Trampoline Frappé

The frappé is a style of drink (and sometimes desert) that has a parallel history in bar and soda fountain culture. Whether you’re talking about an absinthe frappé or a booze-free pineapple frappé, the shared factor is a mountain of fresh fine ice. In the early 20th century, when commercial refrigeration was still newish, this was still very much a novelty, but one that ties the culture back to older mixed drinks like the cobbler and the mint julep. The 1905 soda fountain book The Dispenser’s Formulary defines the frappé as a combination of syrup and fine ice that winds up with the consistency of “moist snow.” It’s a style that lives on in drinks like today’s Frappuccino, perhaps an update to the Formulary’s own Cafe Frappé. 

My first version of the Trampoline was a gin-based drink that I had on the menu during my time at Death & Co. in New York about a decade ago—you can find it in their latest cocktail book, Welcome Home. But that drink was really a revamping of an older drink, the Well-Deserved Punch (served in my earliest days at The Franklin Mortgage & Investment Co. in Philadelphia), which was made with rum and the same fresh strawberry-basil syrup that’s used here. If you have extra syrup on hand after making this frappé, I recommend giving that punch a try: Combine 1 oz. Jamaican overproof rum, 1 oz. Haitian rum, 1 oz. fresh pineapple juice, 1 oz. lime juice, ¾ oz. strawberry-basil syrup, ¼ oz. crème de cacao (such as Tempus Fugit brand), and two dashes Peychaud’s bitters into a shaker. Shake with ice until well chilled, then pour into an ice-filled glass with an ounce of seltzer. 

The strawberry-basil syrup remains one of my favorites to have on hand. It’s a crowd-pleaser, relatively stable, and the green hint of basil just sits so wonderfully with the fragrance of strawberries. Turning it into an all-ages frappé was a no-brainer for me, and this is now one of my favorite summer coolers. Note that the bitters do contain some alcohol; feel free to omit if you’d like to keep this completely booze-free.