Greek Frappe

When Caleb and I were in Greece, we had a hard time finding good coffee. Greece is not like Italy with little coffee shops on every corner where old men in felt hats swig cappucinno at corner bars. In fact, we were surprised to discover that the national coffee of Greece is Nescafe. Yep, that's right--Nescafe.

Even at the Athens Hilton, in our $300/night room (paid for by the university, not us), there was an exquisite assortment of craft teas, a hot water carafe, and packets of Nescafe.

The coffee shops actually did have great cappuccinos, but the counters were fast-paced, and the menus were in Greek, and Caleb and I would get flustered and order the first thing we saw, which was usually a Frappe with milk and sugar. And I have to admit that it was really good--in the same way that ketchup is good--as in, you know you shouldn't like it, but you do.

My favorite memory of the trip is a particularly long day that involved lots of ruins, hiking to a hill at the top of Athens, and then ending up lost in a public park looking for the cave where Socrates was held prisoner--but instead, witnessing a drug deal--then hurriedly rushing away and trying not to look too conspicuously touristy, and....finally, relaxing in a coffee shop in a quiet little neighborhood with ahhh....Frappe.

I found this recipe on the Nescafe website for Greek Frappe, and it's pretty authentic. I made it in a Margarita shaker. It's a kind of tacky treat that should probably be reserved for particularly bad days, but I highly recommend it.


Greek Frappé
Preparation Time: 2 minutes Serves: 1Ingredients2 tsp NESCAFÉ Classic 2 tsp sugar Ice cubesPreparation:
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Pour 10-15ml of water in the shaker (preferably not chilled, but chilled will still do)
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Add two tea-spoonfuls of Nescafe Classic and one tea-spoonful of sugar, or more if desired.
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Shake strongly until all the water becomes foam. Potential use of an electric hand mixer, instead of a shaker, will make a more nice, shiny and creamy foam.
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Pour into a glass of 250ml, add 3-4 ice cubes and chilled water to fill the glass for black NESCAFÉ Frappé. For white NESCAFÉ Frappé, add 20-30ml chilled milk. Ideal serving temperature 10 degrees Celsius.
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Enjoy your NESCAFÉ Frappé!
Hint :The quantity of water in step 1 plays important role in creating qualitative foam. Very small quantity will not produce enough foam while large quantity will produce soapy foam.If you desire different dosages of coffee and/or sugar, the exact quantity of water in step 1 should vary accordingly.Milk should always be put after stirring otherwise the foam loses all its stability.