It was August 31, 1957, and Yiannis Dritsas, a representative of Nestlé Greece, was at the 22nd Thessaloniki International Fair. His mission? To present a new iced chocolate drink for kids. It was simple, really: add milk and cocoa powder to a shaker (essentially a cocktail shaker), shake well and serve.
During a break, an employee of the same company named Dimitris Vakondios went to the kitchenette to prepare his regular instant coffee – using Nescafé, Nestlé’s coffee brand, of course. But he couldn’t find hot water anywhere. Desperate for his caffeine, he decided to try and copy what his boss was presenting to the public, only instead of cocoa powder he used his instant coffee and instead of milk he used cold water. In the shaker it went and boom, the frappé was born. It would go on to become one of Greece’s most famous drinks.
At the time, people saw the frappé as a beverage rather than a coffee. Until then, iced versions of coffee didn’t really exist in the country. This version was not just a drink to wake you up, but it was also refreshing, being served over ice. It was ideal for the warm Mediterranean climate, and soon the frappé became immensely popular.
Its name is obviously not Greek: Frappé is French and refers to iced drinks. The word derives from the French verb frapper, meaning to hit or strike, likely a reference to the beating movement of a shaker. Greeks refer to it in various ways, from the classic frappé, to the more Greek frappes or the more slang frapogalo, in which milk is added in at the end (gala means milk).
