Greek Coffee Guide: Freddo Espresso, Frappé and How to Order

Coffee in Greece is not a quick stop on the way somewhere else. It is the reason to sit down. A single cup can stretch across an hour of conversation, a card game, or a long look at the sea, and nobody will hurry you. If you are visiting Stoupa and want to drink coffee the way the locals do, this guide explains the drinks you will see on every menu, from the old ellinikos boiled in a briki to the freddo espresso that has become the national summer drink, and how to order each one the way a Greek would. At Enigma cafe and cocktail bar in Stoupa, on the headland at the edge of the bay, the day runs from that first coffee to the last cocktail, so it is a natural place to practise.

What Greek coffee actually is

Ellinikos kafes, plain Greek coffee, is the drink that older Greeks still mean when they say the word coffee. It is arabica beans roasted light and ground to a powder finer than espresso grind, then cooked with cold water, and sugar if wanted, in a small long-handled pot called a briki. The pot goes over low heat until a thick foam, the kaimaki, rises to the rim. The coffee is poured foam first into a demitasse and left to sit for a minute so the grounds settle. You drink it slowly and stop before the sludge at the bottom, which is where the fortune tellers of the old kafeneia found their material.

The method is the same one used across the eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans, and yes, the drink is essentially what other countries call Turkish coffee. In Greece the name changed in the 1960s and the name stuck. What makes a good ellinikos is patience: low heat, no stirring once it starts to rise, and a thick unbroken kaimaki on top. A cup with no foam is a cup made in a hurry.

How Greek coffee differs from a regular coffee

Three things set it apart from the filter coffee most northern European visitors drink at home. First, it is unfiltered, so the body is thick and the flavour is round and slightly chocolatey rather than bright. Second, the sugar goes in during brewing, so the drink is sweetened evenly and you cannot adjust it afterwards. Third, the portion is small, a demitasse of roughly 60 ml, and it is always served with a glass of cold water. You sip the water first to clear the palate, then the coffee.

The caffeine question surprises people. Because the roast is light and the cup is small, a Greek coffee delivers around 40 to 60 mg of caffeine, less than a single espresso shot at 60 to 80 mg and far less than a large filter coffee. It tastes strong because it is dense, not because it is loaded. This is one reason the elderly residents of Ikaria, studied for their longevity, could comfortably drink two or three a day.

Freddo espresso: the drink that took over Greece

Walk into any Greek cafe in summer and the drink in most hands is a tall glass of black coffee over ice with a fine foam on top. That is the freddo espresso, and it is a Greek invention from the early 1990s, not an Italian one. The recipe is simple to say and hard to do well: a double shot of espresso, pulled fresh, goes into a shaker or a blender with a few ice cubes and is shaken hard until it cools and foams. It is then poured over more ice into a tall glass. Sugar, if you want it, is added before shaking so it dissolves.

The result is intensely aromatic, cold to the last sip, and stronger than most people expect because it is a double shot. The word freddo simply means cold in Italian, and Italians will look at you blankly if you order one in Rome. In Greece it is as standard as a beer.

Freddo cappuccino: the same coffee with a cloud on top

The freddo cappuccino starts identically, a double espresso shaken with ice, and then adds a thick layer of cold frothed milk, sometimes with a dusting of cinnamon or cocoa. It is creamier, milder and a little sweeter, and it is the choice of most people who would order a latte at home. A good one has milk foam dense enough to hold its shape for several minutes rather than collapsing into the coffee. If you want it with less milk, ask for it with ligo gala; if you want oat or almond milk, most cafes in tourist villages like Stoupa now keep them.

Frappé: the original Greek cold coffee

Before freddo there was frappé, born in Thessaloniki in 1957 when a Nescafé representative at a trade fair had no hot water and shook instant coffee with cold water and ice instead. The foam that formed became a national institution. A frappé is instant coffee, sugar to taste and a little water shaken or whisked to a stiff foam, then topped with cold water, ice and, if you like, milk. It is lighter in flavour than freddo, cheaper, and it lasts. A frappé nursed on a beach lounger over two hours is one of the defining images of a Greek summer, and you will still see plenty of them on the sand below Enigma in Stoupa.

How to order coffee like a Greek

Greeks order the coffee and the sweetness in one breath, and the sweetness words are the same for every drink:

• Sketos: no sugar.
• Metrios: medium, about one teaspoon of sugar.
• Glykos: sweet, about two teaspoons.
• Me gala: with milk. Horis gala: without.

So a Greek coffee with one sugar is an ellinikos metrios. A cold black double espresso with no sugar is a freddo espresso sketos. A frappé with milk and two sugars is a frappé glykos me gala. Say ena, meaning one, in front and you are done. If you forget everything else, remember that the sweetness is decided at the counter, not at the table, because for ellinikos and freddo the sugar is worked into the drink while it is made.

Two more habits worth copying. The glass of water that arrives with every coffee is not a mistake, drink it. And nobody is expected to leave when the cup is empty; the coffee buys the seat for as long as you want it.

Where to drink it in Stoupa

Enigma, the cafe and cocktail bar on Tampoureas street, sits on the headland at the right hand edge of Stoupa bay with the terrace looking west across the Messenian Gulf. The coffee list covers the full Greek range, espresso and ellinikos, freddo espresso and freddo cappuccino, frappé, plus iced drinks, beer and light bites through the day, and the same terrace turns into the sunset cocktail bar in the evening. The stretch of beach below belongs to the venue, so the classic Stoupa rhythm is a swim, a freddo on the terrace, and back to the water. Later in the day, Liastres, the traditional Greek restaurant 40 metres along the same street, does the food side of the same idea, and after dinner a Greek coffee there is the proper full stop to a Mani meal.

If you are staying a while, our guide to sunset cocktails and Greek spirits covers what comes after the coffee, and the guide to Mani cuisine covers what to eat in between.

Practical notes

• Greek coffee: about 60 ml, 40 to 60 mg caffeine, always with water, sugar decided when ordering.
• Freddo espresso: double shot, black, over ice; freddo cappuccino: the same with cold milk foam.
• Frappé: instant coffee, foam, ice, optional milk; the lighter, longer drink.
• Sweetness words: sketos, metrios, glykos. Milk: me gala.
• In Stoupa: Enigma on Tampoureas street, terrace over the gulf, coffee through the day, cocktails at sunset. Contact and directions.

Read next

Sunset Cocktails in Stoupa: Greek Spirits and the Right HourThe Liastres Menu Explained: Mani Dishes, Seafood and DessertsThe Story of Enigma and Liastres: Two Venues, One Street on the Mani Coast