. But Kathimerini found Nestlé newspaper adverts recommending a "Nescafé frappé" in July 1957, two months before the fair, and a café serving café frappé in Athens from at least 1948. Treat the fair story as legend.

### Can you make a frappé without a shaker?

Yes. The LA Times recipe works in a shaker, a jar with a lid or a blender, which takes about 10 seconds instead of 30 seconds of shaking. What matters is shaking the coffee hard with only a little water first, so it can foam.

### Which instant coffee is best for a frappé?

In Greece it's traditionally Nescafé, which is why the drink was long ordered as a "Nescafé frappé". The LA Times found that just about any instant coffee will trap air and foam when shaken with water, though some brands have less of the bitter bite Greeks like.

### Why does a frappé foam so much?

Because instant coffee can be made very concentrated. INeedCoffee explains that proteins in the coffee act as surfactants, lining the air bubbles, and a strong solution has plenty of them, so it whips into a thick, long-lasting foam.

## Sources

- [When the Greeks toss the demitasse](https://www.latimes.com/style/la-fo-frappe18aug18-story.html)
- [Συμβολή στην Ιστορία του Φραπέ (A contribution to the history of the frappé)](https://www.kathimerini.gr/society/925538/symvoli-stin-istoria-toy-frape/)
- [The history of Greek-style frappe](https://ineedcoffee.com/the-history-of-greek-style-frappe/)
- [Shake up your summer with a NESCAFÉ Iced Frappé](https://www.nescafe.com/gb/campaigns/shake-your-summer-nescafe-azera)
- [How the instant coffee frappé became a beloved Greek institution](https://www.vice.com/en/article/how-the-instant-coffee-frappe-became-a-beloved-greek-institution/)
- [Frappe coffee](https://visit-centralmacedonia.gr/en/what-to-do/80/gastronomy/1077/frappe-coffee)