Frappé

What is a frappé?

Technically there is no single recipe for a frappé – it means a cold blended drink, like a slushie (the name means ‘beaten’ in French). In Greece you may be served a sweetened coffee, shaken until frothy and poured over ice cubes; in France it may be coffee, ice cream and ice whizzed together in a blender; and in America it may be coffee blended with milk, sugar and ice, topped with whipped cream. A mocha frappé has a touch of chocolate added, but a frappé may not have any coffee in it at all – fruit juice blended with fruit and ice makes a fruit frappé.

Equipment and ingredients you will need

To make a slushie drink, you will either need a high-powered blender or something to make crushed ice with, such as a manual ice crusher or a snow cone machine (both available online), so you can mix crushed ice into the base.

You can sweeten your frappé with sugar, or use an unflavoured sugar syrup which is easier to dissolve – you can make this yourself with 100g sugar and 250ml water. Simply follow the recipe for our flavoured sugar syrup and leave out the flavourings to make a plain version.

Does a frappé always contain coffee?

Classic frappé recipes do contain coffee, however it can be omitted and replaced with other flavourings, such as caramel or chocolate if you like.