The important question is does your milkshake bring all the boys to the yard?
Aussie here: We have milkshakes (milk, floavouring and a scoop or two of ice-cream) which you can drink easily. Thickshakes (some milk, flavouring and lots of ice-cream) which require a large straw and some effort to drink.
The frappes I have had involved crushed ice, fruit and minimal if any milk - like this http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/20586/raspberry+and+apple+frappe. I imagine the chocolate or coffee types would likely have some milk but I consider them a crushed ice drink rather than a milk drink.
I’ve always thought Frappes had to be made with coffee.
And the difference between whether they use real ice cream or not is that the former is called a milkshake, while the latter is just a shake.
I’ve lived in NJ my whole life but grew up going to Maine every summer because my grandma’s from Maine. While NJ (or, to the rest of the world, the NY city area) milkshakes are -on paper- the same as frappes, frappes are IMO thicker & SOOO much better. I’ve never had a “milkshake” in Maine because if i had the opportunity to have a frappe there was no reason to order any other drink. While NJ milkshakes seem to be made with the same ingredients, the result is different, so I think that they must use different proportions.
Btw, I’ve had frappes -not milkshakes- in Maine, NH, & Mass (long hot drives up to Maine always meant stopping throughout New England). Not sure on the chocolate, but I always order strawberry & it (almost) always has fruit in it (whether it’s fruit in the icecream or added later, I don’t know). I’ve also had a mixed berry frappe that seemed to be vanilla icecream with fresh berries added in (delicious!).
The way I always understood it, milkshakes are milk plus ice cream, and sometimes with other flavoring. For instance, a vanilla shake is made with plain milk plus vanilla ice cream, and it might have additional vanilla flavoring. Chocolate shakes are made with chocolate ice cream and milk. Black and whites are made with chocolate ice cream and regular milk, and double chocolate is made with chocolate milk as well as ice cream. Additional chocolate flavoring might or might not be added. Strawberry shakes require strawberry ice cream, regular milk, and possibly fresh strawberries for garnish and/or in the mix, and again possibly additional strawberry flavoring. ALL milkshakes require a blender.
I remember frappes from at least the 1970s. Blender handbooks usually included a few frappe recipes for your new blender. Frappes might or might not include milk or milk products, and always include ice. Jamba Juice sells what I consider frappes. Again, a blender is essential because of the ice. Smoothies are what I consider to be frappes.
Part of the problem is that different regions use different terminologies, as evidenced by the replies. But the way I use the words is the true and right way!
In the NYC area, all chocolate/vanilla shakes have extra flavoring - a black-and-white shake is vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup and milk. A chocolate shake is chocolate ice cream, chocolate syrup and milk and a vanilla shake is vanilla ice cream, vanilla syrup ( or extract) and milk.
Yes, I did too. And I am surprised that more people didn’t post this sentiment.
No, they’re made with chocolate ice cream and vanilla milk. You use Eclipse vanilla syrup to make milk vanilla. I can’t believe how much that site is asking for it, because a bottle goes for less than $5 around here.
About three bucks.
Same as in town.
You yankees is all weird. All of y’all. I plead a failing memory…last time I was up in New England was (counting on fingers, counting on toes, TWICE) not quite 40 years ago. My father never mentioned vanilla milk. However, he was from a small town near Boston, not New York.
Unless it’s been spread elsewhere by ice cream companies, “frappe” is unique to New England. I certainly never heard it until I moved up to Boston the first time. In the rest of the country, “milkshake” does mean what “frappe” used to in New England.
With the spread of chains like McDonald’s, Burger King, and Johnny Rockets, New Englanders now know that a “milkshake” need not be what the OP defined it as.
And just to muddy the ice cream, the chain Friendly’s calls it a Fribble, thus avoiding all controversy.
There are scattered diners, ice cream parlours, delis, and suchlike around the country that have “egg cream” on the menu. I recently saw it in Alexandria, Virginia. But it’s not ubiquitous.
Still called ‘frappes’ around Boston. I suppose most spa* & ice-cream place owners think that explaining “No, you don’t really want a milkshake, you want a frappe” is some charming tradition, because that’s the only reason for keeping ‘milkshake’ on the menu.
And of course, in Springfield, they’re called “Krusty Partially Gelatinated Non-Dairy Gum-Based Beverages”.
*“Spa” being a corner drugstore/soda counter in New England (again mostly centered around Boston where stores have existed for more than one generation). So named because a soda or ice cream was a refreshing, relaxing treat, just like going to a hot-springs/massage type place.
Try and find a place called a “spa” anymore. I know of one for certain in Southbridge, and I think I’ve seen another in a northern Boston suburb. Aside fro,m a few old dinosaurs like these (there are undoubtedly others in the Boston area, but not all that many), the “Spa” of Old Boston is pretty much gone, and I’ll bet most Boston kids have no idea what the term means.
A quick search turns up Sam’s Spa in Everett, Winship Spa in Brighton, Montrose Spa in Cambridge, Hodgkins in Somerville, and Hillside/Cardoza Brothers near the MGH. I can’t find any others near Boston.
When I was living in Rhode Island in the mid-90’s, I learned of the New England Frappe/Milk Shake quirk. It looks like a big RI place only has frappes on the menu: Newport Creamery.
I have lived in mass and new hampshire my whole life, mostly NH, and pretty much understand the difference between the two. A frappe can be made with any flavor ove ice cream and usually has milk or syrup added. A milkshake is usually soft serve ice cream with sryup added. Most of the ice cream stands I. My area have frappes on the menu. You dont really see anyone get a milkshake unless its from a fast food place.
Well, if we are resurrecting this, maybe this example will help:
Here, if you have a milkshake, and I have a milkshake, and I have a straw. There it is, that’s a straw, you see? Watch it. Now, my straw reaches acroooooooss the room and starts to drink your milkshake. I… drink… your… milkshake!
Except I am in MA, so I prefer to drink your frappe. Cuz of the ice cream.
If you are going to be at the Newport Creamery, you might as well have an Awful Awful, which is their signature drink. They are made with ice milk, not ice cream, so they’re not as rich as a frappe. Yummy, though! I had one today 
Skara Brae, RI Native.
I had my first coffee and ice “frappe” sometime in the 90s and I bought a “frappe” machine about 6 years ago. Long before Starbucks or McDonald’s marketing those things, “frappe” had always meant a frozen coffee blended with ice, to me.
Milk shakes were always blended milk and ice cream. When I was a kid you could get one at just about any restaurant, and they were served in a glass with the leftovers kept in the metal cup thing (whatever that is called). I have been making them at home, again since the 90s, with a blender.