What is Flat White Coffee? Starbucks Flat White vs Australian White Coffee Comparison

You might find the term "flat white" unfamiliar, but anyone who has been to Starbucks surely knows "Fu Rui White." In fact, names like "Xiaobai Coffee," "Fu Rui White," "Chun Yi White," "Ao Rui White," and "Australian White" all refer to flat white. It originated from Oceania (Australia), which is why it's also called Australian white coffee. FrontStreet Coffee will help you understand the relationship between Australian white coffee, latte, and cappuccino.

What is Australian White Coffee?

Flat white is a coffee beverage that originated in Australia. However, some people later claimed that flat white actually originated in New Zealand. New Zealanders prefer to use Double Ristretto, while their Australian counterparts use Single Espresso. Flat white is the fusion of fine, delicate microfoam with a single espresso shot or double Ristretto.

How Does It Compare to Other Milk Coffees?

When it comes to Australian white coffee, we always compare it with latte and cappuccino. Since they are all milk coffees, what are the differences between them?

We can see the differences between them from the birth of Flat white.

In New Zealand, cappuccino has too much foam and almost no liquid milk, and is considered a children's drink because it's usually sprinkled with chocolate shavings. Milk from Australia and New Zealand comes from free-range organic cows. Both countries are dotted with dairy farms, which is unique to these two nations. New Zealand's milk has a very high fat content, which can form large, stiff foam. Therefore, New Zealand's cappuccino has a texture similar to cotton candy - smooth and soft. Imagine if you wanted to drink a milk coffee - clearly, New Zealand's cappuccino wouldn't be the best choice for adults.

What about latte then? Surely that would work, but in New Zealand, whether hot or iced, latte has almost no foam and is considered a weak drink for intellectuals, political liberals, and mothers. Moreover, New Zealand's latte is latte in the broad sense - it simply means coffee with milk, with proportions entirely up to the shop. It evolved from a large cup of cold milk poured into a shot of espresso, then to a small macchiato, and then to a large bowl of coffee. Its variations are unexpected to customers.

The Evolution of Flat White

The evolution of flat white - ordinary New Zealanders initially didn't get a satisfactory pure white coffee from cafes. Therefore, the evolution of flat white was likely like this:

Customer: "I'd like a 'white coffee'"
Cafe: Gives the customer a cappuccino
Customer: "That has too much foam. Can I have a pure milk coffee?"
Cafe: Gives the customer a latte
Customer: "The coffee flavor is weak and there's too much milk. Can I have a coffee with more foam than latte but less than cappuccino?"
Cafe: Gives the customer a coffee with evenly mixed foam and milk
Customer: "Perfect! I want to call this 'flat white'."

The origin of "flat white" is still not particularly clear. This term may have come from dozens or even hundreds of such small cafe interactions, where cafe owners gradually understood what kind of coffee customers really wanted. Now flat white is popular in London, New York, and Berlin. It initially started as an attempt to remake a plunger coffee with a little milk.

Thus emerged the Australian national-level coffee beverage - Flat white, also known as Australian white (milk) coffee. In fact, you can see the Australian-style latte coffee.

Understanding the Differences

Therefore, Australian white coffee is a coffee that highlights the coffee flavor. Latte is a coffee drink with a large amount of milk added, while cappuccino is a milk coffee with thicker foam. The foam thickness ranks as: cappuccino has the thickest, latte comes second, and Australian white coffee has the thinnest foam. So Australian white coffee feels more like a coffee with milk; latte is like coffee-flavored milk; cappuccino is like a dense foam milk coffee.

Why is Australian White Coffee So Popular?

We can't help but wonder why Australian white coffee has become so popular domestically and even worldwide? Australian white coffee is a permanent fixture on almost every cafe's menu.

As we learned earlier, Australian white coffee has thinner foam and less milk compared to latte and cappuccino, making the coffee flavor more prominent. Therefore, Australian white coffee is more selective in its choice of coffee beans. If you choose a high-quality coffee bean as the base for Australian white coffee, you'll create a drink that better highlights the inherent flavors of the coffee itself.

Conversely, if you choose a poor-quality bean as the base for Australian white coffee, its flaws will be easily detected.

Australian white coffee is therefore better than latte at showcasing the quality of coffee beans and is more suitable for expressing the flavor characteristics of the coffee's origin region. This is much like the currently very popular SOE (Single Origin Espresso), which caters to the third wave of coffee culture's emphasis on coffee origins and tracing back to the source. However, ultimately, as long as you choose high-quality coffee beans and milk, the resulting Australian white coffee, latte, or cappuccino will all be very delicious coffee drinks.

How to Make Flat White Australian White Coffee?

Let me share FrontStreet Coffee's Flat white recipe today. The coffee beans used are FrontStreet Coffee's Sunflower Warmth Blend, which consists of 70% Honduras Sherry and 30% Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry. It has a very fragrant sherry wine note, high sweetness, and flavors of vanilla and cream.

For the base, Frontsteet chose espresso, using 20 grams of coffee powder to extract 27 grams of espresso liquid in 20 seconds.

Next, steam the milk. For the cup, FrontStreet Coffee chooses a 180ml ceramic cup. The milk foam should be as minimal and thin as possible. Pour the steamed milk into the espresso, blending until eight-tenths full, then gently create a pattern. Because Flat white foam is relatively thin, patterns can easily lose shape, so it's recommended to make simpler heart patterns or a dot pattern, or skip latte art entirely.

The Australian white coffee made with the Warmth Blend presents rich aromas of vanilla, chocolate milk, and whiskey-filled chocolate, with a hint of berry acidity. It enters the mouth smoothly and mellowly, with a very long-lasting aftertaste.

Important Notice :

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