We are in Athens, Greece.
And in this episode, we are going to show you the coffee culture of Greece
That's right. So in Greece, coffee is not just a coffee culture. It's a lifestyle
here. People drink coffee all day long. Whether you're sitting at the cafe at
the kafeneio just sipping your coffee for a few hours
You know you got the classic you got the old men sitting there playing
backgammon or you know messing around the worry beads. You hear the snapping
around that's one thing if you're in Athens you hear that snapping around. Or just
the takeaway coffee culture. You see people on the go, coffee all the time
So we're gonna check out the four major styles of coffee here in Greece. Very
popular. We're gonna do it sitting down and we're gonna do it takeaway. And there's also a
terminology you have to know if you want to do it like a good Greek, like I'm
trying to be. You have it you know no sugar it's called sketos - that's no
sugar at all. Then you got metrios - medium sugar, which I like. Yes, that's Jumi's
style. Then you have glykos. Glykos is sweet. So think glucose, right. Glucose/
glykos. You know - Greek language old language, right? Lot of stuff comes from it.
We're gonna do four different coffee styles. We're gonna do the classic Greek coffee. We're
gonna do frappe. Freddo cappuccino. Freddo espresso. So that's the four major
types of Greek coffee you have to know when you come to Greece. Let's do it.
Alright so we are here at Mokka in the center of Athens right near
Omonoia right near the Central Market. It''s a famous place because they do
Greek coffee in the traditional way. But before we get into that, what is Greek
coffee? Greek coffee, it's cold water, they mix the coffee and they heat
it. So it's unfiltered, so you have the coffee sediment rest at the bottom. The foam
rises to the top. The foam is very desired in the coffee. It's called kaimaki.
They do it here in a really special way. They heat it on the sand on a really hot
surface and sand and you see they have a briki right here. They call it briki, also called ibrik from Turkish coffee.
That's the thing, so that's another thing about Greek coffee that you're gonna find this
style of coffee in several places. A lot of people may know Turkish coffee. Similar
concept. In the Balkans - Bosnia, Croatia, Albania. A lot of these countries they do
similar methods. You know you gotta trace back all the history. We're not gonna get
into all that though. It's pretty complex, right?
Mm smells so good. Let's take a sip.
Such a luscious, thick very strong. We got this one
sketos - that means no sugar.
It's very smooth this one. You know we drink Greek coffee a lot. We even have our own briki
at home. Not as fancy as this. Not as fancy as this briki at home.
Maybe we should because this is beautiful. But we also need that whole apparatus with the
sand and the heat. But we have our own at home we really enjoy it
It's nice to not have a coffeemaker. It's a very old-school method classic method
of making coffee. Really appreciate that. It's actually the first Greek coffee we had
outside here in Greece. We've drank a lot of another type of coffee which we're gonna
get into later
Alright, so freddo is such a popular drink here. So there's two types of
freddo. We're gonna get into the other one later
But this is the Freddo cappuccino. I was first introduced to Freddo cappuccino by
my cousin right here in Athens actually back in 2012. So I ordered another
coffee drink, the frappe, which we'll also talk about later. And then my cousin
ordered the freddo. I'm like what's a freddo? And he's like oh, this is the coffee that everybody's
drinking in Athens now. And it's true, you see everybody especially on takeaway, but
we ordered it here to stay. So a freddo, you have
espresso shot with ice. And then the cappuccino version here it's like a
regular cappuccino there's foam milk on top.
They blend it all together to get this beautiful foam on top. So you have that white
foam, you have the dark coffee. Then you mix it together you have that nice tan in the
middle. So freddo is really - when you come to Greece you
have to drink Freddo. And it's on ice, so it's a cool drink.
Alright, so what we have here. We have frappe. Frappe is a classic Greek iced coffee.
The story behind it's pretty funny. It was founded by accident like a lot of good
things are. An employee of Nestle who's name is Dimitrios, he did not have hot water at
the time to mix with the Nescafe. So frappe is made with Nescafe, instant
coffee. So he used cold water ice cubes shook it
up and that's how the frappe was born. So that's how you get this
beautiful foam on top. So that's the thing, it was really popular for a long
time. Now it's much less popular due to the rise of the freddo, but it's still a
prominent drink. So we got this the Frappe we got it metrios, with medium
sugar. And it's been a while since I've had this so gonna have it here in Greece
for the first time in a while. Gonna mix it up a little bit
That's strong. You definitely taste that it's not a freshly made coffee for sure.
Especially the more freddo you drink, the more you realize that it's not
freshly ground coffee. But it's still a satisfying drink. It almost has like a
chocolaty feel with this thick foam.
It's served on ice, especially for the often hot weather here in Greece in the
Summertime and Spring. It's definitely one of those refreshing coffees to have.
This is another option to add to your repertoire. Definitely try it at least
once. You may prefer the freshly made coffees, but it's definitely worth trying.
It's a classic piece of Greek coffee culture.
So what we have here, it's our
fourth and final coffee in this video. It's actually my favorite of the four. It's
freddo espresso. And my favorite too. So you may remember earlier we had the
Freddo cappuccino. So this is very similar. It has the freshly made espresso shots
at the bottom and then it's blended to give it that nice foam. So it's hot
coffee mixed with the ice. That's how you get that really nice foam. We also got
those metrios. I usually would get it sketos, without sugar, but it's a
compromise. Jumi likes it that way - why not, right?
Oh that fresh coffee flavor. Absolutely love that
This one you just kind of carry around. If you don't want dairy, this is the
difference between this, the freddo espresso and the freddo cappuccino. This
is the one to get. It's also the takeaway - it is much cheaper. So we got this from
Coffee Island. Coffee Island is a popular chain here in Greece. I guess you
want to call it - it's kind of like a Starbucks equivalent in Greece I guess.
But it's born here in Greece. That's the beauty that this chain is born in
Greece. I believe they have locations in Canada. I hope they come to New York City, too.
Would love to have access to this freddo espresso all the time. Because you know when we're
in New York City, we can only really get it at a couple of Greek cafes and we have
to go to Astoria for that. So it'd be awesome if the Greek coffee culture will
expand in the United States. But this one is great. This one you get your espresso you
take it on the go on ice, you got a nice foam
So refreshing. We covered four of the most well-known coffees in Greece. We had the
classic Greek coffee - the only one that we had that was hot.
We had the Freddo cappuccino, frappe and Freddo espresso.
So it's definitely worth trying all four, especially if you come to Greece. If you live
in an area that has Greek cafes, Greek community, any access to it - try them all
see what you think. Let us know in the comments if you had any of these coffees
before. Which one is your favorite. Or if you have favorite Greek coffee spot
wherever you are watching this or in Greece let us know we will always come
back to Greece. And we for sure will hit up the places recommended to us. Comment down below. Let us know. We hope you
enjoyed this. Hope you learned more about the Greek coffee culture here and the
types of coffee you can get in Greece. Thank you so much for watching.
Coffee is the way of life in Greece, Yeah, coffee is definitely a way of life here
in Greece. Thank you so kindly for watching we hope you enjoyed this video
Efcharistou. Parakalo. Smash the like button for us subscribe hit the
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Peace. Efcharistou. Parakalo. Efcharistou.