Starbucks Aerocano is the Greek freddo espresso, renamed

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Starbucks has put a shaken cold espresso on its core menu and given it a new name. In Greece and Cyprus, the drink has had one for decades: freddo.

The Aerocano went on sale across Starbucks stores in the United States and Canada on 29 September, timed to National Coffee Day. The company describes it as Blonde Espresso air-whipped for a few seconds, then poured over ice, producing a light foam and what it calls a cascading effect. The base recipe is espresso and ice. There is no milk. A Caramel Aerocano adds syrup. Starbucks says the drink reworks the iced Americano, on its menu since 1984, and traces the idea to a version that launched in South Korea in February and sold heavily there before reaching Latin America and, later, North America.

None of that is how the drink is known in the eastern Mediterranean.

A freddo espresso is a double shot shaken hard with ice until it throws a thick foam, then poured over more ice. Greek and Cypriot cafés have been making it since the 1990s. The method is simple, the name is settled, and it needs no trademark. Freddo cappuccino, the same shake with cold milk foam on top, sits beside it on almost every summer menu from Athens to Nicosia.

Starbucks has not said it borrowed the Greek drink. Its account is that baristas steam and aerate Blonde Espresso so the foam and the cascade come out the same way in every store. Reviewers have noted that the cup is, in substance, iced espresso with air beaten into it. A grande is reported to carry the same caffeine as a grande iced Americano, with the water left out and the texture put in.

The gap is branding, not technique. Espresso, ice and air have been a standard order in Greece for roughly 35 years. Starbucks has packaged the same idea as a permanent menu item, with a coined name and a launch story that starts in Seoul.

For readers in Greece, the joke writes itself. The Aegean was not waiting for a corporate memo. It already had a word for it.

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