it's frappe season!

The Frappe is almost like a good Guinness.
2/3 foam when it arrives at your table.
And look at the beautiful cascade.

There is a mysteriously good coffee drink served up in every cafe in Astoria. One sip and you will say goodbye to Starbuck's forever and start embracing local color again (which you should do anyway, sip or no sip, in my humble opinion...) The drink is called a frappe (pron. frappay). Take the N or W to Queens and get off at Broadway or 30th Avenue where the Greek cafes are most plentiful. Just walk the neighborhood a little and you will see many people enjoying these drinks.

Order your frappe with milk or without, with sugar or without. The coffee beverage is made with a special kind of Nescafe instant coffee which you can buy at Titan Foods or Mediterranean Foods, should you want to continue the coffee fun at home. The ingredients (instant coffee, water, milk optional, ice, sugar optional) are mixed together in a milkshake machine or a blender. My husband and I started drinking these last summer, became obsessed, and then started making them at home with a martini shaker. They are quite caffeinated and as it turns out, much more enjoyable when someone else makes them. This year I think I will save my coffee treat for the cafes, and enjoy a leisurely chat n' sip outdoors with my hubby.

You can buy a can of Nescafe Classic at nearby Titan Foods
and make Frappes at home.

Or just leave it to the experts.