How Does Australian White Coffee Differ From a Latte?

A flat white and a latte are both espresso plus milk, but the flat white uses less milk and a higher share of coffee, so it tastes noticeably more intense. Milk foam is thinner and finer, and the cup is smaller. Cafes began adding it to menus as specialty espresso improved and drinkers wanted the coffee, not the milk, to lead.

Origins trace to Australia and New Zealand, where espresso culture took hold after Italian migration. Australian white coffee is served in a smaller cup than a latte, usually built on a double shot, with milk steamed to a thin microfoam and poured to keep the crema intact. Ratios vary by cafe and by the beans used.

In today's world where specialty coffee is increasingly popular, flat white has become an indispensable category of milk coffee on many café menus. Many people wonder: both are milk plus espresso, so what exactly is the difference between a flat white and a latte? From the perspective of Front Street, this article systematically sorts out the definition, origin, and flavor characteristics of flat white, compares its core differences with latte and cappuccino in terms of milk foam thickness and the coffee-to-milk ratio, and introduces in detail the extraction parameters, milk frothing temperature, and pouring technique used by Front Street stores to make flat white. It also discusses the background of Starbucks naming the flat white "Fu Rui Bai," as well as the development of flat white in its native Australia and its journey to counterattack the North American market.

Flat White

After the specialty coffee industry gradually matured, flat white has now become one of the indispensable milk espresso drinks on specialty café menus. Front Street is often asked: isn't it all just milk plus coffee? What exactly is the difference between a flat white and a latte? So what kind of drink is flat white? In this article, Front Street will talk in detail about what a flat white is and how to make a cup of flat white.

What Is a Flat White?

In short, compared with a latte, a flat white is a drink with a lower proportion of milk and a higher proportion of espresso. In plain terms, Front Street would say that a flat white tastes much more intense than a latte. In earlier years, many cafés did not serve flat white, possibly for two reasons: first, the concept, standards, and characteristics of flat white were not yet widely understood; second, in stores that already offered latte and cappuccino, adding another milk coffee seemed somewhat redundant.

As specialty coffee beans continue to diversify and the quality of many cafés' blends keeps improving, espresso is no longer the single bitter-burnt flavor it used to be. People are also more willing to use a ratio with more coffee and less milk to present the personality of their espresso drinks. Some cafés have even begun using single-origin beans to make SOE flat whites, thereby showcasing the wonderful taste created when origin flavors blend with milk lactose.

For example, when making espresso drinks with milk, FrontStreet Coffee usually uses a blend of Ethiopian natural Red Cherry and Honduran Sherry coffee beans in a 3:7 ratio for espresso extraction. The espresso beans blended this way, after high-pressure extraction, have a rich vinous aroma, soft fruit acidity, and a lingering nutty and cocoa-like finish. By heating the milk to activate its lactose and mixing it with espresso, the lactose in the milk and the berry-like acidity produce a milkshake-like sweetness, yet without stealing the spotlight from the vinous aroma, making people "addicted" after just one sip.

In Australia, milk coffee is customarily served in wide-mouthed cups, so generally speaking, the milk foam layer of a flat white is only about 5 mm thick. Also because it blends better with the coffee, a good flat white should have a silky, rich mouthfeel. If cappuccino and latte pursue an airy "fluffiness," then flat white pursues a silky "smoothness."

The Origin of Flat White~

Regarding the origin of flat white, some say it appeared in Sydney in the 1980s, while others say it appeared in Melbourne in 1970. Living in major Australian cities like Melbourne and Sydney is actually not easy because prices are very high (housing prices also remain stubbornly high), but drinking coffee is still a fairly common daily habit, and the price is usually not expensive. Australian coffee is also of quite a high standard. Usually every neighborhood has at least one quality café, feeding the spirit and taste buds of local residents.

In fact, Australia has always been a place where immigrant culture comes together. Thanks to a large number of European immigrants, coffee culture gradually took root in Australia after World War II. Today, on the world coffee map, major cities such as Sydney and Melbourne have long established a banner of their own. Even more notably, coffee drinks like milk coffee have even counterattacked North America, prompting Starbucks to remove "cappuccino," which it had sold for more than 30 years, from its menu and replace it with flat white (Starbucks calls flat white "Fu Rui Bai"). Gradually, cafés in the UK, Germany, and elsewhere have also begun offering flat white, piccolo latte, long black, and other Australian-specific names for intense Italian-style coffee drinks.

How to Make a Flat White?

Front Street uses a Pegasus E98 espresso machine, and the extraction parameters are as follows:

Pressure: 9 bar

Temperature: 94°C

Time: 20~30 sec

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:1.7~1:2

Dose: 12 g (single espresso) 20 g (double espresso)

Extracted espresso yield: 20 ml (single) 40 ml (double)

Recommended Milk-to-Coffee Ratio for Flat White

Milk: whole fresh milk (Front Street uses Vitasoy fresh milk)

Milk frothing temperature: 50-60°C (too low a temperature cannot activate the lactose in milk, while too high a temperature destroys the protein in milk, creating a grainy mouthfeel)

Milk foam thickness: 5 mm (1 cm milk foam is for making latte, 1.5 cm thick milk foam is for making cappuccino)

Espresso content: 40 ml

Milk content: 140 ml

In serving flat white, Front Street retains the characteristics of a small cup volume, thin milk foam, and double ristretto as the base. Front Street uses a ceramic cup with a capacity of about 200 ml, smaller than that for a hot latte, and pours the freshly extracted double ristretto into it. Front Street believes there should not be too much milk, otherwise it will overpower the rich aroma of the coffee, so the ratio of coffee to milk here is 1:5, which is about 150 ml of fresh milk.

Front Street hopes that the mouthfeel guests get from the flat white is creamy and smooth without being too "watery," so it retains a 0.3 cm milk foam layer. Therefore, the milk needs to be aerated less than for a latte so that the foam layer can be this thin. Front Street believes the milk temperature is best controlled at 55-60°C, which both highlights the sweetness and keeps it from being too hot. Finally, evenly incorporate the frothed milk into the coffee liquid and it is ready to taste.

The flat white at Front Street stores presents aromas of vanilla, cream, chocolate milk, and whiskey-filled chocolate, as well as the sweet-tartness of berries. It is silky, fragrant, and mellow on entry, with a very long-lasting finish.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.