While I was sitting on the beach in Greece, staring thoughtfully into my frappe glass (as you do), I figured something out.

That crazy cappuccino Tamara and I had in Rome in 2003? The super-charged stuff that had this super-sweet coffee foam spooned on top in addition to the milk foam?

I think it’s made with Nescafe.

The woman at the coffee joint in Rome told us this crema was the foam from the espresso, whipped up with a ton of sugar, to make this almost meringue-like goo, which you then dollop onto your coffee. The woman also warned us not to put additional sugar in our coffee–we wouldn’t be needing it.

Mind you, all this happened in Italian, which Tamara and I don’t really speak. So we missed some of the finer points.

Which is why for years I’ve been pondering this problem. Did they really make lots of cups of espresso, scoop the foam off and mix it with sugar? Then what did they do with the foamless espresso? Because everyone knows that espresso with no foam is crap espresso–you couldn’t serve it to anyone. And it would take a million shots of espresso to make this crema.

Enter the frappe. The frappe, when done by Greek professionals, is a spoon of Nescafe (the Greek formulation, by the way–it’s stronger than what you get here) and a spoon or two of sugar and a very small amount of water. You whiz that up with one of those things made for ice-cream shakes, which creates a glass half-filled with hardy coffee foam. You then add water (and maybe milk) to fill the glass, and maybe ice.

And that foam, which can sit around for the entire life of the frappe–hours, if you’re a frappe-drinker with restraint–without deflating, is almost exactly like what I had on my cappuccino four years ago. The crema had more sugar, and was glossier because of it, but same idea.

To be “authentic” I will look around for some Italian instant espresso crystals, but I betcha Greek Nescafe would do the trick as well.