How does a flat white differ from a latte and a long black?

A Starbucks Flat White, sold in China as Fu Rui Bai, is espresso topped with a thin layer of steamed milk, roughly 5mm of microfoam, so the coffee flavor stays stronger than in a latte. The gap comes down to milk volume and ratio: a flat white uses less milk and a higher proportion of espresso than a latte.

Specialty cafés often build flat whites from a house blend or a single-origin SOE so origin notes and lactose meet in the cup. Milk is steamed to a silky texture and poured to keep the foam layer thin. Unlike a long black, which is water plus espresso, the flat white keeps milk in a supporting role rather than the main one.

Driven by the specialty coffee wave, Flat White has become an indispensable milk coffee option 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? Starbucks named its Flat White "Fu Rui Bai" — what kind of drink is it exactly? This article will explain the definition of Flat White, its core differences from Latte, its origin story, and specific extraction parameters, milk steaming temperature, and serving ratios one by one. At the same time, drawing on Front Street Coffee's hands-on experience, we share how to use a suitable blend and extraction method to make a Flat White with milk foam as thin as 5mm and a silky-smooth texture.

[Trivia] Do you really know how to make a Flat White and an Americano?

Starbucks Flat White As the specialty coffee market continues to mature, Flat White has now become almost one of the essential milk-espresso categories on specialty café menus. Friends often ask Front Street: 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 the Flat White exactly? In this article, Front Street will discuss in detail what a Flat White is and how to make one.

What is a Flat White?

Simply put, compared with a Latte, a Flat White is an espresso drink that uses less milk and a higher proportion of coffee. To put it plainly, Front Street would say that a Flat White tastes much stronger than a Latte. In earlier years, many cafés did not offer Flat Whites, possibly for two reasons: first, the concept, standards, and characteristics of the Flat White had not yet become widely known; second, for coffee shops already serving Lattes and Cappuccinos, adding another milk coffee option seemed somewhat cumbersome.

As specialty coffee beans have become increasingly abundant, the blend quality of many cafés has continued to improve, and espresso is no longer the unchanging bitter-burnt taste it once was. People are also more willing to use a ratio with more coffee and less milk to showcase the characteristics of their own espresso. Some shops have even begun using single-origin coffee beans to make SOE for their Flat Whites, allowing the origin flavors and milk lactose to blend together and create a delightful taste experience.

Take Front Street Coffee as an example. When making milk-based espresso, it usually selects Ethiopian natural Red Cherry and Honduran Sherry coffee beans, blends them at a 3:7 ratio, and then extracts the espresso. The espresso beans blended this way, after high-pressure extraction, carry a rich vinous aroma, soft fruit acidity, and a nutty, cocoa-like finish. Heating the milk can activate the lactose within it. After mixing with the espresso, the milk lactose and berry-like acidity produce a milkshake-like sweetness, while not overpowering the vinous aroma, making it unforgettable after just one taste.

For friends who prefer a rich, full-bodied coffee flavor, Front Street's Classic Italian Blend is recommended. This recipe is composed of beans from three origins — Brazil, Indonesia, and Vietnam — and uses a dark roast, which can highlight the coffee's rich aroma to the greatest extent and also makes it easy to extract abundant, dense crema. It is suitable for both Americanos diluted with water and Lattes paired with milk, and can be purchased from Front Street's Taobao store or Front Street's Tmall flagship store.

In Australia, milk coffee is usually served in wide-mouthed cups, so the milk foam thickness of a Flat White is generally only about 5mm. Also, because it integrates better with the coffee, a good Flat White should have a silky, rich mouthfeel. If Cappuccino and Latte pursue an airy "fluffiness," then what a Flat White emphasizes is a silky "smoothness."

The origin of the Flat White~

Regarding the origin of the Flat White, one account says it appeared in Sydney in the 1980s, while another says it was born in Melbourne in 1970. Living in major Australian cities such as Melbourne and Sydney is actually not easy, with extremely high prices (housing prices also remain high), but drinking coffee is still a fairly common daily habit, and the price is usually not expensive. Australia's coffee level is quite high; generally, every neighborhood has at least one quality café, nourishing local residents' spirits and taste buds.

In fact, Australia has always been a place where immigrant cultures converge. Thanks to a large number of European immigrants, coffee culture gradually took root in Australia after World War II, and today on the world coffee map, major cities such as Sydney and Melbourne have long planted a flag. What's more, drinks like milk coffee have even been exported back to North America, forcing Starbucks to remove the "Cappuccino" it had sold for more than 30 years from its lineup and replace it with the Flat White (Starbucks calls the Flat White "Fu Rui Bai"). Subsequently, cafés in the UK, Germany, and elsewhere also gradually saw the appearance of Australian-style rich espresso drinks such as the Flat White, piccolo, and long black.

How to make a Flat White?

Front Street uses a Pegasus E98 espresso machine, with the following extraction parameters:

Pressure: 9 bar

Temperature: 94°C

Time: 20~30 sec

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

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

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

Recommended milk-to-coffee ratio for a Flat White

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

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

Milk foam thickness: 5mm (1cm milk foam is used to make a Latte, and 1.5cm-thick milk foam is used to make a Cappuccino)

Espresso content: 40ml Milk content: 140ml

When serving a Flat White, Front Street retains the characteristics of a small cup volume, thin milk foam, and a double ristretto as the base. To make a Flat White, Front Street uses a ceramic cup smaller than that for a hot Latte, about 200ml in capacity, and pours in the freshly extracted double Ristretto. Front Street believes that too much milk should not be used, otherwise it will overpower the coffee's rich aroma, so here the coffee-to-milk ratio is 1:5, which is about 150ml of fresh milk.

What Front Street wants guests to taste in the Flat White is a creamy smoothness that is not too "watery," so it retains a 0.3cm layer of milk foam. Therefore, when steaming the milk, less air needs to be incorporated 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 integrate the steamed milk into the coffee liquid and it is ready to taste.

The Flat White at Front Street's shop presents aromas of vanilla, cream, chocolate milk, and whiskey-filled chocolate, along with the sweet-tartness of berries. It enters the mouth smooth, fragrant, and full-bodied, with a very long finish.

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