Starbucks Flat White: What is it, how many espresso shots, how to order for the best taste, and is it high in calories?

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After Starbucks introduced their new coffee product "Flat White" in 2012, it once became the favorite of Starbucks enthusiasts. It has the silky texture of a latte and the rich taste of a cappuccino. For coffee lovers who want their milk coffee to be more intense, Flat White is a wise choice.

What is Flat White?

Flat White is actually a hybrid coffee between latte and cappuccino. It's also based on espresso mixed with milk, has double espresso like a cappuccino, and possesses the fine steam foam with a slight sheen found in lattes, but it's thinner and lightly covers the top of the coffee. Flat White has the rich aroma of a cappuccino and lighter, dense milk foam than a latte, making it the perfect ratio in the hearts of heavy caffeine addicts.

The name "Flat White" is a direct translation of the English pronunciation, and it's Starbucks' exclusive translation for this beverage, which has also been registered as a trademark. Other coffee brands and coffee shops call this coffee "Australian White Coffee."

The Origin of Flat White Coffee

However, if you don't understand the cultural background behind Flat White, you might think it's just another beverage made with milk and espresso. In fact, Flat White comes from the New Zealand and Australia region, which focused on specialty coffee culture in the 1980s. After World War II, a large number of European immigrants introduced Italian espresso. Since then, independent of European and American culture, while inheriting the third wave revolution, they developed their own unique coffee extension beverages, such as Flat White, ristretto, piccolo, and other special items.

Specialty coffee research on origins and processing methods mostly uses light roasting to preserve the unique fruit aromas and flavors of coffee beans from different origins, and is hand-brewed. Therefore, it places more emphasis on the barista's craft and unique latte art techniques. In the process from roasting to brewing, slight differences can create different flavors. Even the same batch of coffee beans will have different personal flavors due to different baristas handling them.

How to Make Flat White Coffee, How Many Shots of Espresso?

Starbucks uses 2/3/4 shots of refined espresso in Flat White coffee. Refined espresso is also a type of Italian espresso, but compared to the Italian espresso used for making lattes and Americanos, refined espresso has a higher concentration. This is also the secret why Flat White has a more intense coffee flavor among milk coffee products of the same size.

How to Make Refined Espresso?

Refined espresso (Ristretto) refers to Italian concentrated espresso. Ristretto means "restricted," and we can understand it as "restricting" the coffee extraction amount, taking only the first middle part of the espresso, thereby increasing the coffee concentration.

For example, FrontStreet Coffee's espresso extraction plan is to extract 40g of coffee liquid from 20g of coffee grounds, with a ground-to-liquid ratio of 1:2, taking 30 seconds. For extracting Ristretto, only 70% of the espresso is extracted, which means extracting 28g of coffee liquid from 20g of coffee grounds, and the time will be shortened accordingly. Additionally, you can also make the coffee grind finer to slow down the flow rate, making the coffee liquid more concentrated. Since each coffee shop will make different adjustments according to the coffee beans used and the specific flavor profile the barista wants to present.

How to Make Flat White Coffee

FrontStreet Coffee's daily store offerings for Australian White Coffee use 28-30g of refined espresso liquid, paired with about 180ml of steamed milk with 0.5cm thick foam, and mixed evenly.

Is Flat White High in Calories?

Flat White is milk + refined espresso. The calories in coffee are relatively small, but the calories in milk are not insignificant. You can approximately think of yourself as drinking a glass of whole milk. Whole milk has a fat content of 3.0%, semi-skimmed milk has a fat content of about 1.5%, and fully skimmed milk has a fat content as low as 0.5%. For friends who want to lose weight, Flat White can be the first choice, as its ingredients only contain coffee and milk, making the calories much lower in comparison.

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