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Whether it's a large cup or a small cup, with water or milk added, common coffee drinks like Americano, Latte, Flat White, Cappuccino... all use espresso as their base. Espresso is highly versatile—adding ingredients or changing proportions can turn it into another popular drink. For example, the Flat White that Front Street Coffee is discussing today is adjusted from a hot latte, transforming into a popular espresso category.
Flat whiteWhere does it come from?
Regarding the origin of the Flat White, both Australians and New Zealanders insist it originated from their respective countries. Although we cannot determine where the Flat White came from, we can be certain of one thing: the birth of the Flat White stems from Australians' pursuit of better coffee flavor. The Flat White became popular in the 1980s, when people began to have higher demands for coffee but didn't want too much milk in it, so they could still enjoy the intense taste of espresso while tasting a creamy, smooth texture—which is why there are specific points for steaming the milk. The Flat White perfectly solved these problems and gradually became a cornerstone of Australian and New Zealand coffee culture.
Based on the characteristics of the Flat White, Australians and New Zealanders presented this rich milk coffee in their own ways, giving rise to two different preparation methods. One uses a Double Ristretto as the base with steamed fresh milk added, presenting a rich-tasting milk coffee. The other uses a Single Espresso combined with thin milk foam to create a milk coffee.
The specific preparation method varies depending on the coffee beans each shop uses and the flavor profile they want to express. The Flat White produced by Front Street Coffee uses its own roasted "Sunflower Warm Sun Blend" coffee, which has a fresh flavor and smooth texture, so the Flat White uses a Double Ristretto as the base.
What's the difference between a Flat White and a Latte?
The most recognizable feature of a Flat White is its thin, smooth milk foam layer. "Flat" in Flat White means flat—meaning a properly made Flat White must be so thin that it's level with the cup rim, without the milk foam layer bulging up, so that every sip of the rich coffee liquid comes with a silky foam layer.
Among the three common hot milk coffees, Cappuccino has the thickest milk foam, generally around 1–2cm, while the thinnest Flat White is generally around 0.3–0.5cm. Latte milk foam mostly presents a dome of about 0.5–0.7cm, while Flat White milk foam can only be below 0.5cm, otherwise it's hard to achieve a "flat" liquid surface. As for the specific thickness of milk foam, every coffee shop differs. Some baristas, to let customers taste the upper layer of coffee crema to the maximum extent, will skip steaming the milk foam entirely, directly heating the milk and pouring it into the espresso. Front Street Coffee wants customers to experience a dense and smooth texture in their Flat White, so it retains a 0.3cm milk foam layer.
A Flat White pursuing a rich taste adds a smaller proportion of milk to the espresso, and the specific amount of milk also depends on the cup size produced by the shop. Imagine if the same milk ratio as a Latte were used—the overall taste would be more like coffee-flavored milk. For example, the ceramic cup for the Flat White produced by Front Street Coffee is 180ml, with two Ristretto shots totaling 30 grams as the base, requiring 150 grams of hot milk to present a richer, fuller coffee flavor.
How to make a rich and aromatic Flat White
As everyone's love for espresso coffee deepens, many "coffee enthusiasts" have already equipped their homes with pressurized espresso machines. If you want to make a Flat White at home, you can also refer to the process and parameters of Front Street Coffee's production.
Front Street Coffee's espresso coffee uses its own roasted "Sunflower Warm Sun Blend" coffee beans, composed of sun-dried Yirgacheffe Red Cherry and Honduras Sherry coffee in a 3:7 ratio. The resulting espresso carries whiskey and vanilla flavors, paired with the sweet-tartness of tropical fruit. Even as espresso, it doesn't present a harsh, intense taste but rather a rich layering of flavors.
For those who enjoy mellow coffee, Front Street's Classic Espresso Blend is recommended. This is a recipe combining beans from three origins—Brazil, Indonesia, and Vietnam—using a dark roast, which maximizes the coffee's mellow aroma and allows everyone to easily extract rich and dense coffee crema. It's very suitable for making both water-diluted Americanos and milk-paired Lattes.
Front Street Coffee prepares espresso ristretto at a 1:1.6 coffee-to-liquid ratio, meaning 20 grams of coffee grounds are extracted into 32 grams of coffee liquid, with extraction time controlled between 27–30 seconds. The cup capacity for Front Street Coffee's Flat White is approximately 200ml. Prepare 170ml of refrigerated fresh milk; after steaming, the dense milk foam will be around 5mm, controlled at a temperature of 55–65°C—just right for drinking. Gently swirl the espresso ristretto base in the cup, and evenly and fully integrate the steamed hot milk.
A freshly made Flat White goes down as silky as chocolate milk, with the taste of whiskey-filled chocolate, mellow and rich, with a very long-lasting finish.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
