Which is Bitter: Starbucks Flat White or Americano? The Difference Between Flat White and Cappuccino

Whenever you visit any coffee shop, you can always find some very familiar items on the menu: Americano, Latte, Flat White... The reason these coffees are well-known in China is largely due to Starbucks' promotion. Since Starbucks launched the Flat White in 2020, it immediately became popular among Starbucks fans worldwide. What magic makes people love Flat White coffee so much? In this article, FrontStreet Coffee will discuss this rising star.

What is Flat White?

Flat White is actually a product that sits between a latte and a cappuccino. It's made with espresso as the base mixed with milk, featuring the double espresso shot of a cappuccino while having the delicate steamed milk foam with a subtle sheen like a latte, but it's thinner and lightly covers the top of the coffee. Flat White has the rich aroma of a cappuccino, lighter and denser milk foam than a latte, and lacks the bitter taste of Americano, making it the perfect ratio in the hearts of milk coffee lovers.

The Origin of Flat White Coffee

If you don't understand the cultural background behind Flat White, you might think it's just another milk and espresso drink.

In fact, Flat White comes from the Australia and New Zealand region, which focused on specialty coffee culture in the 1980s. After World War II, a large number of European immigrants introduced Italian espresso, and since then, independent of European and American culture while inheriting the third wave revolution, they developed their own unique coffee extension drinks, such as Flat white, ristretto, piccolo, and other specialty items.

Specialty coffee production regions and processing methods mostly use light roasting to preserve the unique fruit aromas and flavors from different coffee bean origins, and are hand-brewed, which places greater emphasis on the barista's craftsmanship and unique latte art skills. From roasting to brewing, slight differences can create different flavors, and even the same batch of coffee beans can have different personal flavors due to different baristas handling them.

The emergence of latte was perhaps hoping to reduce the bitterness of espresso through the natural sweetness and creaminess of milk itself. The appearance of Flat White, however, hopes to further elevate the flavor and texture of the coffee itself through the natural sweetness and creaminess of milk.

FrontStreet Coffee believes that the emergence of Flat White reflects the continuous improvement of coffee quality, people's pursuit of specialty coffee, and also reflects that more and more consumers are paying more attention to the coffee itself.

How to Make Flat White Coffee?

There are two ways to make Flat White coffee. One is a smaller portion, using 20g of espresso mixed with 80ml of hot milk with thin foam (0.5cm thick) to create a 100ml concentrated milk coffee.

The other is a larger portion, using 30g (double shot) of ristretto espresso mixed with 170ml of hot milk with thin foam (0.5cm thick) to create a 200ml finished milk coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee stores make Flat White coffee in a similar way to Starbucks, both using double shot ristretto espresso. FrontStreet Coffee daily uses a "Sunflower Warm Sunshine" blend coffee bean made from 30% sun-dried Yirgacheffe blended with 70% Honduras Sherry to extract espresso. Through FrontStreet Coffee's cupping, it was determined that this blend coffee bean expresses fermented wine aroma, berry sweet and sour, roasted nut aroma, and caramel sweetness.

To extract ristretto espresso, FrontStreet Coffee uses a 1:1.6 coffee-to-liquid ratio. Using 19-20g of coffee grounds to extract 30-32g of coffee liquid, with an extraction time of about 27-32 seconds. (Regular espresso uses a 1:2 coffee-to-liquid ratio, using 20g of coffee grounds to extract 40g of coffee liquid, with an extraction time of 28-32 seconds).

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473