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Author:
Franco Salzillo
Frappuccinos are everywhere now, especially since Starbucks made them madly popular. The thing is, iced coffee is much older than that. The original blended icy coffee was invented in Greece, and it’s still better than any other rendition.
This summer specialty was created in 1957 for the International Trade Fair by Giannis Dritsas, a representative for Nestlé. He was looking for creative ways of selling the newly discovered freeze-dried espresso — or instant coffee.
Whenever I want an icy drink, I use instant coffee, which is basically the only way I drink it. But it makes sense, regular coffee dilutes the drink, but instant coffee adds all the coffee’s flavors with no dilution.
You’ll need a milk base too, and because we want a thick café frappe, I use half & half. Use any type of milk you want, though, but consider that the thicker, the better.
With our coffee and our milk, the only thing you need to do is blend the ingredients with ice. But wait, we need a sweetener, too, so add to your ingredient list a tablespoon of brown sugar. Use your favorite sweetener, even low carb alternatives work nicely.
Here’s the secret behind the perfect Greek Iced Coffee Frappe: Combine the milk, the sugar and the coffee beforehand, and mix them well. If you try to blend the ingredients without mixing them first, you won’t get consistent results. Trust me in this one.
So, start by making thick coffee-flavored milk, then blend it with ice. Keep in mind not all blenders can handle ice. Make sure yours does, and if it gets stuck, add a splash of milk or half & half to get it going again.
Add an ounce of chocolate syrup for a mocha frappé or add a pinch of cinnamon powder for a spicy coffee with an exotic feel. Substitute the milk with vanilla-flavored almond milk for a real treat, to which you can also add a few drops of vanilla extract. Get creative with this one, there’s no way you can get this recipe wrong, and the sky’s the limit!
In a container, add the half & half, the coffee and the sugar. Combine until completely dissolved.
Add the ice and sweetened half and half-coffee mixture into a blender.
Blend until smooth. Add a splash of half & half if the blender gets stuck.
Pour and enjoy immediately. Optionally top with whipped cream.
