What Is Flat Red Coffee and How Does It Differ From a Flat White?

Flat Red is a Ukrainian coffee drink that combines espresso with freshly squeezed pomegranate and orange juice. It contains no alcohol, yet carries the sweet-tartness and fermented aroma of mulled wine, and its red color comes from the juice blend. Both Flat Red and Flat White are topped with a thin layer of silky foam.

The two drinks share only that foam. Flat White was created in the Australia-New Zealand region, where drinkers wanted stronger coffee flavor with thinner milk foam, the same contrast seen in any latte vs flat white australia comparison. Flat Red came from Ukraine, where cafes wanted a coffee with a distinct seasonal flavor.

Are you very familiar with Flat White coffee but have never heard of Flat Red? This red coffee drink from Ukraine is attracting coffee lovers worldwide with its unique combination of juice and espresso. It contains no alcohol, yet has the sweet-tartness and fermented aroma similar to mulled wine, with its color coming from a blend of freshly squeezed pomegranate juice and orange juice. Although both Flat Red and Flat White have "Flat" in their names, they have almost no connection in origin, recipe, or flavor—the only similarity is that both are topped with a thin, silky foam. This article will introduce you to the background of Flat Red's creation, its preparation method, and share Front Street Coffee's recreation experience, to see why this seasonal drink has become popular across Ukraine.

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Flat White Australian White coffee, I believe everyone is familiar with it, so have you ever heard of Flat Red coffee? (It's my first time hearing about it too)

Recently, while scrolling through videos, I saw many foreign coffee bloggers popularizing a red coffee drink, and I'd like to call it the coffee version of Bloody Mary... Alright, just kidding!

This coffee, if translated directly, would be called Flat Red coffee, just as Flat White would be directly translated as Flat White coffee. But if we follow the translation of Australian White coffee, because it was invented in the Australia-New Zealand region, it's called Australian White coffee. And Flat Red was invented in Ukraine, so it should be called...

"I know! Call it Ukrainian Red coffee!"

-Awesome!!!

But after tasting it, the name "Mulled Wine Americano" echoed in the barista's mind... Let's keep reading to find out why～

What is Flat Red?

Similar to the birth of Flat White Australian White coffee, because consumers in the Australia-New Zealand region wanted milk coffee with a stronger coffee flavor, more and more cafes began making coffee different from the balanced and smooth latte, using stronger coffee and thinner milk foam to create Australian White coffee.

The birth of Flat Red was also because people in Ukraine wanted to drink coffee with a special flavor, so cafes began researching products that could attract the public visually and also leave a deep impression of the coffee flavor.

In Ukraine, red wine is very popular among local consumers, and light red is also a color that Ukrainians love. Therefore, a coffee shop researched a coffee product that has a color and taste similar to wine, but without alcohol, and is also sweet-tart and rich.

Vadym Granovskiy, the barista who invented Flat Red, said that initially the red part was made with blood orange juice, but freshly squeezed blood orange juice has a noticeable astringency from the citrus peel, and when mixed with coffee, it adds a more astringent taste to the sweet-tartness.

However, citrus fruit juices mix very well with coffee, so pomegranate juice was used instead for the red part, and orange juice was added to enhance the sweet-tartness of the mixed juice and add a richer mouthfeel to Flat Red. The juice made from a mix of pomegranate and orange, when heated, can also form a rich mouthfeel like red wine and a faint fermented wine aroma.

Therefore, when the product was launched, it was immediately loved by local consumers and shared in photos, quickly becoming popular across Ukraine, and more and more local cafes are offering Flat Red.

It can be said that this coffee has little to do with Flat White; the only similarity is that both products have a thin, silky foam, so the word "Flat" is also used.

How is Flat Red made?

According to the recipe provided online, Front Street also recreated it once.

The pomegranate juice and orange juice used in Flat Red emphasize freshly squeezed fruit juice. Because the shop's equipment is limited, the barista squeezed fresh pomegranate juice and orange juice at home before going to work today, and mixed them in a 1:1 ratio.

(What surprised the barista! Since it's not yet pomegranate season, the pomegranate juice squeezed out was only a faint red, and after adding freshly squeezed orange juice, it directly turned orange-red...

)

The espresso part uses a double shot of espresso. The Italian coffee beans used this time are still the old friend of Front Street's store, "Sunflower Warm Sun Blend Coffee Beans," and the extracted coffee also has a fermented wine aroma and the sweet-tartness of berries.

The preparation steps are as follows: (Today's espresso extraction parameters) 19.8g of coffee powder extracts 38g of coffee liquid, with an extraction time of 28 seconds, then pour into a 200ml glass and set aside.

Next, add 160g of the mixed juice to a milk pitcher, use steam to heat the juice to about 55 degrees Celsius and produce a thin layer of fine foam. Finally, mix the heated juice with the espresso.

Overall, it really tastes quite like mulled wine!! On the palate, it's like briefly fermented pomegranate wine with the sweet-tartness of orange, followed by the nutty flavor of coffee and the taste of liqueur chocolates.

However, this Flat Red is seasonal. It's not yet the best time for pomegranates to ripen, and you can't buy pomegranates with ruby-like flesh. The pomegranate juice squeezed this time was only a faint red, and after adding orange juice, the red wasn't particularly prominent.

If it were during the peak pomegranate season, the overall sweet-tartness and pomegranate aroma of this coffee would be even fuller, and the coffee color would lean more towards red.

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