The Difference Between a Milkshake and a Frappe
Do you know the difference between a milkshake and a frappe? How about a cabinet? Read on to learn the New England frappe drink definition.
By Aimee Tucker|Jul 12 2022|
Coffee By Design | Portland, Maine
Photo Credit : Katherine KeenanWhen is a milkshake not a milkshake? In New England, of course, when it’s a frappe (or a cabinet). Confused? Let’s break down the delicious difference between a milkshake, frappe, and cabinet.
According to the American Heritage College Dictionary, a milkshake is a “a beverage that is made of milk, ice cream, and often flavoring and is blended or whipped until foamy.” Unless you live in New England, where a milkshake would never include ice cream. Adding ice cream makes it a “frappe” drink.
As a teenager, I worked for a popular ice cream stand, Kimball Farm, in my hometown of Westford, Massachusetts, and like most jobs dealing with food and/or “visiting” customers, I spent a decent amount of time explaining things on the menu. Some questions relating to New England ice cream flavors were normal (What’s in Frozen Pudding ice cream? You don’t want to know) but others were uniquely regional – the kinds of things a local might know (What are jimmies?), but had others feeling puzzled.
The number one “from away” question? “What’s a frappe?”
Photo Credit : Aimee Seavey
Sometimes it got very “Who’s on first” kinds of confusing. Here’s a typical re-creation:
Customer: “I’d like a chocolate milkshake, please.”
Me: “Do you mean a milkshake or a frappe?”
Customer: “I mean a milkshake – with ice cream.”
Me: “If you want ice cream, you want a frappe. A milkshake just has milk and syrup.”
Customer: “Uhm…I’d like whatever has the ice cream.”
Today I’ve made a classic chocolate frappe with 3 scoops of chocolate ice cream, a generous splash of milk, and thick drizzle of chocolate syrup. I put all of my frappe ingredients into a tall glass fridge jug with an opening that perfectly fits my immersion blender (or “stick” blender), and then pulsed away until I had a thick and rich concoction – namely, a chocolate frappe.
Photo Credit : Aimee Seavey
I don’t know why we call the delicious mix of ice cream, milk, syrup, and sometimes malt powder a frappe (pronounced “frap”) here in New England, but when you really think about it, a milkshake shouldn’t be anything other than shaken (NOT stirred) milk and syrup. And a frappe, which sounds funny and looks elegant with those double p’s, must (of course) be the fancier of the two, meaning the one with the ice cream. It makes perfect sense.
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Photo Credit : Aimee Seavey
Now for those who wonder if a chocolate milkshake in New England is basically just a glass of chocolate milk, the answer is a resounding NO. Chocolate milk is the casual stirring of chocolate syrup into a glass of milk. A chocolate milkshake is the vigorous shaking (or blending) of the two until the consistency is perfectly creamy and a frothy head is formed. I used the same stick blender is a tall glass pitcher to make this drink as well.
Photo Credit : Aimee Seavey
Finally, to make matters even more confusing, if you’re from certain parts of Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts, you order a cabinet.
What is a cabinet? Basically it’s the same thing as a frappe (usually coffee-flavored and made with Autocrat Coffee Syrup), but it got its name because that’s where the blender was kept. We like to keep milkshake-loving tourists on their toes here in New England!
So, readers…which name do you prefer? Milkshake, frappe, or cabinet? And which flavor is best?
This post was first published in 2015 and has been updated.
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Well My family owned a dairy from probably before the 1930’s had a soda fountain ,we and made our own ice cream….We always called them Milkshakes and they were made with milk, syrup and ICE CREAM. Unlike places that today serve them with whipped cream and cherry ours were mixed in a Hamilton Beach Mixer poured and served in a large glass, if any was left in the stainless steel mixer container it was left on the table or counter so you could enjoy every last drop.
Awful awful does not have any ice cream they use ice milk
They do use ice cream. I’ve frequently watched them make them at Newport Creamery.
Last I knew they used a special ice milk mix. Not ice cream.
We were located in New Haven and Hamden, Ct.
Growing up I worked at a drive-in restaurant. Milkshakes had no ice cream but frappes did. That was pretty much the way they were in northern NH back in the day.
It seems Connecticut is different then the rest of New England! We call them milk shakes and that roll with mayo, deli meat and cheese is called a grinder! Don’t even get me started on the proper way to make a lobster roll!! Hint it doesn’t have mayo EVER!!
That’s because much of Connecticut is a New York satellite – with all the irredeemable cultural deficiencies that that implies.
For years , the Tamerack, in N.H. had a sign that said if you ask for a milkshake that’s what you get , if you want ice cream in it , ask for a frappe
I grew up on the west coast and went to visit relatives in New England when I was 13. I learned the hard way that a milk shake did not include ice cream – and have never forgotten the difference between a milk shake and a frappe. It is actually a very fond memory from 30+ years ago.
My grandmother, who was a recipient of the prestigious Boston Cane as the oldest living person in her New England town, always ordered coffee cabinets!
The popularity of Coffee ice cream or cabinets is another New England peculiarity!!!
I remember going to the cape as a kid in the 60s and always ordering a frappe. Not sure if I’d ever heard of a milkshake.
Years ago, I briefly worked at the old Bailey’s ice cream shop in Harvard Square, Cambridge. We were instructed if anyone asked for a milk shake, to make sure they knew the difference between that and a frappe, in case they were from outside the region. It did come up a few times, but everyone I talked to knew what they were ordering and they weren’t surprised.
What about the “ice cream soda” which is the milkshake with a scoop of ice cream added, but not blended in?!
I worked at the ice cream chain Brigham’s and also studied ballet. Frappe is from the French, Frappe ( accent over the e), the definition is ‘to strike’, although I always thought it meant ‘to beat’.
I reread this and thought of another question. Just what is in “frozen pudding”? Is it really just, you know, frozen pudding?
Hi Will! Excellent question. Frozen Pudding ice cream is a rum-based ice cream with dried fruit, like raisins. It was (and I suspect still is) very popular with seniors. 🙂
Any different names based on soft ice cream vs hard ice cream. I heard one place call soft a milkshake and hard a frappe…
I also grew up in Connecticut and our milkshakes included ice cream and only knew of frappes from our Rhode Island friends. Sorry Nicole, never heard of a grinder (grinda) having mayo only oil.
A grinder is any kind of sub, hot or cold. When I lived in Pennsylvania I was surprised to hear some people use the word, but to them a grinder couldn’t be cold.
Love all the comments, Weeks Dairy Bar in Franklin NH always had the best coffee cabinets and always left the extra in the stainless steel blender cup on the table ! I love NH !
and a “float” is just that, a scoop of ice cream dropped into a tall glass of soda, sometimes with a syrup stirred in, and usually a (self-explanatory) “root beer float”.
but what about a “malt” (also called a “malted milk shake”)?
I’m from Brooklyn, Queen of Egg Creams, but a Yankee Lady at heart, and love the New England way!
I grew up in the coast of Massachusetts, in Swampscott, 12 miles north of Boston, by Kings Beach. A milkshake was milk and flavored syrup, usually chocolate or vanilla, a frappe was milk, flavored syrup, and ice cream all beaten up, and an ice cream soda was usually chocolate soda,or coffee soda, or orange soda, with chocolate ice cream topped off. A creamsicle soda was orange soda with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream in it. There was a fabulous ice cream place nearby in Salem called Alice,s Ice Cream that had the best I’ve cream around, many flavors, including my three favorite,s: Grapenut, Black Raspberry & Peppermint Stick. Card piled up outside the stand, there was no indoors to it. What a great going there a few times each week! Sure do miss Alice,s! And I HAVE heard of a Cabinet. Knew it was a Rhode Island thing. So many ice creamerys they used to have. Those were the days!
Thanks for the article Aimee. Now can you explain the difference between a Frappe and a Fribble, another New England Ice Cream concoction sold by Friendly’s
My pleasure, Joe! Sounds like a great idea for a future story! 🙂
Well, that explains it! You are basically a New Yorker….not a true New Englander!
Coffee cabinet!! Awesome!!!
Joyce: I thought the “mayo” comment referred to a lobster roll – not the grinder.
being from Massachusetts I had only heard of a frappe or milkshake never heard of a cabinet except the ones you keep things in! When I moved to Rhode Island is when I heard about the cabinet which is ALWAYS made with coffee syrup and is basically a coffee frappe according to all the locals!!!
Coffee Cabinets are the most popular, but a cabinet is NOT always coffee.
As a kid I would take my piano lesson money (50cents) and go to the drug store and have a coffee cabinet. Pure heaven till my mother found out!!
Now I live in TX but the first thing I do when I go home to RI is have a coffee cabinet!
Okay when in NE if you go to McDonalds do you ask for a shake or a frappe with your burger and fries.
An ice cream soda is basically an egg cream with a scoop of ice cream on top.
An egg cream is mostly seltzer, with a shot of milk to give it a little smoother consistency & your flavored syrup of choice. Never any ice!
Friendly’s Fribble used to be soft-serve ice cream, milk & syrup. That would differentiate it from their regular milkshakes (er, frappe)…which no longer exists on the menu. Now, they have gotten rid of the soft-serve altogether, and so now the Fribble is a frappe, basically! Very thick.
Aimee, having grown up just outside Boston, my favorite frappe flavor is a Black & White (vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup). Years ago I worked for Newport Creamery (a restaurant like Friendly’s or Blake’s) and they had two thick shakes. One was the frappe, made with ice cream. The second, which name eludes me, was just as thick but made with ice milk. It was their signature shake, like Friendly’s Fribble.
Awlful Awlfuls are the signature drink of Newport Creamery…have drank quite a few growing up in Newport…vanilla with extra syrup…yes it’s made with ice milk and not ice cream so they can make all kinds of flavors from the ice milk
My poor mother, who grew up in Bridgewater MA, was so confused when my father’s friend said he was taking a cabinet to his father in the hospital. She could not understand why he needed a cabinet if he was in the hospital! She also had a problem with tonic vs soda.
was it the Awful Awful?
Awful thick,awful good. From Newport Creamery.
In MA we call em grinders as well. The difference, as far as I can tell is a grinder is put together and cooked in the pizza oven where a sub the ingredients are cooked and put in a soft roll. As far as I was aware, the only place that called a milkshake a frappe was Friendlies. Mc D’s had the triple thick (or so they said) milkshake with ice cream. Who knows what they use now. Hood ice cream out of Agawm sold a frozen gallon container of some kind of special ice cream which one added some milk to and blended a milkshake. Course, back then we had state line potatoe chips and cheese pop corn. Thee best!
My dad was a big fan of frozen pudding. I remember him getting all the time when I was growing up. We’d go to Hayward’s Ice Cream stand in Nashua. I think they phased it out a few years ago though. It actually was a really good flavor, but probably became more of a niche product as the population aged. There was also a red fruit in it that might have been cherries.
It’s Mcdonalds. Just ask for the brown non dairy high fructose corn syrup frozen dessert.
I was born and raised in southeastern mass, but until today have never even heard the term cabinet. My parents and grandparents were also from this area, and I didn’t hear it from them. From my understanding and also working in ice cream shoppes, a frappe was made with hard ice cream, but a shake was made with soft serve. Each had a different consistancy.
I remember when I was a kid and the difference between Jimmies and sprinkles was Jimmies were chocolate and sprinkles were rainbow colored
Frappes have ice cream, milkshakes do not!
Now what I miss is a Black Cow! Henry’s Root Beer blended with Vanilla ice cream. So good and way better than a plain old Root Beer float.
Now in NY they make their Black Cow’s with Coke but that’s just wrong!
I spent many years working for Friendly’s in my youth. I can’t remember if the menu offered both milkshakes and frappes, but if anyone ordered a frappe or a milkshake, we just made a frappe. Seriously, who wants a ‘milkshake’ when you go to an ice cream parlor. We all knew it was a frappe, but never minced anyone’s words. One time in 7 years I was schooled by a customer as to how to make a proper milkshake. It is def a frappe in New England and it’s not just a friendly’s term. Just like Jimmies, we were always explaining that one. I’m sure McDonald’s calls it a shake b/c they are a national chain, I’d even question if they used real ice cream back then. I don’t think a drink made with soft serve qualifies as a frappe.
Oh, Kimballs was heaven on earth! I used to go there all the time for their DoubleDaes. Best mocha chip ice cream ever.
I grew up in Bridgewater MA and we had tonic not soda or pop but don’t remember a cabinet. I did love Coffee frappe but didn’t call them a cabinet. Also loved coffee milk. It has taken a long time for coffee ice cream to become popular here in the Midwest but enjoy being able to get in the stores.
I grew up on Friendly’s ice cream when they had Awful Awfuls, which suddenly disappeared when Fribbles came on the scene. I never did know the difference. Now living in Florida, I was thrilled to find a Friendly’s with an “Original” cheeseburger on the menu, so I didn’t have to explain that a Friendly cheeseburger is basically a grilled cheese sandwich with a big beef patty in the middle.
My parents own a small ice cream place in Conway, New Hampshire….we put in the ice cream.
@Danielle LaFountain: I worked at Friendly Ice Cream (as it was known back then) in the mid-to late 80’s. A Fribble was actually made with unflavored ice MILK. The flavoring was whatever syrup the customer chose (strawberry, chocolate, vanilla, or coffee) then milk was added and it was put on the stick blender.
We served milkshakes (milk and syrup, on the blender), Frappes (with ice cream), ice cream sodas (soda water, syrup of choice, milk, and ice cream of choice), Coolers (orange, lime, or watermelon sherbet mixed with a shot of vanilla or strawberry syrup, soda water, blended).
Elderly customers would often order Chocolate Sundaes, which were always vanilla ice cream with chocolate SYRUP not hot fudge.
We had chocolate and rainbow jimmies, they were both called jimmies, although I know some places called the rainbow ones sprinkles.
In Boston we called them Spuckies and I forgot all about State Line chips, they were the best. Also I worked for Baliey’s Ice Cream in Boston and a Frappe had ice cream and a milkshake had none
Miss my Kimball’s Frappes and especially the Kimballs special. Nice to see a fellow Westfordite while surfing the web. Lived on Beaver brook rd and would ride my bike down to the Old Oaken Bucket, and top it off with a Kimballs special. In NC now, but miss my old haunts.
Subs in RI are called grinders. Frappes are cabinets–coffee being the best. Tonic is soda unless one uses tonic water. Clamcakes are not called fritters. Just a little Rhode Island lingo!!
I’m Eastern North Carolina born transplanted to Billerica, never heard of a frappe until I moved here, or a bagel or had salmon(and my dad was a commercial fisherman until he died) so there are a lot of things that are very “New England” to me, and now after 28 years of living here, I have embraced, my only remaining question is why New Englanders call a Rutabaga a turnip? Lol. Thanks again for the great article, loved the ah-so one too!!!! I use a touch of that in my spaghetti sauce!!!!
Mocha Cab, the best of both world’s! Coffee & chocolate
Yes indeed. You got it right. It’s a “cab,” preferably chocolate or mocha.
I remember RI folks calling it a “cabinet”. Many in Fall River & surrounding area. Locals said the original was a concoction served on hot days in Washington to the president’s “cabinet”,
I have lived in New England my whole life. Vermont, Mass and 3o yr’s in Maine. A milkshake has always had ice cream and milk blended in a blender or the stick mixer. A frappe was just a very thin version of a milkshake. Milkshakes are thick.
There is a difference between a turnip and a rutabaga.
Because they’re sometimes marketed as yellow turnips or wax turnips, rutabagas are frequently confused with turnips. Both of these root vegetables are members of the Brassica family, which includes cabbages, but the rutabaga is probably a hybrid of a cabbage and a turnip.
Turnips are usually white-fleshed with white or white and purple skin. Rutabagas usually have yellow flesh and a purple- tinged yellow skin, and they’re bigger than turnips. (There are also yellow- fleshed turnips and white-fleshed rutabagas, but you won’t generally find them in supermarkets.) Both vegetables have a slightly sweet but snappy flavor reminiscent of cabbage. Rutabagas are sweeter than turnips.
LOL Jen! You are so right! In Worcester and Western MA, Friendly Ice Cream was a very popular gathering place for teens back in the 60’s and so on. Frappes, Banana Spits, Awful-Awfuls ..Sp? were best sellers. You are right in calling it a Frappe. Pronounced…Frap!
Coke with Vanilla ice Cream is not a Black Cow – it’s a Coke Float
And a malted milkshake, invented at Walgreens in Chicago, adds malt powder to a frappe!
Frappe, or more properly, frappé, is French for “beaten”
I grew up in Sotheastern MA right on the Rhode Island line and there is nothing better than a Coffee Malt “Cab” I still make them.
Frappe and of course the best flavors are coffee followed by mint chocolate.
McDonald’s is a national chain and not a New England based one so that’s why they call it a milkshake. It isn’t even ice cream anymore is a mix they pour into a machine and it freezes partially.
I grew up and lived 71 years in the Lakes Region of NH, worked at Gourmet Junior, and ate at Weeks’ Dairy Bar, Sawyer’s Dairy Bar, Double Decker, and Tamarack. ALL of them made frappes (fraps) with ice cream, milkshakes without. My favorite was a black-and-white frappe, made by Ruth Sawyer. No one could ever make it as good as hers. Wonderful memories!
A relative of my mom’s ran the Weeks dairy in the 1950’s. I have a few photos she took while we visited there in 1953. Had an ice cream and never had a chance to go again.
Can you share photo’s on Facebook? I remember Week’s Awful Awful. I think if you drank 3 you got your name on a plaque.
I loved Weeks’. At their height they had multiple shops in Dover, Durham, and other towns, and a traffic circle named after them. Now there’s just the name on a breakfast place in downtown Dover, and a name on a street sign. The traffic circle isn’t even a traffic circle anymore. It’s just an intersection – with a bunch of national chains along it. Gah.
Sawyers dairy bar….mmmm….a double scoop black raspberry cone for 20 cents back in the 50’s.
used to love the Fribble
nobody these days even know what a black and white is
I grew up around Philadelphia and used to order a black & white. On my first trip to Michigan I ordered one and they just looked at me and said “a what”? Didn’t realize it was regional until then (1978).
To me, a black and white was a small disc-shaped cake with half chocolate and half vanilla frosting. 8>). I also know it as a frappe with chocolate syrup and vanilla ice cream.
Ha! I grew up just outside NYC, and those black and white cookies (the cake-like cookie was delicately lemon flavored, were generally no less than 4 inches across. I now live in D.C., where those same cookies are known in some places as “New York Cookies”. Much smaller, though — like 2″ across.
had many of frappes and specials at Kimball’s in my day
born and raised in Mass, never heard of a cabinet
I had a wonderful Aunt Cherie who lived in Westford and after we left her house we would go by Kimball’s and have a Banana Split – huge and delicious!!!
And what”s the difference between a banana split and a banana boat. I used to work at Goldenrods in Manchester, NH. BS has three scoops of ice cream, usually chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry with chocolate syrup, pineapple sauce and strawberry sauce with whipped cream, crushed nuts, between a banana cut in half lengthwise with a cherry on top. A banana boat was two scoops of ice cream, usually chocolate and vanilla, covered with chocolate syrup and pineapple sauce, slices of banana cut
(BB) covered with whipped cream and sprinkled with crushed nuts and a cherry.
I’ll offer up a youngin’s perspective. I was born in ’86, and grew up in the Abington region. “Milkshake” was the standard term for the treat containing ice cream, though “frappe” was also used at many locations, and they were understood by all locals to be synonymous.
Confusion only arose for me when I saw both terms used on the same menu for two different items, leading to the question “What’s the difference?” At the time I was told, “A frappe is thicker.” Since that just made it sound like a superior milkshake, I’ve always ordered the frappe when the option was available. Reading this article I now realize that at such locations “milkshake” probably referred to the traditional New England frothy-milk-with-syrup treat, and was not being used synonymously with “frappe” (as was the case elsewhere). I may have to hit up Peaceful Meadows soon and see what I’ve been missing out on!
Yeah, saying “a frappe is thicker” answers the question without telling you the story. Sort of like saying the difference between David Ortiz and Reggie Jefferson is that Ortiz put up better numbers. 🙂
That’s what makes the world go ’round. Differences in terms across this great country of ours. Whether they are called Frappe’s, milkshakes, cabinets, etc. THEY ALL ARE DELICIOUS!! We all have fond memories (mine is in southeastern MA as a kid sitting at the Rexall Drugstore getting a frappe with my dad!!) wherever we grew up. I’ve had the pleasure of living in a lot of places across the country….and to my surprise, when in Texas, I came across the term “cup towel”. When I asked what that was, I was told it was our version of a “dish towel”! I was young and promptly replied, but you dry dishes with them. My friend replied with a smile, “but don’t ya’ll dry cups with them too?” Gotta love the US of A!!!!!
Yuh in Portland, Maine we call them fraps and so don’t I
Growing up in Providence R I. you got the real thing by ordering a “chocolate cab” and best of all was from a small corner ice cream parlor on Hope Street (the East Side) called Wrigney’s. Does anyone else remember that?
Not Wrigney’s. Maximillian’s, maybe? Near Blackstone Boulevard? At the other end of Hope we had Big Alices. Both are gone now. I LOVED the pumpkin spice ice cream at Big Alices!
I worked in a drugstore in Indiana during high school. We made frappes with ice milk, syrup and fizz water. Then blended until mixed and thick. I prefer milkshakes made with hard ice cream, syrup and milk. Mix in a milk shake machine until mixed and thick.
No bananas….and if you’ve read the article and you know, you know. 😉
I’m embarrassed to say being from California I would literally quit before I figured it out. I may get from milkshake to frappe, but when they asked me if I wanted extra thick malt for an extra 20 cents, which is almost as steep a learning curve; and then I would just have to ask what that dangling 75 cents indicator was for; by then I’d probably say “uh, whatever, it’s 6 bucks, so I’m guessing whoever designed it put some thought into it, so give me that.”
Why does the picture caption say Kimball Farm is in Jaffrey, NH instead of Westford, Ma?
There are two Kimballs, one in Jaffrey, NH, and another in a Westford, MA. The Jaffrey onecmust be headquarters of the business, perhaps the first of the two restaurants.
And there is a Kimballs in Carlisle, MA.
I grew up in Westford MA. I know Kimbles ice cream stand very well. My sister and I would ride our bikes from our house on Forge Village Road to get a Kimbles Special. One scoop of vanilla, a scoop of chocolate and a scoop strawberry, with a banner cut in half, chocolate sauce, whipped cream and a cherry. Back then, ca. 1974, Kimbles had only two windows in the yellow house.
My husband & I have been going to Kimball’s in Westford since 1964. A Kimball’s special has NO banana – 5 scoops of the ice creams of you choice, Toppings of your choice, Whipped Cream and or Marshmallow and a cherry. My husband used to order with all coffee ice cream. The small yellow house which is now closed to the public had at least 4 windows not 2. This was before they moved into what was once the barn. Don’t know where they moved the cows. Now, of course, the Kimball’s in Westford has a grilled and fried food shack, a driving range, batting cages, mini golf, bumper boats, arcade, huge gift shop where you can get sandwiches. It’s crazy! The Kimball’s in Carlisle is really nice – just ice cream in a nice park-like setting. Oh, and don’t forget the new one that opened a few years ago in Lancaster, MA on Rte 70.
Jaffery NH is the original Kimball’s. where the kiddies cones are a large in my opinion! And yes jimmies all day lol!
I can’t help wonder if the frappe got its name from the setting on the electric blender. Now please address the other menu items as I want to know what the combination of chocolate syrup, ice cream and carbonated “Soda” water is called out there. Growing up in the Midwest that was a chocolate ice cream soda, and historically ice cream sundaes were born from the need to have something to serve ice cream parlor customers on Sundays when those sodas were considered scandalous due to their sinful bubbles.
Judging by the reaction you’d probably get if you order that concoction in New England, it would probably be called an Incredulous Glare.
I grew up in South Central Connecticut and never heard of a Frappe. We had only Milk Shakes which of course included Ice Cream and we were of course New England
That’s my experience, too! But I’m up in coastal Maine. Ice cream+milk+syrup= a milkshake. On every restaurant and drive in menu.. that’s what a milkshake is!
I would call a drink with just milk and syrup a flavored milk, or add seltzer to get a cremosa. What do you call a drink made with ice, syrup and frappe powder? I would call that a frappe.
In NYC, milk, chocolate syrup (U-Bet, if possible) and seltzer water is called an egg cream. No eggs, no cream — so New York. . . !
I worked for Friendly’s in Springfield MA(Liberty St) in the 50’s on college vacations so I know the difference between milkshakes and frappe and what a cabinet is. Living in SW CT, I find more Metro NY terms are used here.
I started making coffee cabinets in a small pharmacy in Bristol, RI when I was a junior in high school. Worked there all the way through pharmacy school and may have a record for the number of CABINETS I created during that time. Coffee was the favorite.
Was it Buffington’s Pharmacy – I used to live right across the street. Graduated from Colt Memorial i 1961
No, it was Pozzi’s across the street from Linden Place. I graduated from Colt in1952.
You can add Southeastern Connecticut to your Cabinet list. And a grinder with mayo, Ugh! Olive oil with black pepper only please.
A Black Cow in eastern Massachusetts in the 50s and 860shelter was always a root beer float, ice cream on top not mixed in although some of it did melt!
Just had my Moxie at lunch at Simones’ Hot Dog restaurant in Maine! One of my favorite drinks.
I grew up and lived in New England, Concord, Mass. I drank many a Frappe in New England. A job transfer brought me to Colorado. No one out here has heard of a Frappe. No one knows what a regular coffee is. There doesn’t seem to be any bags either, only sacks. I really miss New England and can’t wait to get back not just for the ocean but to be able to carry on a conversation and know what people are talking about. I miss Lobsta also.
I also grew up in Concord, in the 60’s & 70’s. We had a few choices for frappes back then: Brighams, Buttericks in W. Concord, Friendlys, Woolworth’s lunch counter, and of course Bates Dairy Farm in Carlisle. Bates is now a Kimballs, but I recall the cows in the grassy area next to the ice cream stand. Those same cows provided the milk for generously sized cones, sundaes, and frappes we ordered.
Bedford Farms has wonderful Ice Cream. I live in Florida now and I sure do miss bedford Farms.
We were told, growing up, that a frappe was thicker because it had half milk and half cream in it. A shake was made with milk only. Malt was a shake with malt powder added. Flavored milk was just strawberry or coffee milk.
Not in Boston or the surrounding area…
So nobody was adding ice cream to anything? Weird…
Frappe: a French word meaning to hit. This is a linguistic holdover from New England’s French Canadian population–my ancestors. Presumably, you put the ice cream and the milk together and hit it to mix it together.
In Rhode Island a frappe is called a “cabinet.” No, I don’t know why?
I grew up in Coventry, CT and had the pleasure of working in Bolton, CT after high school in 1971 (and for several more years) at the well known Shady Glen. I made many, many milk shakes in my time there and the standard was 2 scoops of their delicious homemade ice cream, some milk, and a syrup of your choice and then blending it all on the one of the 5 spokes of the blender. People would sometimes ask for the malt powder to be added as well. We would often get people from out of state, and I remember Rhode Islanders asking for a cabinet and touting the strong coffee syrup called Autocrat. Shady Glen, was, and still is very popular not only for the ice cream but for their famous cheeseburgers as well. Many people remember it fondly and will make a point of stopping in when they come back for a visit.
I grew-up in northern NE in a French Canadian family, and one important thing — the word is “frappe” (one syllable), NOT “frappé”, which is silly marketing (“frappé” is an verb/adjective, not a noun). The word really comes from French Canadian/Acadian culture in northern NE (esp. Maine/NH) and parts of MA (esp. Lowell/Merrimack Valley). This is why people in southern NE states may not have used the word — they didn’t have the historical French Canadian population. So, it’s really specific to northern NE & parts of MA, and in terms of French, is not used in France, nor even historically much in Quebec (back when I lived in Montreal), although the word today is much more ubiquitous than before the 90’s.
The word really became mainstream in the 90’s when Starbucks made the “frappuccino” a household name. However, those of us who lived in Boston before this know that the “frappuccino” was originally a Boston-local drink at the chain Coffee Connection, which Starbucks bought-out in the mid-90’s when they were taking over the world. I always joked, if Starbucks had invented it, they would have called it the “shakuccino”. In any case, everyone knows the word “frappe” nowadays because of the frappuccino, but pre-90’s, it wasn’t nearly as well-known outside of NE.
I remember as a little kid in the 70’s — whenever we travelled on vacation, I would naively order “frappes” and only get blank stares until my older sisters came over to order for me (dying of embarrassment, of course…). Even when at college in the late 80’s/early 90’s — at UNH, I remember having to explain what a “frappe” was to friends that came from the rest of the country, and never even heard the word. But nowadays, we even have McDonalds selling “frappés”, with the usual marketing gimmick of using unnecessary accents to make something look “European”, even though it is from NE French, not European French.
I have absolutely no French Canadian background or heritage, but grew up in the Boston area and both Brigham’s and Bailey’s, the two ice cream places that everyone knew used Frappe. My mother could attest to the fact that those terms were used by those places probably in the 1930’s on or whenever they opened… Never heard your version from anyone else…
… I am of Quebec extraction and have lived in Connecticut since I was 8 months old … the above explanation has some merit and comports with historical migratory patterns in the region … my ancestors followed the textile-industry route from rural Quebec through Arcadia to the USA border @ northern Vermont … from there they followed the work down the Connecticut River valley, spreading south to southeast toward the Cape … it is unsurprising their language left it’s imprint to some degree along the way ….
… “frappé” is most certainly NOT “silly marketing” … outside Massachusetts, in the rest of the real world, the term refers to a mixture containing NO dairy whatsoever — it is coffee & sugar & crushed ice “beaten” until homogenized ….
I grew up in Plymouth, MA. As a teenager in thr ’60’s I worked in a local restaurant, Curriers. They made their own ice cream so the soda fountain, where I worked, was popular and busy being in a tourist magnet town. Frappes are not popular in only northern MA. It was frappes, milk shakes, malteds , ice cream sodas and floats at our counter.
I grew up in Groton and worked a couple of summers at Kimballs in the 60’s when I was in college. When I was a kid my family would sometimes go to Kimballs for “supper.” My brothers sister and I weren’t very old when we could finally polish off a Kimball’s Special. It was a working dairy farm when we would go there in the 50’s, and the ice cream was all made with Kimball Farms milk. I worked for the elder Kimballs in the late 60’s, and have some warm memories of the crowds, mixing a huge can of marshmallow in the back room with Mr. Kimball, taking a break for supper and being directed into the farmhouse kitchen to partake of Mrs. Kimballs good cassaroles. My wife and I have lived in Vermont for fifty years, but still stop at Kimballs when we go downcountry. Wonderful memories!
The very large thick frappes at Weeks Dairy were called Awful Awful’s but they were great!
I used the bubbler when I wanted something to drink.
Same here. Then you must also be familiar with frozen custard. Has ice cream beat by a mile!
… I agree that “Frozen Custard” is the ultimate ice cream … while truly premium ice creams (such as Häagen-Dazs) are made with egg yolk, extra yolks make the big difference in texture & mouth-feel … however, commercial custards use plant gums to achieve the same effect ….
Then there is the FIZZ- I have never seen it outside of my Dad’s drugstore in Fairhaven, MA in the 50’s and 60’s- made with coffee syrup and light cream blasted with fizzy soda water. We brewed our own coffee syrup in a 1 X 4 foot metal canister with a spout on the bottom, using Eight 0 Clock coffee from A&P and lots of sugar, and boiling water. I still remember trips to the A&P on the New Bedford- Fairhaven bridge and the smell of the coffee being ground at the checkout counter…
What is your drugstore recipe for coffee syrup? Grates Dairy had a good one. It should be with cane sugar and not that corn syrup like Autocrat dropped its standard to.
If it’s got ice cream in it, it’s a frappe, thick and creamy and cold. Without ice cream, it’s just flavored milk, thin and frothy and easy to pull up through a skinny straw. Now, does anyone have a recipe for FROZEN PUDDING ICE CREAM, my all-time favorite??????
Ahhh, Frozen Pudding ice cream. I grew up in RI and whenever we got ice cream cones, my father always got Frpzen Pudding.
In the late 1940s, when I was in college, a “frappe” existed only in eastern Massachusetts. Go west to Greenfield, and they didn’t have a clue what you were talking about. There it was called a “frost”. Go further west, into New York State, and they were called “milk shakes”. So, it was highly regionalised.
I live on the coast of Maine and have for 50 years. I had never even heard of a “frappe” until about 20 years ago. Previous to that (and still, for the most part), a milkshake is comprised of milk, syrup and ICE CREAM. Most people up here that call it a “frappe” are… from Massachusetts. (Almost every drive in has prices for milkshakes and then also a little more for “thick milkshakes”… which only happen when MORE ice cream is added to a regular shake that already has ice cream. You can’t make milk thicker than it is, right?).
Yes. In Western Massachusetts, ice cream, syrup, and milk is a frost. A milkshake has no ice cream. And sprinkles/jimmies are called “shots.”
To make a good milkshake, very cold whole milk should be used. A frappe is a milkshake with a scoop of ice cream and then there is the thick shake and that’s a milk shake with 2-3 scoops of ice cream in it (in the old days); now a thick shake dairy product is used.
In Peterborough in the 40’s a FRAP HAD SOLID ice cream, a shake, not.
grew up in south boston worked at RH STERNS dept,store on Treemont street in Boston when i was a teenager andBAILEY,S was around the conner and thats where i went on payday for my frappe and the best ice cream sundee ever.thanks for bringing me back to that time.
I also grew up in So. Boston and worked at RH Stearns as a teenager in the 60s and often went to Baileys for one of their overflowing sundaes.
I grew up in Duxbury, Massachusetts, and I worked for Duxbury Beach Park. I served a lot of customers who got it all wrong. They wanted a milk shake with ice cream. It’s tough to explain to one person about the difference between a milk shake and a frappe when you have fifty more waiting on a hot summer’s day at the beach. Later I remember that Friendly’s had the Fribble. I first experienced those in Connecticut in the early 70’s. What a drink.
Actually that the Friendly’s drink to which you referred was called the “Awful,Awful” in the ’70s. Name changed to Fribble to settle a legal dispute.
Actually, I believe the “Awful, Awful” is a Newport Creamery trademark. Grew up there; they are not awful.
… there was no legal dispute … in the ’40’s, the ice cream business was highly regional … Bond’s of New Jersey created and trademarked the “Awful Awful” — an ice milk shake that was more profitable than ice CREAM shakes … they licensed that drink first to MA’s Blake brothers’ “Friendly” restaurants, then to RI’s “Newport Creamery” restaurants … post-war, Friendly expanded territory toward NJ — so, they had to eventually let their license to expire, replacing the drink’s name with “Fribble” … when Bond’s eventually folded, Newport Creamery snatched up full rights to the trademark ….
Thanks for that. I grew up in RI, loved an ‘Awful Awful’ – a good reward after playing tennis. and never knew the history. Have not had one in years. Love New England.
I grew up in New England, Hartford CT to be exact and in some ways I feel like I never lived in New England. I missed out on many traditional New England things. I had heard of a frappe tho but never gave it much thought until I saw an article on it.
I grew up in the lower Hudson Valley where we called milk, ice cream & syrup whipped up a “Frosted”. A milkshake was milk & flavoring whipped up. When I went to college in MA, my roommate took me into to Bailey’s in Boston. We were getting ice cream cones & I was asked if I wanted “jimmies” on it. Had no idea what jimmies were (we called them chocolate sprinkles). The best lobster rolls I’ve ever had were in Boston (and they had mayo in them: not too much, not too little!) And my roommate referred to Coke as “tonic”. Same country but we all speak a little bit differently which is fun.
I was born in the Boston area, where I lived until five years old. Then, until I graduated from Bridgewater State College, my home was officially in Walpole, Massachusetts. A FRAPPE was milk, ice cream, and syrup, beaten together in a mixer until the ice cream was thoroughly mixed, beaten together, and it was a thick dairy drink. The name comes from the French work “frappe” (no accent available) meaning “to beat.” A MILK SHAKE was cheaper and thinner, and only contained milk and syrup. A BLACK & WHITE, was a chocolate frappe made with chocolate syrup and vanilla ice cream, less chocolatety than a chocolate frappe. A BLACK COW was a glass of root beer with a scoop of CHOCOLATE ice cream floating in it. A “TONIC” is a carbonated beverage such as cola, root beer, or any other of a dozen other flavors. It’s called a “soda” in most of the rest of the United States.
spot on in every aspect!
… I have lived in Connecticut all my life — in Groton since my father was hired in 1953 by Electric Boat to help build the Nautilus … living & traveling on the coast, midway ‘tween NYC & Boston, I have enjoyed the rich diversity of how we New Englanders identify what we have grown up cherishing the most … we are provincial people … we govern ourselves by town meetings — “counties” exist on geopolitical maps but are next to irrelevant to our daily lives …
… I have relatives scattered from rural eastern Conn. through R.I. to Cape Cod … Thanksgiving is a struggle to avoid battles over politics — and sports (Yanks v. Sox — Jints v. Pats — Rangers v. Bruins) — and food … white clam pizzas & 1st hamburger (New Haven) — 1st grinder (New London) & 1st submarine sandwich (Groton) … clam chowder — (Manhattan) tomato-base v. (“New England”) cream-base v. (R.I.) broth-bacon-onion-base v. (Gloucester) clear broth-bacon-onion-base … frosty v. shake v. frappe v. cab … soda v. tonic v. pop v. Moxie … lobster rolls (cold v. hot — tad mayo v. NO mayo) made with top-split bun, buttered & grilled … maple syrup (NO gooey corn syrup) … I love our corner of the world ….
… [**de-autocorrect/de-autofill**] … (Gloucester) clear-broth-base … 😉 … oh, more … Greek pizza (a circular sea of toppings over a thin crust w/ crispy crunchy edge baked with gas) v. Italian pizza (free-form platform of absorbent chewy bread flavoured with fragrant oils topped by savoury patches of cheese and vegetables fired with wood or coal) …. :v
I worked at Friendly’s in Dover NH, at the border of NH and ME. I used the blender to mix ice cream and milk for a milkshake thirty years ago. The funnies part of people in MA explaining the concept of milkshake to people from away is the people from Massachusetts ARE the people from away when you get to Maine!
Ha! I ran that store at Dover Circle (on the Miracle Mile) in 87~88, took over for Mike Dibeck and he took it back over from me when they asked me to run a store on the Cape. Did we work together?
When I lived in Detroit, a co-worker was going to the store and I asked her to pick me up a tonic. She looked confused and asked “Do you mean for your hair?” I was born in Somerville and graduated from Natick High. I’ve tried clam chowder and lobster in the Midwest always being disappointed by their attempt. When I share my opinion they always say “That’s because you don’t know what it is suppose to taste like?” Come again? My first stop in the Rockland area is Squire’s for a double lobster roll!
How many experience the same frustration as I when attempting to sip those thick milkshakes/frappes through a skinny, hernia-inducing straw… MISSION IMPOSSIBLE… that I end up ‘drinking’ with a spoon. So… whenever I visit Shady Glen in Manchester, CT, I bring along fat straws from McDonald’s that I keep in my car for such occasions.
That is a great tip, Peter! 🙂
So what’s a cabinet?? Question was never answered.
Never mind about the cabinet question……my mistake, I overlooked the explanation. Sorry!!!
As a kid in Middlebury, Vermont in the 60’s, I would get a chocolate frappe at the Rexall drug store counter. Which leads me to this question: why was there a soda fountain in the drugstore?
In the olden days, medicine included a lot of tonics that tasted horrible. The soda fountain was to mix pleasant tastes with the tonics, to make them palatable.
A soda fountain “jerk” alum of Brigham’s Ice cream in Cambridge’s Harvard Square and Lowell, MA (sidewalk clock tower outside on Merrimack Street) in the 1960s . . . milkshake was milk and syrup blended to a froth . . . frappe was milk, scoop of hard ice cream and syrup blended likewise (thicker)!
Brighams made the best frappes. They also had the best hot fudge.
In the pacific northwest, Seattle area, a frappe is a blended coffee shake. I only got here because I saw a barista use ice cream mix in mine. I have honestly never seen a milkshake (with ice cream) be referred to as a frappe, and never seen frappe anywhere else.
Has anyone heard of a raspberry lime Rickey?
I used to get them in Worcester when I was about 11.
A lime rickey consists of soda, lime syrup, and the juice of 1/2 lime. Even better–a raspberry lime rickey, which has some raspberry syrup as well, all with cracked ice of course. We used to have a real soda fountain at our local drug store in New Bedford, Mass. Finni’s drug store. Then he closed it and we really missed it!
Anyone remember Grates Dairy in SE MASS. Coffee syrup out of cane sugar, not corn syrup, who has the recipe?
Do you mean Frates Dairy in New Bedford MA? They had coffee brandy ice cream that I used to get Frappes made out of. Not to mention they had wicked awesome 🙂 ice cream sundae’s.
Have been going to Kimball’s since I was a little kid… over 40 years now! Those long lines are still there, but the wait is worth it. As a teenager myself, I scooped ice cream at Far-Fars in Duxbury, MA. It’s a great homemade ice cream shop. I laughed at your typical exchange between you and a customer who wanted a milkshake with ice cream. Lol, um… that’s a frappe!
Born in 1948 in MA, I remember the Milk Shake, Frappe, Fribble and AwfulAwful. The latter was billed as “Awfully thick and Awfully good”. I hated them! Give me a good old Frappe anyday. The AA was just too, too thick. It had to be eaten with a spoon unless you waited a 1/2 hour for it to melt a bit. Otherwise you were sucking till your eyeballs popped out or your brain collapsed. The good old days!!!! LOL
Nothing like an AwfulAwful, served up by the mostly friendly staff at the Newport Creamery in Newport itself. The whole experience – including consuming the entire concoction through a straw that would occasionally collapse in on itself – was as much a right of passage as landing a Sea Robin and not wincing at its croaking.
“Tastee-Freeze” sounds like the Frosty they serve at Wendy’s
Sorry, I meant to say the Awful Awful sounds like the Frosty they serve at Wendy’s… my bad.
A Frosty doesn’t even come close!
Wow ! This topic must hold the record for postings.But here’s a twist -grew up in Stoughton Ma ,when it was relatively rural,and there were 2 truckstop/lunch stands called Mur-Mac’s. They purveyed the “Tastee-Freeze” franchised soft serve ice cream– cones,sundaes,splits etc… Their vanilla frappes made with that soft serve and extra syrup were allI knew for years….and are still the benchmark to my mind. So rich,so silky,so STRONG….They gave us a sugar rush followed by a kind of torpor or lethargy. Soft serve frappes forever!
Frappes made with soft serve are a little different then those made with hard ice cream…..I prefer the consistency of the soft-serve frappe….Vanilla with extra syrup,please!
Growing up in Derry, NH in the 50’s & 60’s the best frappe’s in town were at Peroni’s soda fountain. Also made ice cream floats which were with the tonic (soda) of your choice and a scoop of ice cream. All for 25 cents.
In 1955 25 cents would be $2.55 today. I’m an old timer too but I don’t use 1950, 60’s etc to make it look like things were less expensive. In 1972 minimum wage was $1.60. A double cheeseburger at BK was 33 cents. Quite a large percent of my hourly rate.
I remember having Vanilla Egg Cream’s as a teenager at Snouder’s in Oyster Bay, NY… Ice Cream, syrup and seltzer. It cost 7 cents. If you added ice cream it was an ice cream soda and it cost 14 cents. The milk shakes had ice bream in them and the Awful Awful had even more ice cream in it. Regional differences…
“Frappe” is the French word for “hit” or “beat” and it describes how you mix up all the ingredients. Usage probably comes from the high number of French Canadians in New England and their impact on the local culture.
I grew up in Littleton right next door to Westford and the amazing flavors of Kimball’s Farm Ice Cream, it was the place to go on a hot summers day. Now being on the other side of the world I miss it, “it is what makes New England a wonderful place to live”.
I didn’t read all the comments so I don’t know if anyone mentioned the malted. Sometimes I’ve ordered a malted and no one knows what I’m talking about. A malted certainly has more consistency than an ice-cream soda or frappe. Could the reason be an addition of malted-milk powder? Whatever the reason, I always found the malted to be the superior product. As a side note, growing up in Brooklyn, NY, we used to have wonderful malteds made at your local candy store (sometimes called a luncheonette). Now almost all of them are gone. We enjoy going to New England twice a year and find that, in smaller towns, there still are local places where the ice-cream and camaraderie are plentiful
when I was with Friendly’s (until 92), any beverage – chocolate milk, milkshake / frappe or Fribble could have malt added to it for an upcharge (25cents?). When I learned that malt no longer ordered enough to keep it on hand at the Wilbraham commissary, I placed a “special order” – (2 cases not just one) and had it on hand for another for a year longer than the other stores. Although, most of that probably went into frappes I made for myself (LOL).
How about a creamee?
I never think of Ct or RI being part of New England my bad lol. Born and lived in NH all my life and I call a sub or a grinder depending on where I am. Also always ordered a frappe because it is just better. As far as a chain restaurant like Mc Donald’s whatever they are serving is not a real frozen treat in my opinion.
I live in Vermont. The closest snack bar calls it a Frappe if it’s made with hard ice cream, and a milkshake if it’s made from soft serve (or creemee, as we say.). They both have ice cream. I’ve never seen shaken milk with syrup.
I have been living in the Chicago suburbs for a number of years. Miss so much about New England. I am from Pittsfield Mass . I remember when we lived in Pittsfield we went to Friendly’s for ice cream and shakes. My beloved Mum worked there for a short time so she could afford to buy a coat my Dad would not buy for her. When we lived in Danvers we used to go to the Hood Dairy Farms ice cream stand or Putnam’s Pantry. Friendly’s Vanilla milkshakes were always my favorites. When we lived in Acton we went to Littleton for ice cream. In Lynnfield we drove up the road to Putnam’s. We moved every 3 years between Illinois and Massachusetts. New England will always have the best of everything to me yet I am still trying to perfect making my own Milkshakes and Frappes and Cabinets
They have now changed the name to “Friendly’s”, but when the original Blake brothers owned it, it was “Friendly Ice Cream”. I managed the shop in Natick Mall from 1960 – 1969.
Ha! From what I was told by my DMs, when you were a manager, they had the BEST incentive program. You owned the food, returned what half of what corporate has estimated the profit to be from your sales numbers and kept the rest! I was with FIC from 79 ~ 92, more than half of the time as a manager (85~92) and ran 7 stores in NH and MA. At first the incentive was 2% of your “return to corporate.”
Later, as more and more stores got into poor cash flow situations, they changed it (after Hershey’s sold us off to Don Smith’s “Tennessee Restaurant Corp, ie Perkins Family Restaurants). The incentive was: if you made your return numbers, you kept the rest! (ie based on whatev ever your sales were, here’s how much you should return). As a result, hardened, experienced managers took stores that they knew had been run poorly for years, ran them right and made a bundle.
I grew up in New Bedford, MA. Those were the days of the Fizz, Frappe, MilkShake and ice cream sodas. Fizz was an ice cream soda without the Ice cream. We called sodas instead of tonic or pop. We ate ice cream Sundaes and subs. Only ran into the word cabinet in RI when I tried to order a Sundae and was told it was called a cabinet. We also had Friendly’s Fribble or the Newport Creamery’s Awful Awful . Miss those summer days going out for ice cream and just enjoying life.
Interesting topic, but maybe the publishers and editors at _Yankee_ should pay closer attention to editing and proofreading. “Asa” is probably not a legitimate word in the context of this article. It’s too distracting to read something from what used to be a respected source and encounter this kind of oversight.
Hi DGM. Thanks for pointing out the typo in this post — they happen to the best of us. It has now been corrected. Have a great day!
Rhode Islander here! Used this article to explain frappes and cabinets to out of towners.
Coffee Frappes and Frates Dairy from the 80’s, Brigham’s Ice Cream right next to Bread and Circus in Wellesley Ma. There used to be a dairy farm around Lincoln Ma that had fresh ice-cream, hope its still there. The syrup mixed in with the Coffee Frappe really changes the flavor from really good to phenomenal. That plus hundred’s of other things bring New England to life for me.
Boston born here. Transplant to Florida 30yrs ago. They DO NOT have frappes here, it’s a milkshake with ice cream!!
A cobbler is a dessert, usually peach. Tonic is something granny drank on the Beverly hillbillies.
On a better note, they also don’t know what snow is. ?
I used to work at Alice’s Country Kitchen in Rochester MA. I made lots of Coffee Frappes with Coffee Ice Cream. My personal favorite was and Orange Soda Freeze, Vanilla Ice Cream and Orange Soda blended. Perfection.
Both frappe and milkshake are only different in name and both have ice cream. Just like a soft drink. Here in Gloucester we call it “tonic” where other parts of the country call it “soda” or “soda pop”!
nope. a milkshake may or may not have ice cream – it depends on how you learned the term and probably who first served you one. A frappe always has ice cream.
Well I’m from central Connecticut and we call the ones with ice cream a milkshake. The ice cream shop would mix up milk, syrup and ice cream in one of those old fashioned milk shake machines in a big metal cup and then pour it in a fancy glass. They gave you the metal cup and you could almost fill the glass a second time. The first time I saw the word frappe was at Friendly’s. Up until today, I thought it was pronounced frapay. Now I feel like an idiot. We call dub sandwiches grinders here and I have never heard of a cabinet before, although I know they liked some kind of a coffee milk up in Rhode Island.
Hey there, I worked for Friendly’s for 13 years (79~92, from dishwasher to general manager). For most of that time, we only featured a “milkshake” on the menu. It was made with 4 oz of ice cream. My take on this was:
– if you ordered a milkshake and wanted one made with ice cream you got it.
– if you wanted a frappe, we knew what you wanted and you got it.
– if you only wanted a true “milk shake” without ice cream an ordered one, we sold you what was really a frappe and took the extra $0.80 or so from you in the transaction.
– if you REALLY wanted a milkshake without ice cream, we charged you for a chocolate milk and blended it for you. Not ever knew to do that, and if you did, you were a regular customer and probably tipped well in any case!
– and don’t get me started on the Friendly’s Fribble – extra thick but made with milk, syrup, and ICE MILK. The flavor (ie chocolate, strawberry, etc.) only came from the syrup! The ice milk (“Fribble mix”) only came in one flavor: sweetened, frozen ice milk. This less expensive ingredient allowed us to put the equivalent of 3 ice cream cones of frozen thickener into the 24 oz shake. On the other hand, a milkshake/frappe had just four oz of ice cream. Our pricing structure would have meant the a milkshake made with the equivalent weight of ice cream instead of ice milk would have cost $2 more per beverage. The benefit of frappes is that you get more flavor: milk, chocolate syrup, and chocolate ice cream instead of milk, syrup, and frozen mix.
That said, when we made a beverage for ourselves, we made extra thick frappes, never Fribbles (cuz they were a rip off!).
Born on Nantucket, raised in New Bedford and Fairhaven. My grandma always called soda tonic(after tasing her favorite Moxie I understood the name). Knew frates well and Newport Creamery as well as Kimballs! (still frequent Kimballs in NH) When in Michigan for college my wife took our two girls to a restaurant and ordered them a “soda” what came was an icecream soda and she was told what she wanted was a phosphate! To me it will always be Krappe, Grinder, or Hoggie.
What a hoot! In Wisconsin we have shakes -ice cream blended with milk, malts – a shake with malt powder, and, an ice cream soda-vanilla ice cream with your choice of soda slowly poured over it (it’s a float-if it’s made with root beer soda.). On a hot summer day they’re all good whatever you call them!
Does anyone remember the Hut on Reservoir Ave in Cranston,RI in the 1950’s where you could order the ice cream concoction called a Bumper ?
In Portland, at Becky’s on Hobson’s Wharf, order a frappe and you will get a tall, extra large glass and the metal container with more than enough to please most everyone!!! Great frappes and great food!
Mymom, a lover of coffee frappes, retired to Florida. When she developed cancer I want to do something special for her. I went to my local clam shack and asked for the coffee syrup so she could make her own frappe at home. The owned refused to sell it to me until I told him about my mom’s cancer. He then gave me a precious jar for free. I took it down to Florida in my luggage. I will never forget the look of pure bliss on her face when she tasted that last coffee frappe.
How sweet! Thanks for sharing this!
I think this is a silly article. Milkshake and Frappe are just two words for the same treat. A handful of places might have called frothy chocolate milk a “milkshake,” but I grew up on Cape Cod in the seventies, and the terms were interchangeable. Maybe there was a difference back in the 1950s or earlier? Or maybe New Englanders are just too eager to be considered different and “special” these days?
Frappe and milkshake are definitely NOT the same. Born and raised in Fairhaven Mass, opposite New Bedford and there was a BIG difference between shakes and frappes. A shake was always made with some sort of powder. No ice cream. I though why order that when I could order a frappe that had ice cream. I had them at Browns Pharmacy, Oxford Pharmacy and Guys Pharmacy in Fairhaven. And if you lived on Cape Cod, you aren’t living in New England. It’s all made up of people from somewhere else. Why else would their pizza places not have linguica pizza? They’re only 20 miles away from the largest Portuguese American community in America, and linguica is a Portuguese sausage known from Marion down I-195 to Rhode Island. So what ever a Cape Coder says about New England, take with a grain of salt.
I agree that a milkshake is not a frappe. In Idaho, would you believe they call it a frappeE? Frapay. Accent on the “A”
I grew up on Cape Cod and there certainly was and is a difference between trapped and milkshakes. I made them for over 17 summers at the Wellfleet Drive In and Mini Golf Course, and last summer when visiting home got one at Cooks in Orleans.
I was not born on Cape Cod , lived there first 40 years of my life and consider myself a native Cape Codder and New Englander! Let those from other parts of Massachusetts speak for themselves.
Frappes. shakes, and cabinets are the same thing, but when you make one without ice cream its a milkshake. Almost always. Half my life in RI, half on Cape, and lots of work time and extended stays in other parts of New England.
Peter….you didn’t notice a difference because you grew up on The Cape in the ’70s. By that time, The Cape had been over-run with people from NY, NJ, etc. There definitely is a difference between milk shakes and frappes. I lived on The Cape for awhile as a little girl, and grew up in Wayland. I have been going to Kimball Farm since I was three years old. I am going to be 76 next month. A milk shake is syrup and milk….a frappe is syrup, milk and a scoop of hard ice cream, and it is thicker. And, an ice cream soda is seltzer in the bottom, syrup, couple of scoops of ice cream, and more seltzer water.
In Massachusetts yes. In other parts of New England, a milkshake contains milk syrup and ice cream as it does in the rest of the country. If your tried to order a frappe in most of CT you would get strange looks. Kimballs does make great ice cream and frappes .
You’re wrong, in NH a milkshake does not have ice cream in it, only frappes do.
Can attest. In a restaurant in Dover, NH, yesterday, I asked if they had milkshakes. The server replied, “We have frappes.” I ordered chocolate, which of course had ice cream, and it was delicious ????
A great place for frappes is Peaceful Meadows. They have three locations in Whitman, Middleboro, and Plymouth, MA. They sell malted frappes for an extra fee. A frappe is a blend of milk, syrup, and ice cream. A milk shake here in Southern MA is a frappe without ice cream , basically a cup of flavored milk. Here a milkshake is something akin to a Fribble, Awful Awful, or a Blizzard (with candy mixed in). And they are generally made with ice milk.
I live in Idaho, but lived in Taunton abt. 60 years. Peaceful Meadows has the best ice cream everything. My son works There. Ask for David in the dairy and tell him his Mom says hi. They have the rare ginger I.c. There, too!
Best maple creemee at Morse Farm outside Montpelier Vermont then grab a grinder and head up to camp (cottage) on the pond (lake). Ayup that is living at it’s finest CS Altavista VA
How about ordering a frappe on our first trip outside of New England. The confused look on the server was priceless!
Well this article sure brought memories back to me! I worked for Congdon’s Drug Stire in Bantucket behind the soda fountain for a couple of summers in the 70s. Constantly had the frappe vs milk shake debate with visitors. Of course in Nantucket milk shakes were the ones without the ice cream. Milkshakes were 30 cents and frappes were 45 cents. Someone clued us in as to what a Cabinet was so we were prepared for that. We amused ourselves by taking the hanging menu letters and changing the spelling of donuts. I made a MEAN strawberry ice cream float. It was a simpler time. ❤️
Frappe is definitely the name we use and request. Having grown up in Westford, MA , we usually were weekly visitors to Kimball’s. The Kimball Specials were often a Sunday evening dinner for us. Yum!
I go to Kimball Farms all the time! I have so many memories from there…
I’m old enough to remember when Waring made the first blender…and we made milk shakes with ice cream and milk. Before that we had ice cream sodas…when I was in HS an ice cream soda was 14cents at Snouder’s in Oyster Bay. Without the ice cream it was an egg cream even though it did’t have an egg – just the milk, syrup and a shot of seltzer.
You just haven’t lived until you’ve had a hot fudge milkshake. I never heard of a frappe before I moved to Massachusetts. frappe is a french word, it should be pronounced frapp-eh. Sounds like a Canadian drink.
The French verb that sort of serves as an origin, frapper (past participle frappé) means to hit or chill (perhaps somehow connected around how ice cream was made by beating the cream in a bucket). To my knowledge, the French do not call anything that we would consider a milkshake a frappé. I think the modern-day relationship comes not from the etymology, but rather from McDonald’s McCafé Frappé (an intentional phonetic play on the word), which is a hybrid chocolate frappe mixed with a frozen (ground ice) coffee drink. They’re delicious in their own way, but definitely not a New England frappe.
Obviously, you don’t have any quality chocolate milk in New England, otherwise you wouldn’t need chocolate syrup. In Virginia, we have Homestead Creamery, which makes the thickest and creamiest chocolate milk ever. If you want a milkshake (definition per the rest of the US), add their chocolate ice cream (super thick as no air is whipped in during production) and their chocolate milk and it will trump any frappe made with said recipe! 🙂
I’m a transplanted New Englander. I’ve been to Kimballs many times as a kid. I’m living in VA and I can tell you nothing beats a Frappe…. NOTHING!
New England has great chocolate milk! My Grandfather in Naugatuck, Connecticut delivered chocolate milk and it was superb, as good as anything in VIrginia. I worked in Landy’s Pharmacy in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on the soda fountain in the early 60’s, and the way I was instructed to make a “milkshake” (never used the word Frappe), was to put a squirt of Chocolate syrup in first (you would use coffee syrup or vanilla syrup if somebody ordered a coffee or vanilla milkshake), then added a half pint of whole milk, and then put in a big scoop of either vanilla ice cream or chocolate ice cream as per what the customer wanted. Then you put the metal shake container on the blender for about 30 seconds, and poured the contents of the milkshake into a big glass (there was usually some left over int he bottom of the metal container). Mr. Landy said that the term Frappe was used in Massachusetts for a milkshake, but not in Connecticut or New York City, where I also lived for a time in the early 1950’s
When I was on a Navy ship back in 1963 home-ported in Newport Rhode Island iIrecall going into a restaurant and ordering a chocolate shake, thinking I would get one like I would get back home in Iowa. Instead, I simply received a chocolate milk. when I asked the server where the ice cream was, he told me that if I wanted ice cream in it I had to ask for a chocolate cabinet. Being in Navy uniform, it would have been helpful if he had clarified that before just serving me a chocolate milk. I don’t recall seeing any menu boad explaining that either.
We moved to Framingham Centre when I was 10 and my brother was 4. Greg ordered his standard PB&J and a chocolate milk shake. I thought he was going to burst into tears when a frothy chocolate milk was placed in front of him. The waitress was so sweet, telling him she would get him a frappe and telling him it was a secret code she was teaching him.
I worked at Friendly’s on Cape Cod in the late ’70s during high school and college. Made thousands of Fribbles and shakes. Visited one last year and discovered I am now eligible for the “Seniors Menu.”
Now u r talkin’, Steve! Nothin’ like a Friendlies Fribble, brain freeze included. Call it a shake, frappe or cabinet, it was delicious!
Okay, so since people in New England decided to change the definition of all of these words, what do you call and actual frappe. Because in NY milk, syrup and ice cream would be a milkshake but NE renamed it a frappe. And in NY a frappe has ice in it. The main ingredient is ice and that’s blended with a flavored mixture, usually coffee, caramel or mocha flavor. The best way to describe it would be like a coffee slushee. So my question is what would you call this drink in NE, since that would be a frappe in NY and you already call a frappe something different. Or do you just not have this drink at all. If the latter is the case, you are really missing out because a “real frappe” is delicious.
We actually do what you said. It’s just this one person who believes this. Who insist we all do it this way… no one’s even heard the term cabinet…
When I first came to RI in 1999, I heard the terms cabinet and frappe being used rather extensively. Honestly, I don’t care what they’re called, the best of those style of concoctions that I’ve ever had are in New England.
Born and raised in Rhode Island. I think some of terms may be outdated or may be restaurant specific. Growing up as a child in the late 70’s and 80’s in South County, we called ice cream, milk and syrup (and maybe some ice)… a shake (or milkshake). No one ever used the terms cabinet or frappe, except for Newport Creamery. I worked for a local ice cream shoppe by the beach in the summers for seven years. We had shakes. Two kinds. One made with hard ice cream, milk and syrup… that when blended, had a rich flavor and thick consistency. One made with soft-serve ice cream, milk and syrup… that when blended, had a super thick consistency, but only came in chocolate and vanilla, or you could make them malted. That was something else I learned. Not many people ordered their shakes malted, but the ones that did, were very loyal customers and tipped well. I didn’t realize making it “malted” was so rarely done. I enjoyed taking care of my regulars.
Next, you need to do a write up on sprinkles on New England… Jimmies!! I had people come from somewhere and order “ants”. “Excuse me?”, I said laughing. “Ya know, drops.” I was 14 years old and it was a Friday night… we each had a line of about 25 people. This elderly man wasn’t cutting me any slack. He started screaming me to put “ANTS” on his ice cream. Thankfully, a kind, young dad stepped up from another line and translated that “ants” were just jimmies. Ohhhh, that was easy enough!
Best job I ever had. Best boss, best customers, best co-workers. And those shakes. ????⚓????
Nope, it’s always a cabinet here. It’s like coming to town and asking for a submarine sandwich instead of a grinder. You’ll sometimes see frappe on a menu, but THAT’S restaurant specific, and you’re probably still gonna order a cabinet. Shakes are for tourists. Asking for a shake here is like not knowing what a pizza strip, chow mein sandwich, or a gagger (NY System) is.
I was also born and raised in Rhode Island and I’ve never heard or seen the term “cabinet” used for milkshake. Like the above commenter, basically everyone I knew growing up called them either shakes or milkshakes. My family would sometimes just refer to them as Awful Awfuls, the same way people use Kleenex when they mean facial tissue.
Yes. Exactly. The fact that multiple new England’s continue to tell this person that but they just want to believe this article they made up. And speak for all of New England. When not a single New Eglander agrees. It’s kind of bizarre. My towns ice cream place called milkshakes “tornados”. It’s like me saying that all of New England actually calls frappes and milkshakes tornados. No one does, that this person’s crazy.
Perhaps you need to read some of the replies again, Surly Steve. Many of us agree with her. Perhaps it is not all of New England, but my parents were from Boston and raised us in Tewksbury. We got our Frappes at Meadowlands and Kimball’s because their ice cream was Homemade. Never bothered with Milkshakes…
Gimme all three!
For what it’s worth, if you ever visit Greece and order a frappé, what you’ll get is a cold drink made of hand shaken or electrically stirred Nescafe coffee (a specific spray-dried rather than freeze-dried type, so that the oils can be removed and a very thick foam can be created in the drink) in water. Sugar and milk are both optional ingredients, but there is never any ice cream or syrup. This became a sort of national drink in Greece in the second half of the 20th century and is frequently found on the desks of office workers, who are able to “nurse” the drink for hours because of its long lasting foam. A good background and description of this drink is available in the “frappé coffee” article on Wikipedia. You can imagine my shock as a Greek in North America when I started seeing the word frappé in McDonald’s and Starbucks drinks some years ago and discovered that they were not so much coffee drinks as syrup / ice cream drinks.
These days the frappé popularity has ebbed a bit in Greece because Italian “freddo espresso” and “freddo cappuccino” are perceived as more sophisticated. In my experience these drinks are only superior to the sort of sloppily-made frappé you’re likely to find in a touristy beach bar. A well made frappé is still really, really good!
I thought a Fribble was a Friendly’s Restaurant trademark thick heavy milkshake – kind of like what we call a thick frappe in MA. It sure could get confusing. Neverthesless, whatever you call them, I like them all!
Are you actually from New England!!!??? In Maine, A milk shake includes ice cream! Milk and “chocolate syrup” shhaaaaaaaaaaakkkkkkkeeeen together is called chocolate milk.
Then it was purchased from one of those establishments that calls them “shakes”.
This southerner agrees with you, joe! Milk + chocolate syrup = chocolate milk. LOL
I grew up in R.I. had not been back to Westford in 65 years. Stopped this lady riding a bike asked her where the famous ice cream place and she said Oh the famous one Kimbell Farms !
A “cabinet?” That must be something new. Lived on the South Shore, aka the Irish Riviera, for a decade and a half in the late 70s and the 80s. The drink was still known as a frappe back then.
I think that it may be time for you to close down the comment section. Many seem to feel the need to tell that Yankee doesn’t know what it’s doing and every article about food is wrong. It’s the worst part of visiting the website.
Well, why don’t you just stop reading comments if it makes you so mad?
Folks giving us their individual memories about some local food item in no way makes Yankee “wrong”. Instead, I think you will find it adds to the article for 99.9% of us who relish the past when things were what they were.
I’ve lived in Westford all my life. I never heard of a “cabinet”. Never, ever…
I agree with the author, and I would go a step further and I would ask for “a black and white”. That would be a frappe made with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup and milk. For us that don’t like a ton of chocolate, we would use 3 scoops vanilla ice cream instead of chocolate ice cream and add a good amount of chocolate syrup and milk. Mmmm Mmmm good! That’s my kind of “frappe”
Growing up down Provincetown in the 50’s & 60’s my dad would take me to Adams Drugstore for ice cream sodas – a little milk mixed with chocolate syrup, add chocolate ice cream, then fill the tall glass with soda (club soda?) while gently stirring. Memories…❤️
Love this story. I’m born and raised in California, my wife in Boston. We live in CA, but visit family in New England frequently. My wife’s sister and her husband own the Treadwell’s ice cream store in Peabody so I was long ago clued into the difference between a milk shake and frappe. As Burt Reynolds told Sally Field in Smokey and the Bandit, “when you tell someone something, it depends what part of the country your standing in as to just how dumb you are.” Thanks.
I grew up in southern California and I remember when I moved here in 1971, I quickly learned the difference between a milkshake, a frappe and a fribble. My favorite is a black and white chocolate malted frappe. Vanilla ice cream, malted powder and chocolate syrup. Yummmmmm !!!!!
I grew up in Vermont in the 60s and 70s. we used the term milkshake for frothed milk and syrup, and thick shake for blended ice cream, syrup and a little milk. Any one remember a “brown cow”
?
I remember a “Brown Cow” as being root beer with a scoop of vanilla ice cream floating in it. As a teen, I worked at the sofa fountain in a local drug store.
Growing up in the 50s & 60s in Rhode Island, the terms cabinet, milkshake, and frappe (mostly used in southeastern Massachusetts) were used everywhere as described perfectly in this article.
At the same time a small southeast New England ice cream chain Newport Creamery introduced their Awful Awful, an extra thick cabinet-like or frappe-like drink still sold today and made, I believe, from an ice-milk product, rather than the more expensive ice cream.
Kids who grew up during this era enjoyed these sweet cold drinks at mom-and-pop type drug stores, spas, diners, drive-in restaurants and other places with fountain service where they were called them “cabinets”, “milk shakes”, and “frappes”.
But as the 60s moved forward the lexicon began changing as hamburger chains like Burger Chef, Burger King, Hardee’s, Kelly’s, McDonald’s and Wendy’s introduced “shakes”. The older terms were used less and less as the mom-and-pop businesses gave way to fast food restaurants that dotted the highways.
Nonetheless, today there many places in Rhode Island where you can still order a cabinet or milk shake, they won’t think you’re from outer space, and you’ll get exactly the kind of cold drink this article describes.
Yes I grew up in New England. NH Actually, As a baby boomer it was always a Frappe and a milk shake did not have ice cream. Because someone is a product of the 70’s or later does not mean because you grew up with fast food milk shakes that Frappes was a made up drink after the the fast food industry made their frozen drinks all shakes. I am sure that Frappes was and still a New England name for most true New Englanders pre a70’s. for what we know now as Milk Shakes.
Shout out to those of you that have had a Fribble.
I always got a Fribble at Friendly’s when I was a kid.. that and their hotdog’s because they toasted the buns like a grilled cheese with butter.. brings back memories
Miss that combo too. With those fries. But when my daughter moved to Vermont a few years back. The fribble didn’t seem the same. Although. The burgers were great. No closed.
When I was growing up in the 50’s & 60’s, in western Mass, there was chocolate (or flavored) milk, milk shakes (flavored milk with ice cream) and Frappes, a milkshake with malt added.
By this article, their “milk shake” is just flavored milk. It doesn’t make sense to me to call flavored milk a milk shake. I think this article has it wrong.
I always thought that the added malt was what made it a frappe..
I’ve lived in southeastern mass my entire life and have never heard “cabinet.” Milkshake, or Frappe.
Also, Kimball’s has the best ice cream, a friend of mine is from Westford and introduced me…