Frappé Coffee

Thessaloniki (Thesalonikí, as it is pronounced in Greek, with stress in the last "i"), is the second largest city in Greece. It is located in the westernmost bay of the Chalkidian peninsula (Kalkidikis in Greek) a few kilometers from both the Turkish border and the Bulgarian and Macedonian. 

 

A Sephardic Jew born in the city, Isaac Carasso, was the one who made yogurt known throughout the world. But Thessaloniki can not only be considered the birthplace of the father of yogurt, but also of the very popular fr
appé coffee.

The frappe coffee was born by chance in 1956 at the fair that was held every September in the city. At the stand of the Nestlé importer, a kind of blender for children was being promoted when one of the employees had the idea of ​​introducing a couple of tablespoons of soluble coffee - for their personal use, not for children, of course. The result was a refreshing drink topped off with a couple of fingers of foam. It quickly became very popular in the area but it took almost twenty years for Nestlé itself to promote the invention and, in a way, appropriate it. The success was resounding.

Usual view at any street of Thessaloniki : young people drinking frappe coffee

So much so that it is very rare not to see in any bar in Greece customers doomed with a straw in a long glass of what looks like coffee with milk. Leóforos Nikis avenue (it literally means "avenue of victories", being leóforos "avenue") runs like a corniche through the impressive bay of Thessaloniki ("kolpos zesalonikis") and is full of bars that door with  door houses their terraces where thousands of young people consume their frappe coffees without too much haste. Because in effect frappe coffee has displaced the traditional Greek coffee towards an older segment of the population, of those who spend their afternoons furiously playing tablis - the Greek name for backgammon -, while the youth only consume frappé.

INGREDIENTS (4 people)

• 4 long glasses  (capacity is about 250-300 ml, that is, 1 cup and a half)
• 8 teaspoons of soluble coffee powder
• Cold water
• Milk (to taste)
• Sugar (to taste)*
• Ice cubes

* Sugar is added to the glass bender. Following the usual greek tradition, there are 3 levels of sweetness. When the frappé coffee is "sketos" means no sugar is added. When metrios, you should need to pour 2:1 proportion of sugar compared with coffee (in this case, metrios would be 4 teaspoons of coffee and 2 of sugar). In case of glykos (very sweet), proportion is 1:1, i.e, 8 teaspoons of coffee and 8 of sugar.

To prepare a frappe we need a glass blender. We put in it 5 or 6 ice cubes, 8 teaspoons of soluble coffee powder, milk, sugar to taste and very cold water.  The proportion of milk and water changes, but usually it's 1/3 of water and 2/3 of milk. However, there's people do not like with milk and fill up the whole glass with water.

We beat until a layer of one or two fingers of foam is formed and we serve in a long glass, preferably widened at the top, and always with a rod to be able to drink without destroying said foam.