Italy Latte Roots: Where Did the Flat White Come From?

The Flat White came out of Australia and New Zealand, where milk coffee is often simply called a flat white. Italians who emigrated there in the 1980s brought espresso machines, and locals wanted a drink with stronger coffee flavor and thinner foam than the latte or cappuccino. Starbucks added it to its menu in 2015.

The name describes the surface: foam is poured until only a thin layer remains, roughly level with the cup rim. Milk sets off the coffee rather than covering it. It can be served iced, though the thin microfoam that defines the drink behaves differently when chilled over ice.

Beyond the latte and cappuccino, the Flat White has become a permanent fixture in many cafés thanks to its more pronounced coffee flavor and light, thin milk foam. In Chinese it is pronounced fù ruì bái, and it also goes by translations such as 醇艺白, 澳瑞白, 小白, and 澳白. After Starbucks added it to its menu in 2015, it gradually became familiar to domestic consumers. This article will trace the Flat White's origins in Australia and New Zealand, explain why it emphasizes coffee as the main element with milk as a supporting one, compare how baristas in different regions serve it, introduce the specific approach Front Street Coffee takes in making a Flat White with the "Sunflower Warm Sun Blend," and finally answer a common question: can a Flat White be made as an iced drink?

Beyond the latte and cappuccino, there is another specialty coffee drink that has become increasingly common in cafés around the world in recent years: the Flat White, pronounced fù ruì bái in Chinese. In China, this drink also goes by names such as 醇艺白, 澳瑞白, 小白, 平白, and 澳白. It was only after Starbucks added it to its menu in 2015 that it truly entered the awareness of Chinese consumers.

The Flat White's homeland is Oceania

If you are in Italy and want a milk coffee, people usually order a latte; but in Australia, what the barista hands you is often a Flat White—locally, milk coffee itself is simply called a Flat White. In the 1980s, Italians who had emigrated to Australia brought espresso machines to New Zealand, Australia, Melbourne, and elsewhere. At the time, the mainstream specialty coffee drinks were nothing more than the latte and cappuccino, but Australians preferred a drink with a stronger coffee flavor and lighter milk foam, and so the Flat White was born out of this demand. Not long after, it began appearing on permanent menus in Europe and the United States, becoming one of the café staples.

When the foam on the surface of a milk coffee becomes flatter and flatter, until only an extremely thin layer remains, with the whole drink sitting almost level with the rim of the cup, the name Flat White follows from exactly that. Flat means "level," while White refers to the white coffee with milk added. The idea behind a Flat White is to use milk to set off the coffee—coffee is the main event, and milk plays only a supporting role—so its coffee flavor is fuller and more concentrated. At the same time, the thin surface foam lets every sip of the rich coffee liquid be wrapped in velvety, fine bubbles; a moderate temperature and a smaller cup size also allow you to finish the whole drink before the foam separates.

When New Zealand baristas make a Flat White, they tend to serve it in a small cup: the amount of espresso stays the same, the milk is reduced, the proportion of coffee rises, and the flavor is naturally stronger. Australian baristas, by contrast, believe a Flat White simply needs thinner foam than a latte, and they often serve it in a cup of the same capacity as a latte, with the foam thickness mostly kept at 0.3–0.5 cm. Melbourne baristas will even switch the base to a double ristretto drawn only from the front and middle portions of the shot, adding foam of a thickness close to that of a latte into a 150 ml cup.

Behind a delicious Flat White lie higher demands on coffee quality

In the past, coffee shops mostly favored dark-roast espresso blends, pursuing a rich, balanced, toasty aroma that could strike a balance when paired with hot milk—you could taste the coffee as well as the milk's sweetness, with neither overpowering the other.

With the arrival of the specialty coffee wave, people began to prefer single-origin coffees with more distinctive flavors, and they increasingly used single-origin beans for espresso extraction as well—what is commonly called SOE (Single Origin Espresso), that is, espresso made from coffee beans of a single origin. Compared with a large latte or a cappuccino with thick foam, a Flat White demands both high-quality coffee beans and proper extraction, as well as a dense, delicate layer of thin milk foam, making it better suited to showcasing the origin character of the beans themselves. Front Street believes that the growing popularity of the Flat White shows precisely that people's demands on coffee quality are rising.

Rather than agonizing over the differences between a Flat White and other specialty coffee drinks, Front Street prefers to present it by combining the characteristics of its own coffee beans with its understanding of the Flat White. The espresso blend Front Street uses is its own house-roasted "Sunflower Warm Sun Blend," composed of 70% Honduras Sherry coffee and 30% Yirgacheffe natural Red Cherry coffee. The whiskey, vanilla, and cream flavors brought by the Sherry, paired with the tropical fruit and fermented notes of the Red Cherry, make the aroma in the cup richer and the mouthfeel softer.

For the coffee base, Front Street Coffee uses a double ristretto: 20 grams of coffee grounds extracted into 30 grams of coffee liquid, taking 22–24 seconds. However, Front Street Coffee also reminds us that the extraction recipe differs slightly for each coffee bean, and this parameter is adjusted by the barista before opening each day based on the Warm Sun Blend used in the shop.

Pour the extracted coffee liquid into the prepared cup first, then take 150 ml of milk and put it in a milk pitcher to steam. When steaming the milk, incorporate less air than for a latte, so the foam layer is thinner and denser, and the temperature is best kept at 55–60°C for a more comfortable sip. Then simply pour the steamed milk into the coffee; latte art is optional. Because the foam is thin, the surface will not sit level with the rim of the cup, and the drink looks somewhat flat.

Front Street's Flat White presents aromas of vanilla, chocolate milk, and whiskey cordial chocolate, along with the sweet-tart notes of berries; it is smooth, fragrant, and full-bodied on the palate, with a lasting finish.

Can a Flat White be made iced?

A latte can usually be ordered iced or hot, but a Flat White is generally made hot only. The reason is that baristas want every sip of an Aussie white to deliver both the milk foam and the milk coffee beneath it at once; only when the foam is dense enough, thin enough, and at a temperature suitable for drinking can every sip contain both foam and rich coffee liquid, and can you finish it before the foam separates. Once ice cubes are added, the chilled milk coffee becomes diluted, and the effect described above is hard to achieve.

If you simply want an iced yet rich milk coffee, Front Street suggests trying the "Dirty," which has also been popular in the past two years. Drip the extracted espresso onto the top layer of chilled fresh milk to create a "dirty" visual effect; the alternating hot-and-cold mouthfeel is quite distinctive.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

For more specialty coffee beans, please add the personal WeChat of Front Street Coffee: qjcoffeex

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