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Fù Ruì Bái(a transliteration of the original name Flat White),  commonly known asAustralian White Coffee, is one of the top three best-selling milk coffees at Starbucks. Unlike latte and cappuccino,Flat Whitehas the velvety smooth texture of a latte, as well as the richness of a cappuccino. And at Front Street Coffee, you can also find all three types of coffee.

Flat WhiteOrigin

According to Starbucks, the Flat White is an Australian creation~  It is a coffee that originated in Australia in the 1980s and has been loved by coffee consumers in Australia and other regions. Starbucks customers in Australia have been enjoying the beverage in stores since 2009, while customers in the UK and US have enjoyed it since 2010, until it entered the Chinese market in 2012.

However, regarding this description of its origin, people in New Zealand disagree. The New Zealand Herald called the Flat White a "typical New Zealand coffee." Although Sydney coffee shops may have first offered the beverage in the 1980s, the Herald wrote that Wellington is where the Flat White is perfected.

Australian food historian Michael Symons once conducted an in-depth investigation into where the Flat White comes from, and ultimately gave the following explanation: Although the Flat White may have come from Sydney and Melbourne, its best incarnation can be found in Wellington. He noted that some cafes in the late 1980s and 1990s had already claimed to contribute to its perfection, but this claim has not yet been resolved.

Although it cannot be determined exactly where the Flat White originated, one thing we can be sure of is that compared to latte, the Flat White has a stronger coffee taste and thinner milk foam, so both in texture and flavor, it is more intense.

How Starbucks Makes Flat White Coffee

Starbucks makes its Flat White using 2/3/4 shots of ristretto espresso depending on cup size, then for the hot version adds steamed milk with 0.5cm-thick milk foam, while the iced version first pours in ice cubes and milk, then finally tops it with ristretto espresso.

Can Flat White Be Drunk Iced?

But in fact, authentic Flat White coffee only comes in a hot version. Starbucks provides a cold version in order to meet all consumers' demand for customized coffee. Therefore, to further experience the richness of the Flat White, FrontStreet Coffee recommends everyone try the hot version.

How to Make Flat White Coffee at Home?

To make Flat White coffee, you need to use a more concentrated (ristretto) espresso. Making ristretto espresso requires using a pressurized espresso machine, then using medium-dark roasted espresso beans. Here we used Front Street's classic espresso blend coffee beans to make the Flat White. This is a blend composed of beans from three origins: Brazil, Indonesia, and Vietnam. It uses a deep roast, which can maximize the coffee's rich aroma and also allow everyone to easily extract abundant and dense crema. Whether making an Americano diluted with water or a latte paired with milk, it is very suitable.

For the espresso portion of the Flat White, FrontStreet Coffee uses ristretto espresso, extracting 30g of coffee liquid from 20g of coffee grounds, with an extraction time of 23-28 seconds.

Then pour 150ml of chilled fresh milk into a milk pitcher, and use the espresso machine's steam wand to aerate and heat the milk, creating milk foam about 0.5cm thick. Then simply combine the milk with the coffee.

What Is the Difference Between Flat White and Latte?

Although both are made from only milk and espresso, Flat White and latte have obvious differences in preparation and taste. Caffe Latte means milk in Italian. Latte emphasizes achieving a balance between coffee and milk, so you can taste both the flavor of coffee and the sweet, mellow taste of milk. The two complement each other and do not mask each other's flavors. Flat White, on the other hand, uses milk to highlight the flavor of coffee. Coffee is the protagonist, and milk is only an assistant. Therefore, in terms of taste, Flat White has a fuller and stronger coffee flavor.

Although Flat White has its own characteristics, there is no fixed preparation ratio in the industry. Baristas at each coffee shop present different Flat Whites based on their different understandings of it and combined with the espresso beans used in their own stores.

New Zealand baristas serve Flat White in a smaller coffee cup than a latte (about 150ml), and uniformly use a double shot of espresso as the base. In this way, as the amount of milk decreases and the proportion of coffee increases, the coffee flavor naturally becomes stronger. Therefore, Flat White is also called a "small latte."

With baristas' continuously improving extraction techniques, in order to more perfectly express the aroma of the coffee beans in an Australian White, Melbourne coffee shops will also replace the base with a double Ristretto, incorporating milk foam of a thickness comparable to a latte into a 150ml cup. Ristretto refers to extracting a smaller liquid yield from the same dose of coffee, and can be said to be a smaller version of espresso. It is more concentrated in the front and middle stages of extraction and has a richer taste, thus placing higher demands on the quality of the coffee beans used.

However, in Australia, baristas believe it is enough to maintain thinner milk foam than a latte. When serving Australian White, they use the same cup size as a latte, placing more emphasis on the difference in milk foam thickness. Compared with milk coffees such as latte and cappuccino, Flat White has the thinnest milk foam, generally 0.3-0.5cm.

The "Flat" in Flat White means flat. The milk foam must be thin enough to be level with the rim of the cup, and the foam layer must not bulge, so that every sip of the strong coffee liquid carries a dense layer of foam. Therefore, Flat White is also called "Flat White Coffee." Latte coffee's milk foam mostly forms a dome of about 0.5-0.7cm, while Australian White coffee's milk foam can only be below 0.5cm, otherwise it is difficult to achieve a "flat" liquid surface. Front Street hopes that the texture guests taste in the Flat White is creamy and smooth without being too "watery," so it retains a 0.3cm milk foam layer.

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