How Does Australian White Coffee Differ From a Latte?

Australian white coffee, or Flat White, differs from a latte mainly in milk volume and foam texture. A latte is built around milk and usually served in a larger cup, often 250 ml or more. Front Street's hot latte, for example, uses a 300 ml cup with a double espresso of about 40 g topped with 260 ml of fresh milk. A Flat White uses less milk and thinner, finer foam, so the coffee taste stays more prominent.

The drink comes from the Southern Hemisphere. In the 1980s, Italian emigrants brought espresso machines to Australia and New Zealand. Lattes and cappuccinos were the popular fancy coffees then, but locals preferred a stronger coffee taste with thinner foam, and the Flat White emerged. Flat means level, referring to the surface sitting level with the cup rim, and White refers to the milk-added coffee. Starbucks added it to its permanent menu in 2015.

Many people first heard of Flat White in 2015, when Starbucks added it to its permanent menu under the name "Fu Rui Bai." After that, Costa's "Chun Yi Bai," Luckin's "Ao Rui Bai," and other names kept popping up, while the baristas at Front Street Coffee are more accustomed to calling it "Ao Bai." This milk coffee originating from the Southern Hemisphere—exactly how is it different from a latte or a cappuccino? Why does it taste more strongly of coffee, with thinner milk foam? This article covers everything from its origin to its recipe, helping you understand the core logic of the Flat White, and includes Front Street's complete method for making a Flat White using the Warm Sun blend.

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Most people's introduction to the Flat White as a beverage began in 2015, when Starbucks named it "Fu Rui Bai" and added it to its permanent menu. After that, major coffee brands followed suit one after another, giving this coffee from the Southern Hemisphere all sorts of Chinese names: Starbucks calls it Fu Rui Bai, Costa calls it Chun Yi Bai, and Luckin calls it Ao Rui Bai. But at Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee), the baristas prefer to call it Ao Bai coffee.

Ao Rui Bai Originating from Australia in the Southern Hemisphere

If you want a milk coffee, in Italy you'd order a latte, but in Australia, what the barista hands you is a Flat White—because locally, milk coffee itself is equivalent to a Flat White. In the 1980s, Italians who emigrated to Australia brought espresso machines to New Zealand, Australia, Melbourne, and other places. At the time, the popular fancy coffees were mainly lattes and cappuccinos, but Australians preferred a style with a stronger coffee taste and thinner milk foam, and thus the Flat White was born. Flat means "level," and White refers to the white coffee with milk added. Not long after, the Flat White made it onto fixed menus across Europe and America, becoming one of the standard offerings in coffee shops.

Anyone who regularly drinks milk coffee has probably noticed that a latte's emphasis is on the milk, so the cup size is usually larger, basically 250ml or more. Take a hot latte made by Front Street as an example: it uses a 300ml cup, with a base of a double espresso of about 40g, then topped with 260ml of fresh milk. After drinking it, you often feel quite full.

Compared with a latte, the idea behind a Flat White is to use added milk to highlight the coffee itself—the coffee is the star, and the milk plays only a supporting role, so it tastes fuller and more intense in coffee flavor. At the same time, its surface milk foam is extremely thin, and every sip of the strong coffee liquid is wrapped in velvety, dense foam. The temperature is moderate and the cup size is on the small side, so you can finish it before the foam separates. When New Zealand baristas make a Flat White, they tend to present it in a small cup—the amount of coffee liquid stays the same, the milk is reduced, the proportion of coffee rises, and the strength naturally goes up.

Ao Rui Bai What are the differences from a latte?

Judging by the characteristics of a Flat White, it is like a cappuccino or a latte in that it consists of espresso, hot milk, and milk foam; the difference lies in the proportions of the three and the thickness of the foam.

Generally speaking, a cappuccino is a shot of espresso with a thick layer of milk foam, about 1–2cm thick, forming a "hamburger" shape, and you have to take a big sip of the foam before drinking it. A latte's foam is thinner, about 0.5cm. But a Flat White's foam is the thinnest and must be kept within 0.3cm, otherwise it is hard to form a "flat" surface. As for the exact thickness of the milk foam, practices vary from shop to shop. Some baristas, in order to let customers feel the coffee crema on top as much as possible, simply don't steam any foam and directly pour heated milk into the espresso. Front Street, on the other hand, wants customers to taste a Flat White that has a creamy smoothness without being too "watery," so it retains a 0.3cm layer of milk foam.

When making a latte, coffee shops usually have their own coffee-to-milk ratio, while a Flat White generally determines the amount of milk based on the serving cup size. In order to present a richer coffee flavor, New Zealand baristas choose a small cup size of 150–180ml when serving a Flat White—the amount of coffee stays the same, the amount of milk decreases accordingly, the proportion of coffee increases, and the coffee flavor naturally becomes more intense. That is also why the Flat White is sometimes called a "small latte."

In addition, with the arrival of the specialty coffee era, more and more people have begun using single-origin coffee for espresso extraction, commonly known as SOE (Single Origin Espresso). Compared with a large-cup latte and a thick-foam cappuccino, a Flat White is better suited to showcasing the regional flavor of the coffee beans themselves. In Melbourne coffee shops, baristas replace the espresso base with a double Ristretto and incorporate milk foam of a thickness comparable to a latte into a 150ml cup.

Ristretto means "restricted" in Italian. An espresso ristretto can be understood as the "restricted" version of an espresso, taking only the front and middle portions of the Espresso. Because Ristretto extracts only the front and middle portions of the espresso, its concentration is higher than Espresso, the coffee taste is stronger, the flavor is more concentrated, and after adding milk the mouthfeel is also thicker. Here Front Street needs to remind you that the extraction plan for each coffee bean will differ slightly. This extraction plan is the extraction parameter adjusted by the barista every day before opening, and it is a plan adjusted according to the Warm Sun blend used in the store.

Front Street Ao Rui Bai recipe

Front Street believes that the Flat White's derivatives stem from everyone's pursuit of the flavor and mouthfeel of specialty coffee beans, so there are many ways to make it, depending on the coffee beans used by the coffee shop and also on the barista's understanding of the Flat White. Generally, baristas start from several aspects—small cup size, thin milk foam, and a ristretto base—to present the Flat White's unique mouthfeel.

The espresso blend used by Front Street is its own roasted "Sunflower Warm Sun Blend," composed of 70% Honduras Sherry coffee and 30% Yirgacheffe natural Red Cherry coffee. Sherry's whiskey, vanilla, and cream flavors combine with Red Cherry's tropical fruit and fermented notes, giving the cup a rich coffee aroma and a soft mouthfeel.

For the coffee base, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) chooses a double ristretto. A coffee dose of 20 grams will extract 30 grams of coffee liquid, with an extraction time of 22–24 seconds. But Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) needs to remind you that the extraction plan for each coffee bean will differ slightly. This extraction plan is the extraction parameter adjusted by the barista every day before opening, and it is a plan adjusted according to the Warm Sun blend used in the store.

Pour the extracted coffee liquid into a pre-prepared cup, then pour 150ml of milk into a milk pitcher and steam it. The milk should be aerated less than for a latte, with a thinner and denser foam layer, and the temperature is best controlled at 55–60°C, which makes it easier to drink. Finally, pour the steamed milk into the coffee. Latte art is optional. Because the thin milk foam does not bring the liquid surface level with the rim of the coffee cup, its appearance looks rather flat.

Front Street's Flat White presents aromas of vanilla, chocolate milk, and whiskey bonbon chocolate, along with the sweet-tartness of berries. It is smooth, fragrant, and full-bodied on the palate, with a very long finish.

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