What Is Australian White Coffee and Where Did It Come From?

Australian white coffee is the flat white, a milk coffee made from espresso and fresh milk with a thin, level layer of foam. Its origin is disputed: Australia and New Zealand each claim it. Written traces of the term date back to the 1960s, but records of the modern drink appeared in the 1980s, including a Sydney menu in 1985 that printed flat white.

Preparation standards differ by country. Australia tends toward a single shot of espresso, while New Zealand commonly uses a double ristretto, which changes the strength and the coffee-to-milk balance in the cup. The flat white sits apart from a latte and a cappuccino mainly through foam texture and cup size, since the cappuccino's thick foam and the flat white's fine foam produce different mouthfeels.

Many coffee lovers are in the habit of ordering a latte at a café, and in recent years more and more people are choosing a flat white. A flat white is what is known as 澳白咖啡, and some also call it 馥芮白 or 澳瑞白. Whether this coffee was born in Australia or New Zealand is still disputed to this day. The two countries not only each insist on their own claim to its origin, but also have their own preferences when it comes to preparation standards—Australia tends toward a single shot of espresso, while New Zealand commonly uses a double ristretto. This article sorts through the historical written records of the flat white, its differences from the latte and cappuccino, and shares the specific method Front Street Coffee uses to make a flat white in its stores, including cup size selection, milk frothing techniques, and coffee bean blending options.

When it comes to coffee, many people's first thought is of the milk-based varieties. Walking into Starbucks or any café, what rolls off the tongue is often "a latte, please." And in recent years, friends who visit Front Street stores will also directly ask for a flat white. In fact, flat white is precisely the English name for 澳白咖啡.

It is called 澳白咖啡 because it was born in the Australian region. However, the origins of this Australian-style white coffee in Oceania are a matter of much disagreement: Australia insists that the flat white was its own invention; its neighbor New Zealand, on the other hand, claims that the birthplace of the flat white should belong to New Zealand.

As early as the 1960s, the term flat white had already appeared in the British film "Danger by My Side," but in the film it was used to describe coffee that was weak and watery in taste.

It was not until the 1980s that written records finally emerged of the modern flat white beverage.

【Australia】

In May 1983, an article reviewing fine cafés mentioned "flat white";

In April 1984, a Sydney newspaper published an article mocking the then hugely popular latte, using the term "flat white" to refer to it;

In 1985, a café in Sydney called Moors Espresso printed "flat white" on its menu, and the owner said this "white coffee-flat" was something he had brought to Sydney from Queensland;

In 1985, the menu of the restaurant at Parliament House in Canberra listed "flat white only."

【New Zealand】

A café in Auckland called DKD created the flat white in order to replace the latte;

In 1989, a barista at Bar Bodega in Wellington used skim milk to froth milk for a cappuccino, and because the milk foam was too thin it was declared a failure—yet the result was instead a cup of flat white.

Whether the birthplace of the Flat White is Australia or New Zealand is a endlessly debated question. Setting aside the question of origin for now, the flat white, with its rich coffee flavor and delicate mouthfeel, has won the favor of a large number of coffee lovers and also garnered praise from many fans of milk coffee.

What is even more interesting is that for the same coffee called flat white, the preparation standards in Australia and New Zealand are vastly different. Australians are used to using a single shot of espresso, while New Zealanders prefer a double ristretto. Speaking of which, some friends may want to ask Front Street: what exactly is a ristretto?

A ristretto has similarities to the espresso we drink every day, but also differences. The similarity is that both use the same extraction principle to obtain concentrated coffee liquid. The difference is that a ristretto, just as its name suggests, has a more intense and concentrated coffee flavor.

When extracting espresso, the first drops of coffee liquid are dark in color and thick in texture; as the extraction time lengthens, the coffee liquid flowing out in the later stage gradually becomes lighter in color and thinner in texture.

A ristretto takes only the first and middle stages of the espresso, so compared with ordinary espresso, its coffee flavor is more intense and its mouthfeel is more viscous.

Although FrontStreet Coffee's menu does not list "澳白咖啡" as a product, when customers request it, Front Street stores will still make it. When FrontStreet Coffee's baristas make a flat white, they use a double espresso as the base.

FrontStreet Coffee's method for making a flat white

Front Street's standard for producing espresso is: 20 grams of coffee grounds extracted into 40 grams of espresso liquid, with an extraction time of 28 seconds.

When making a flat white, Front Street uses a cup with a capacity of about 240 milliliters. Because the milk foam of a flat white is very thin, when frothing, Front Street recommends first getting the milk spinning, then introducing a small amount of air, and finally entering the stage of texturing the milk foam until it is smooth and dense.

After the incorporation is complete, because the milk foam is extremely thin, it is very difficult for subsequent latte art to take shape, so Front Street recommends using a centered fixed-point pour to make a small dot, or drawing a heart.

The flat white produced by Front Street has a rich vanilla and cream flavor on the palate along with a distinct whiskey barrel aroma, and drinking it in winter makes one feel warm. This is because Front Street stores use the Sunflower Warm Sun blend coffee beans to make espresso. This espresso blend is composed of 70% Honduras Sherry coffee beans and 30% Ethiopia natural Red Cherry coffee beans.

The Sherry coffee beans undergo low-temperature fermentation in sherry whiskey barrels for 30 to 40 days, allowing the flavor of the sherry whiskey to seep into the green coffee beans. Sherry whiskey itself has a rich vanilla and cream aroma with an explosion of sweetness, and this Sherry coffee bean also carries a flavor similar to that of sherry cask whiskey.

The varieties of this Honduras coffee bean are Caturra, Catuai, and Pacas. Thanks to the Bourbon genes, the sweetness of the Sherry coffee beans is even more pronounced. At the same time, the Sherry coffee beans possess the characteristics of Honduras coffee beans: balanced overall, with acidity that does not overly stand out.

What are the differences between a flat white, a latte, and a cappuccino?

If you have tasted a flat white, a latte, and a cappuccino separately, you will find that: a latte has a stronger milky taste, a cappuccino has a prominent coffee flavor and a denser mouthfeel, while a flat white emphasizes the flavor of the coffee itself, with the presence of milk diminished.

Looking at the ratio of milk to coffee liquid, a latte has the highest proportion of milk among the three, while a flat white uses relatively less milk, so in terms of flavor, a latte has a heavier milky taste while a flat white has a stronger taste.

The simplest way to distinguish the three is probably to start with the thickness of the milk foam. When Front Street makes these three milk coffees, the flat white has the thinnest milk foam, the latte is in the middle, and the cappuccino has the thickest milk foam.

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