Patrick Comerford
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?
― TS Eliot, The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock
I suppose I could measure out my time in Greece with coffee too. In Greece, a Greek coffee or ελληνικός καφές is often simply ένα ελληνικό (ena hellenikó). It is strong and rich in flavour, finely ground and made and served in a μπρίκι (briki), a traditional small brass pot with a long handle.
Traditionally, it is made over a gas burner and at the top it should always have a generous layer of froth known as καϊμάκι (kaimáki). It is served with a cube of λουκούμι (loukoumi), which is similar to Turkish delight.
When ordering your coffee in Greek, it is important to be clear how sweet you like it: plain with no sugar, ένα ελληνικό σκέτο (ena ellinikó skéto); medium sweet, ένα ελληνικό μέτριο (ena ellinikó métrio); or sweet, έναν ελληνικό γλυκό (ena ellinikó glykó). Mine is always ένα σκέτο.
How to make a Greek coffee:
Ingredients:
• Finely ground Greek coffee
• Cold water
• Sugar (optional)
Equipment:
• A briki (small long-handled pot)
• A small coffee cup (demitasse)
Steps:
1, Measure Water and Coffee
2, Use a small coffee cup to measure cold water and pour it into the briki
3, Add one heaped teaspoon of finely ground Greek coffee per cup of water
4, Add sugar (optional)
5, Stir the coffee and sugar (if added) until dissolved
6, Place the briki on a low to medium heat. Do not stir while heating
7, Let the coffee heat slowly until καϊμάκι (kaimáki) or thick foam forms on top. Watch closely to make sure it does not boil over
8, Just before it boils, take the briki off the heat, let it settle, then briefly return to the heat to enhance the foam
9, Pour the coffee into the small cups, distributing the foam evenly. Let the grounds settle before drinking
Some little extras:
• Serve with water: traditionally, Greek coffee is served with a glass of cold water
• Sip slowly: enjoy the coffee slowly, allowing the grounds to settle at the bottom
• Do not drink the sediment
• Serve with treats: enjoy with a small cube of loukoumi, a small biscuit or a piece of chocolate
A particularly Greek drink, especially at this time of the year, is a frappé or φραπέ, a cold iced coffee normally made with instant coffee, water and sugar, and often with milk. Frappés are one of the most popular forms of coffee in Greece and they quickly become a hallmark of postwar outdoor Greek coffee culture.
Popular Greek myths say the frappé was invented almost 70 years ago in Thessaloniki in 1957 by Dimitris Vakondios, a Nescafe representative or by Christos Lenzos (1930-2023), who owned a coffeehouse in Pangrati in suburban Athens from 1964 to 2013.
The name frappé (‘punched’ or ‘shaken’) comes from French and describes a drink chilled with ice. A variety of cold coffee drinks named café frappé (à la glace) are documented from some time in the 19th century. Some were similar to slushies, others more like iced coffee.
The Greek version of café frappé, using instant coffee, was invented in 1957 at the Thessaloniki International Fair. Giannis Dritsas, a representative of the Nestlé company, was exhibiting a new product for children, a chocolate beverage made instantly by mixing it with milk and shaking it in a shaker. Dritsas’s employee, Dimitris Vakondios, was looking for a way to have his usual instant coffee during his break but could find no hot water. He mixed coffee with cold water and ice cubes in a shaker, and so the Greek frappé was invented.
However, Nikos Bakounakis first questioned this story in 2006, and it was questioned again by the magazine Gastronomos in 2013. Based on Nestlé’s newspaper advertisements leading up to the 1957 Thessaloniki International Trade Fair, it appears the product was already being promoted as ‘Nescafé frappé’, either as iced coffee with ice cubes or as a shaken drink, but shaken perhaps not in a shaker but with a spoon.
A year earlier, ‘Shaken, not stirred’, the catchphrase of James Bond when it came to his preference for a vodka martini, was introduced in Ian Fleming’s 1956 novel Diamonds Are Forever.
Five years before that, in the 1951 film Προ παντός ψυχραιμία (You’ve Got to Keep Cool) starring Mimis Fotopoulos and Dinos Iliopoulos, Iliopoulos makes a direct reference to frappe coffee, which the two protagonists prepared with a shaker at Pavlidis Patisserie on Amerikis Square in Athens: ‘If we make even the slightest mistake, they’ll turn us into a frappé!’
Nevertheless, Vakondios’s improvised experiment is thought to have established the frappé and it quickly grew in popularity in Greece. Nestlé capitalised on the drink with intense marketing campaigns in the 1980s that broadened the drink’s popularity and left the brand name Nescafé inextricably linked with frappé throughout.
Today, the drink is usually simply called a ‘frappé’ in Greece, but in the past it was often called a ‘Nescafé frappé’, and nescaf remains the Greek colloquial word for instant coffee, no matter what the brand may be.
A frappé can be made with a cocktail shaker or, more commonly today, with an electric milk frother or milkshake machine. Instant coffee, optional sugar optional and a little water are shaken or blended together until a thick foam is made. This is then poured into a glass with ice cubes and cold water. Milk, traditionally evaporated milk or sometimes condensed milk, is added to it optionally. Frappé is almost always served with a drinking straw as many find the thick foam formed on top is unpleasantly bitter.
The spray-dried instant coffee used to make a frappé contains almost no oil and this allows the frappé’s characteristically thick layer of foam to form. Frappé foam is similar to crema, the foam found in espresso, but thicker and longer lasting due to its oilless composition. Depending on the initial size of the foam’s bubbles and the frappé’s sugar content, water drains from the foam over two to 10 minutes. It will thicken until it forms a nearly solid foam that then slowly dissipates.
Frappés made with freshly brewed coffee or freeze-dried instant coffee, which both contain significantly more oils than spray-dried instant coffee, produce only short-lived foams. In addition, the method of preparing the frappé can impact the bubbles on top of the coffee.
As with Greek coffee, a frappé is generally ordered by specifying sweetness and the option to add milk:
Γλυκός (glykós, sweet), four spoonfuls of sugar
μέτριος (métrios, medium), two spoonfuls sugar
σκέτος (skétos, plain), no sugar
Milk, usually evaporated milk, is generally not added unless you explicitly use the phrase με γάλα (me gála, with milk). In a similar way, it can be explicitly asked for without milk by saying χωρίς γάλα (horís gála, without milk). A frappé with milk is occasionally called φραπόγαλο (frapógalo, frappé-milk).
In some beach bars, alcoholic liqueurs such as Kahlúa or Baileys Irish Cream, may be added to a frappé. Some restaurants may add a ball of vanilla ice cream to a frappé instead of milk.
Although technically not frappés, since they are not shaken, some variations are stirred with a spoon when a shaker is not available, and this creates a different texture and taste. These variations are generally referred to as κουταλάτος (koutalátos, ‘spoon-made’) or καραβίσιος (karavísios, ‘of the ship’), which has something to do with some association with sailors at sea.
As the popularity of Italian coffee swept the world, the frappé got a revamp and the freddo was born. The freddo espresso is a Greek iced espresso, first made in Athens in 1991 by Yiannis Iosifides and it has grown in popularity ever since. It is often seen as a higher quality frappé. There are several varieties of freddo, including espresso, cappuccino and even flat white versions. A freddo cappuccino is a freddo espresso topped with a cold milk-based foam called αφρόγαλα (afrógala).
Frappés became broadly known outside Greece probably thanks to the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, and tourists in Greece have also brought the frappé back home.
How to make a frappé:
Ingredients:
• Instant coffee
• Cold water
• Sugar (optional)
• Ice cubes
• Milk (optional)
Equipment:
• A shaker or a jar with a tight lid or a handheld milk frother
• A tall glass
• A straw
Method:
1, Add 1-2 teaspoons of instant coffee to the shaker or jar
2, Add sugar to taste (optional)
3, Pour in a small amount of cold water (about 2 tablespoons)
4, Close the shaker or jar tightly and shake vigorously for about 30 seconds until a thick foam forms. If using a milk frother, froth the mixture until it’s foamy
5, Pour into a serving glass
6, Add a few ice cubes to the glass
7, Fill the glass with cold water, leaving some space if you want to add milk
8, Add milk (optional)
9, Stir gently with a straw … and enjoy
Previous words in this series:
1, Neologism, Νεολογισμός.
2, Welcoming the stranger, Φιλοξενία.
3, Bread, Ψωμί.
4, Wine, Οίνος and Κρασί.
5, Yogurt, Γιαούρτι.
6, Orthodoxy, Ορθοδοξία.
7, Sea, Θᾰ́λᾰσσᾰ.
8,Theology, Θεολογία.
9, Icon, Εἰκών.
10, Philosophy, Φιλοσοφία.
11, Chaos, Χάος.
12, Liturgy, Λειτουργία.
13, Greeks, Ἕλληνες or Ρωμαίοι.
14, Mañana, Αύριο.
15, Europe, Εὐρώπη.
16, Architecture, Αρχιτεκτονική.
17, The missing words.
18, Theatre, θέατρον, and Drama, Δρᾶμα.
19, Pharmacy, Φᾰρμᾰκείᾱ.
20, Rhapsody, Ραψῳδός.
21, Holocaust, Ολοκαύτωμα.
22, Hygiene, Υγιεινή.
23, Laconic, Λακωνικός.
24, Telephone, Τηλέφωνο.
25, Asthma, Ασθμα.
26, Synagogue, Συναγωγή.
27, Diaspora, Διασπορά.
28, School, Σχολείο.
29, Muse, Μούσα.
30, Monastery, Μοναστήρι.
31, Olympian, Ολύμπιος.
32, Hypocrite, Υποκριτής.
33, Genocide, Γενοκτονία.
34, Cinema, Κινημα.
35, autopsy and biopsy
36, Exodus, ἔξοδος
37, Bishop, ἐπίσκοπος
38, Socratic, Σωκρατικὸς
39, Odyssey, Ὀδύσσεια
40, Practice, πρᾶξις
41, Idiotic, Ιδιωτικός
42, Pentecost, Πεντηκοστή
43, Apostrophe, ἀποστροφή
44, catastrophe, καταστροφή
45, democracy, δημοκρατία
46, ‘Αρχή, beginning, Τέλος, end
47, ‘Αποκάλυψις, Apocalypse
48, ‘Απόκρυφα, Apocrypha
49, Ἠλεκτρον (Elektron), electric
50, Metamorphosis, Μεταμόρφωσις
51, Bimah, βῆμα
52, ἰχθύς (ichthýs) and ψάρι (psari), fish.
53, Τὰ Βιβλία (Ta Biblia), The Bible
54, Φῐλοξενῐ́ᾱ (Philoxenia), true hospitality
55, εκκλησία (ekklesia), the Church
56, ναός (naos) and ἱερός (ieros), a church
57, Χριστούγεννα (Christougenna), Christmas
58, ἐπιφάνεια (epipháneia), θεοφάνεια, (theopháneia), Epiphany and Theophany
59, Ζέφυρος (Zéphuros), the West Wind
60, Αύριο (Avrio), Tomorrow
61, καλημέρα (κaliméra), ‘Good Morning’, and καλαμάρι, κalamári, ‘squid’
62, Ελευθερία ή θάνατος, ‘Freedom or Death’
63, Ποδόσφαιρο, ‘Football’
64, καφές (coffee), Φραπές (frappé)
Series to be continued
