Does anyone know the difference between frappes and milkshakes? In my home region (coastal Massachusetts) the distinction is important, because frappes contain ice cream but milkshakes are only milk plus flavoring, blended together. But people I meet from other places claim that milkshakes do contain ice cream, and the two words are synonyms. Can anyone say anything authoritative about this?
A frappe (pronounced FRAPP, like a Don Martin fart) only exists as such in Massachusetts. Everyplace else in the lower 48 calls 'em milkshakes, even Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
Wait…in Rhode Island, they call milkshakes “cabinets.” Well, we’ll just ignore Rhode Island; everyone else does. “The Delaware of New England,” we like to call it.
A frappe, however (pronounced (fra-PAY), is, according to the second edition of the FOOD LOVER’S COMPANION (Barron’s), “1. A mixture made of fruit juice or other flavored liquid that has been frozen to a slushy consistency. It can be sweet or savory, and served as a drink, appetizer, or dessert. 2. An after-dinner drink of liqueur poured over shaved or crushed ice.”
It depends on your region. In New York City, a milkshake has ice cream in it. What you call a “milkshake” is called an “egg cream” (no, it doesn’t have any eggs in it).
In some places, “frappe” and “milkshake” are synonyms. Where I was growing up, the word “frappe” was never used; a milkshake had ice cream in it. There are probably other variations and other names.
No…a New York City egg cream involves flavored syrup, cold milk, and SELTZER.
A Massachusetts “milkshake” sounds to me like a glass of chocolate milk.
Following up on Ike’s point that a Massachusetts milkshake just sounds like chocolate milk: well, it’s not the same thing. Chocolate milk is milk, with flavoring (powder or syrup), stirred with a spoon. A milkshake is milk, with flavoring (typically syrup, not powder), frothed in a blender. Finally, a frappe is milk + ice cream, sometimes with flavored syrup but other times depending on the flavor of the ice cream alone, mixed in a blender or better yet and industrial-strength frappe maker at the local ice cream stand.
It seems like in other regions these distinctions are glossed over, but I find them quite useful. I’m just sorry to hear that they’re so regional. I guess the coastal massachusetts terms are like eskimo words for snow: cold milk-based drinks are so much a part of our lives that we need a lot of words for them.
Also interesting: a NYC egg-cream, which does include seltzer, sounds much like an ice-cream soda in common parlance, but without the ice cream.
My grandmother, a native Vermonter, had the same distinctions between a milk shake and a frappe that you have, Freca. …and she’d never heard of an egg cream. I think that (other than the egg cream part) it may be another case of a change in usage, though maybe only regionally. The frappe as we know it is probally just a new england thing, maybe french-canadian (it means ‘partially frozen’ IIRC.)
K.
My life was saved by a frappe in Rumford, Maine. So I know they call them frappes in that part of the world.
I was driving through Western Maine on a vacation and I had left motel after having no breakfast and just having a cup of coffee. When I got to Rumford, my blood sugar dropped sharply and I started to feel faint. Fortunately, I was in Rumford and near a diner. I grabbed a seat on the corner, held on with both hands and ordered just about everything on the menu. The waitress told me that the frappe could be fixed in a minute or so, while my burger would take 10 minutes.
I first asked for a shake, then the waitress asked, “Do you want ice cream in that?” I said yes and she told me (in a Maine accent), “We call those frappes here.”
I have since learned to never go on a long drive without some fruit in the car.
My understanding is that a frappe is primarily made with crushed ice, iced water, flavouring and a little ice cream to give it the creamy feel. This is how they are made in parts of Europe…
In Boston, at the corner drugstore near my high school, they sell frappes, milkshakes, and egg creams. I used to always have a vanilla frappe after track practice there. If someone asked for a milkshake, it was pretty much assumed that they were from out of town, and the difference was explained to them. I did see someone actually get one once. I don’t think anyone ever ordered an egg cream that I saw.
Often, the sort of place that this place was, kinda like a drugstore, but without the drugs, and with a counter with stools and a soda fountain, etc. is often known as a spa. I’ve never figured out the origin of the term, and never seen it used anywhere else. Oh, and those chocolate sprinkles on ice cream are known as jimmies.
A frappé as I know it is what I had in Greece: a coffee drink using Nescafe, sugar, sweetened condensed milk and ice.
Using a special little sealed cup or frother, you whip a tablespoon or so of Nes and sugar along with just enough water to moisten the mix. This is poured over ice in a tall glass and topped off with (depending on your preferences,the sweetened milk or water or a combination thereof). It is served w/ a glass of ice water and is he perfect companion to sitting on the plaka watching the scenery as the late September sun slants through the olive trees and the person you love is sitting next to you…
sorry for the auto hijack!
These are directly responsible for my growing to enjoy the taste of coffee! I still don’t care for watered down “regular” coffee, but give me a triple espresso or a super strong Greek(Turkish) coffee and a piece of baklava-ohhhhhhhh yes
Well, I live in Massachusetts too (and have my whole life), and to us around here, a milkshake equals ice cream, milk, and flavoring, mixed in a blender or mixer. Of course, I’m in the western part of the state, near Springfield, not in the coastal region, like the person in the previous post. Never in my life have I heard anyone around here utter the word “frappe.” Now, of course, there’s the Fribble, which is a whole different animal. Oh, how I love Fribbles (from Friendly’s in case you didn’t know…)
In all my life as a resident of Beverly, MA, I’ve never ordered, or seen ordered, a milkshake. I’ve seen people try, but the frappe/shake difference was explained, and they quickly switched. All the ice cream stands around here have both on the menu, though. Dunno why they’d bother with the milkshake.
Hey, where do malts fit into all this? My dad used to make them at home, but I don’t remember what all he used, besides ice cream and malt stuff.
Uhhh…here in MN a milkshake is ice cream (flavored or not) and enough milk to make the blender blend. Or ice cream, some sort of flavored syrup, and enough milk.
No frappes here that I know of, or egg creams, for that matter.
Another popular ice cream drink is the float, which is the pop of your choice with a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream. I had a sparkling apple cider float at the state fair a while back - oh, my was that good 
I believe “Frappe” means crushed (hit) in French and it originally referred to a drink poured over crushed ice.
Where I come from, a milkshake is syrup, icecream and milk blended together. A frappe is liqueur poured over crushed ice (said ice being put in a tea towel and bashed on a bar a few times. This is in silver service restaurants.) Icecream floating around in soft drink is called a spider. How a connection between nasty bitey things and a drink was made, I have no idea.
BTW, milk and flavouring is either flavoured milk (pretty obvious, huh?) or a really really bad milkshake made by a tight cafe.
{singing in a Jonathan Richman voice}
Dum de dum de dum dum de dum dAYYYYYY-AYYYY
OH, I love New England!
Okay…so a Milkshake is a Frappe ONLY in coastal Massachusetts, Vermont, and inland Maine, nowhere else in the country. In Western Mass it’s a Milkshake again. Can someone from New Hampshire weigh in?
An Egg Cream can be found ONLY in the five boroughs of New York City. Or maybe only Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in Queens or Staten Island.
We had ice cream parlors/sandwich shops in New Haven, Connecticut, called “Spas,” too. It seems like an early 20th-century New England thing. The Spa I went to looked like it had stopped evolving in 1932. You could have them put an egg in your Milkshake if you wanted, to keep your pelt shiny.
A Spider? What the hell? This sounds to me like a Root Beer Float. What part of the world are you in, MousseDuck?
Ike, I mentioned that I have seen egg creams for sale in Boston. Maybe Sparr’s Drugstore is the exception, rather than the rule, but they definately had it last I checked (granted, that was 1996).
Ukulele Ike summed it up nicely. The frappe-shake distinction seems to be located roughly around those few areas. The coastal vs. western Massachusetts localization is especially interesting to me, as my experience growing up in Beverly prompted this thread (Hi, Flymaster). I also have seen many times the person who orders a shake, then is kindly informed by the ice-cream girl or counter guy that a shake doesn’t have ice cream, “so would you like a frappe instead?”
Now here’s the really weird thing: doesn’t this geographical region overlap the same region where we distinguish between jimmies and colored sprinkles? The larger question is, why do we make these fine ice-cream-related distinctions, especially given that we live in a place that’s cold almost half the year?
The Ben&Jerry’s scoop shops offer egg creams. That’s where I had my first one (it was the least expensive drink on the menu and I was broke.) YUM. I really love egg creams. And Malteds. And Ice Cream. And Frappes. Milkshakes too. Yum!
K.