Flat White Coffee Making Method Tutorial - Is Luckin's Flat White Good? Taste Characteristics Description

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The Flat White has become one of the most popular items on domestic café menus in recent years, largely thanks to Starbucks' promotion. You might find this surprising—doesn't Starbucks clearly not have this product? They only have something called "Flat White." That's right, they don't—the Flat White is indeed the Flat White coffee, with many Chinese translations such as "Australian White Coffee," "Little White Coffee," and "Fuyi White Coffee."

As its name suggests, Flat White coffee originates from Australia, though some have also claimed that Flat White coffee comes from New Zealand. Both regions claim Flat White as their own because they both offer coffee made with espresso combined with a small amount of heated, steamed milk, though there are differences in espresso extraction. While it's unclear which region's coffee shop first offered this rich milk coffee, it became extremely popular in the Australian region.

Why is Flat White Coffee So Popular?

Flat White coffee can be said to be a product of the third wave of coffee. During a time when everyone pursued the flavor layers of coffee itself, some baristas created a product with more coffee and less milk so that consumers who like drinking milk could also experience the flavor layers in coffee. Milk not only doesn't mask the coffee's inherent flavors, but heating milk brings its own sweet aroma, which, when combined with coffee, not only preserves the coffee's flavor layers and the milk's sweetness but also creates new flavors from the fusion of milk and coffee.

For example, when a coffee bean is extracted into espresso, it might exhibit berry-like sweetness and acidity. Adding heated milk can then create a strawberry milkshake-like flavor. Besides creating more flavor experiences, the fine, dense milk foam also enriches the coffee's texture.

The Difference Between Flat White Coffee and Latte Coffee

An authentic Flat White coffee only has a total volume of 3oz (about 100ml), while latte coffee typically has 10oz (about 300ml). Flat White coffee can be understood as espresso with a small amount of hot milk added, while latte coffee can be understood as a small amount of espresso added to a glass of milk.

The espresso extraction used for these two milk coffees also differs. Latte coffee uses Espresso (regular/standard espresso), while Flat White coffee uses Ristretto (concentrated espresso). The biggest difference between them is that when using the same weight, grinding parameters, and coffee machine for extraction, Ristretto extraction takes less time than Espresso, resulting in higher concentration and more concentrated coffee flavors.

How to Extract Ristretto Concentrated Espresso?

Take FrontStreet Coffee's store-made "Sunflower Warm Sun Blend Coffee Beans" as an example—this is an Italian-style comprehensive coffee bean made from 70% Honduras Sherry coffee beans and 30% Ethiopia Yirgacheffe natural coffee beans.

In FrontStreet Coffee's daily production of lattes and Americanos, the espresso extraction parameters are 19.5-20g of coffee grounds, extracting 35-38g of coffee liquid over 25-30 seconds. When making Flat White coffee, the same amount of grounds is used to extract 30g of coffee, with the time also reduced by 3-5 seconds.

Don't think that this 5-8g difference in coffee liquid doesn't seem significant—after espresso extraction is complete, it typically exhibits rich fermented aroma, berry juice fusion with sweet and sour notes, vanilla cream, and nut caramel flavors, while concentrated espresso will display fermented wine aroma, lemon-like acidity, vanilla, and caramel flavors.

Ristretto's body richness isn't as strong as Espresso's, but its acidity is higher, and when paired with heated milk, the coffee can express more noticeable sweetness.

Why is Luckin's Flat White Such a Large Cup? Does it Taste Good?

To meet consumer demands while catering to the general public's acceptance of coffee flavors, chain coffee shops typically offer larger cups of Flat White coffee and also provide cold Flat Whites, but they distinguish them from latte coffee by being made with concentrated espresso.

Although compared to the 100ml Flat White coffee, Luckin's Flat White coffee overall tastes relatively milder, as a daily beverage, Luckin Coffee's Flat White is still quite good.

Important Notice :

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