Order a frappe in Athens, at a fast-food counter in Ohio, and at a diner in Boston, and you will get three completely different drinks. One is shaken instant coffee with a head of foam. One is a blended, sweet iced coffee. The third is a milkshake with no coffee in it at all. That is why the word causes so much confusion, and why it keeps getting lumped together with lattes and Frappuccinos.
Here is what each one actually is, how they differ, and which one you want.
What Does Frappe Mean?
Frappe, defined
A frappe is a cold drink that has been shaken or blended with ice until it turns frothy. The name comes from the French word for a drink chilled with ice. In coffee, it usually means the Greek frappe: instant coffee, sugar and a little water shaken into a thick foam, then poured over ice.
- In Greece and most of Europe: shaken instant coffee with a foam head, served over ice with optional milk.
- On most American chain menus: a sweet blended iced coffee, closer to a milkshake than a latte.
- In New England: a milkshake made with ice cream. No coffee unless you ask for coffee flavor.
The Greek version came first. It was invented by accident in 1957 at a trade fair in Thessaloniki, when a Nestlé representative could not find hot water for his instant coffee and shook it with cold water and ice instead. The foam it produced became the signature of the drink, and the frappe went on to become Greece’s national summer coffee. If you have tried whipped coffee, you have seen the same trick: instant coffee foams dramatically when you agitate it hard, something brewed coffee cannot do.
Is a Frappe Hot or Cold?
Always cold. The word itself means chilled, and every version of the drink, Greek, American or New England, is served over ice or blended with it. A latte is the opposite: it is a hot drink first, with an iced variation. A Frappuccino is cold only.
The three drinks look similar in a clear cup, but they are built completely differently. Here is what is going on inside each glass.
A deep cap of coffee foam over diluted instant coffee and ice. Shaken, not blended.
Espresso poured over cold milk and ice. Stirred, never blended, so it stays liquid.
Coffee, milk, syrup and ice blended to a thick slush, usually under whipped cream.
Frappe vs Latte
A frappe is not a kind of latte, even though “frappe latte” is one of the most common ways people search for it. The two drinks differ at every step: the coffee, the ratio of milk, and the way they are mixed.
A latte is espresso with a lot of milk, roughly one part coffee to two or three parts milk. Hot, the milk is steamed and finished with a thin layer of microfoam; that small amount of foam is what separates it from a cappuccino, as we explain in latte vs cappuccino. An iced latte keeps the same recipe but swaps steamed milk for cold milk poured over ice. Nothing is shaken or blended, so it drinks smooth and milky with the espresso clearly in front.
A Greek frappe uses instant coffee instead of espresso, and milk is optional rather than the main ingredient. The body is mostly water and ice, and the texture comes from the foam. It tastes lighter and sweeter than an iced latte, with less coffee intensity. It is also different from plain iced coffee, which is simply brewed coffee chilled over ice with no foam at all.
When a menu lists a “latte frappe” or “frappe latte”, it almost always means the American blended style: espresso, milk and ice run through a blender. That drink sits much closer to a Frappuccino than to either a latte or a Greek frappe.
Frappe vs Frappuccino
Frappuccino is a trademarked name, a blend of “frappe” and “cappuccino”. It began at a Boston coffee company in the early 1990s, and Starbucks acquired the drink along with the company and turned it into a global product. Coffee (or a coffee concentrate), milk, sugar syrup and ice go into a blender, and the result is thick enough to eat with a straw and a spoon. Most are finished with whipped cream and a sauce drizzle, and the crème versions contain no coffee at all.
So the Greek frappe and the Frappuccino share a name and a temperature, and not much else. One is shaken instant coffee that stays drinkable and light. The other is a blended dessert drink with several times the sugar. If you are ordering at a chain and want something closer to the Greek original, ask for an iced coffee shaken with a little sugar; our guide to Starbucks sizes and orders covers how the menu is laid out.
- Coffee
- Instant coffee
- Milk
- Optional, a splash
- How it’s made
- Shaken or frothed, poured over ice
- Texture
- Light, with a thick foam cap
- Sweetness
- You choose: none, medium or sweet
- Calories
- Low: close to zero unsweetened, up to about 150 with sugar and milk
- Caffeine
- Moderate, similar to a regular cup of coffee
- Coffee
- Espresso
- Milk
- The main ingredient
- How it’s made
- Poured over ice and stirred
- Texture
- Smooth and milky
- Sweetness
- Unsweetened unless you add syrup
- Calories
- Moderate, mostly from the milk
- Caffeine
- Set by the number of espresso shots
- Coffee
- Coffee concentrate or espresso, or none
- Milk
- Yes, plus whipped cream
- How it’s made
- Blended with ice and syrup
- Texture
- Thick and slushy
- Sweetness
- Very sweet
- Calories
- High, often several hundred per cup
- Caffeine
- Usually lower than an iced latte of the same size
For exact numbers on your usual order, our caffeine guide breaks down how much each type of coffee contains.
How to Make a Greek Frappe at Home
This is the easiest of the three to make well at home, because it does not need an espresso machine. All you need is decent instant coffee and something to shake it in. If instant is new to you, start with our guide to brewing instant coffee.
Classic Greek frappe
One tall glass, about three minutes.
- Add 2 teaspoons of instant coffee and 0 to 2 teaspoons of sugar to a shaker or tall jar. No sugar is “sketos”, one teaspoon is “metrios”, two is “glykos”.
- Add 3 tablespoons of cold water. Too much water at this stage and it will not foam.
- Shake hard for 20 to 30 seconds, or use a handheld milk frother, until the mixture is thick and pale with foam.
- Pour into a tall glass over 3 or 4 ice cubes.
- Top up slowly with cold water, or half water and half milk, until the foam rises to the rim. Serve with a straw.
For the American blended style, put a double shot of espresso or half a cup of strong cold coffee in a blender with three quarters of a cup of milk, a cup of ice and a tablespoon or two of sugar or syrup, and blend until smooth. If you want the Greek idea with real espresso, try the Greek freddo, which replaced the frappe as the country’s café favorite.
Across much of New England, a frappe is ice cream, milk and syrup blended together. In Rhode Island the same drink is called a cabinet. Ask for coffee flavor if that is what you want.
If the menu shows a blended drink under whipped cream, expect a sweet slush, not shaken coffee and foam.
The name is a trademark. Other shops sell the same idea as a frappe, a frozen coffee or a blended latte.
Which One Should You Order?
If you want to taste the coffee, order an iced latte. The espresso leads, the milk softens it, and you control the sweetness. If you want something light and refreshing on a hot afternoon, make a Greek frappe; it is cheap, fast, and the foam makes it feel like more than it is. If you want dessert, get the Frappuccino or a blended frappe and treat it as one.
And if a menu just says “frappe”, ask how it is made before you order. The answer tells you which of the three drinks you are actually getting.