The Relationship Between Flat White and Latte: Which to Choose for Weight Loss

Besides lattes and cappuccinos, there's another specialty coffee that's trending in cafes worldwide, called Flat White. In China, it has many translated names: Chun Yi Bai, Ao Rui Bai, Xiao Bai, Ping Bai, Ao Bai... It was Starbucks that added it to their menu in 2015 that made this drink known to the Chinese people.

The Hometown of Flat White is Australia

If you want to drink milk coffee, in Italy you would order a latte, while in Australia, baristas would make you a Flat White. Here, milk coffee is called Flat White. In the 1980s, Italians who immigrated to Australia brought espresso machines to countries like New Zealand, Australia, and Melbourne. At that time, traditional specialty coffees were mainly lattes and cappuccinos, but Australians preferred a stronger coffee flavor and lighter foam, so the Flat White was born. Shortly after, it appeared on the fixed menus of European and American countries, becoming a standard offering in major cafes.

When the foam on milk coffee becomes increasingly flat until it turns into a thin layer, completely level with the cup's rim, it's named Flat White. "Flat" means "level," and "White" refers to the white coffee with milk added. Flat White highlights the coffee flavor by adding milk - coffee is the protagonist, and milk is just an accessory. Therefore, in terms of taste, Flat White has a more abundant and intense coffee flavor. Additionally, the light upper foam ensures that every sip of strong coffee is accompanied by a velvety dense foam layer. The moderate temperature and smaller cup size allow for quick consumption before the foam layers separate.

New Zealand baristas present Flat White in smaller cups. With the same amount of coffee but less milk, the proportion of coffee increases, naturally making the coffee flavor more intense. In Australia, baristas believe that Flat White only needs to maintain thinner foam than a latte. When making Flat White, they use cups of the same capacity as lattes, focusing more on maintaining a thin foam layer of 0.3-0.5cm. Melbourne baristas also replace the base with double-shot ristretto (using only the front and middle portions), incorporating foam of similar thickness to a latte in a 150ml cup.

Delicious Flat White Means Higher Quality Coffee

In the past, most coffee shops popularized dark-roasted Italian blend coffee beans, pursuing a rich, balanced, and caramelized taste. When paired with hot milk, it achieves a balance - you can taste both the coffee flavor and the sweet, mellow taste of milk, with both complementing each other without masking the other's flavor.

With the arrival of the specialty coffee era, people began to pursue single-origin coffees with more prominent flavors, and increasingly applied single-origin beans to espresso extraction, which is what we often hear as SOE (Single Origin Espresso) - espresso made from coffee beans of a single origin. Compared to large-volume lattes and cappuccinos with thick foam, Flat White not only requires high-quality coffee beans and proper extraction but also needs finely textured thin foam, making it more suitable for expressing the regional flavors of the coffee beans themselves. FrontStreet Coffee believes that the reason Flat White is increasingly pursued by people indicates that everyone's pursuit of coffee quality is getting higher and higher.

Rather than emphasizing the differences between Flat White and other specialty coffees, FrontStreet Coffee believes that the key is to present it based on the characteristics of their own coffee beans and their understanding of Flat White. FrontStreet Coffee uses their own roasted Italian blend called "Sunflower Warm Sunshine Blend," which combines 70% Honduras Sherry coffee with 30% Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry coffee. The whiskey, vanilla, and cream flavors of Sherry paired with the tropical fruit and fermented notes of Red Cherry create a rich aroma and smooth taste in the cup.

For the coffee base, FrontStreet Coffee会选择双份的精粹浓缩咖啡（Double Ristretto）, using 20 grams of coffee powder to extract 30 grams of coffee liquid, with an extraction time of 22-24 seconds. However, FrontStreet Coffee needs to remind you that the extraction plan for each coffee bean will have slight differences. This extraction plan is adjusted daily by baristas before business hours and is based on the Warm Sunshine Blend used in the store.

The extracted coffee liquid is poured into a prepared cup, and 150ml of milk is poured into a milk pitcher for frothing. The milk needs to be frothed with less air than a latte, resulting in a thinner and denser foam layer. The temperature should ideally be controlled between 55-60 degrees Celsius for better taste. Finally, the frothed milk is poured into the coffee. Whether latte art is created or not is fine - due to the thin foam not making the liquid level flush with the coffee cup, its appearance looks relatively flat.

FrontStreet Coffee's Flat White presents notes of vanilla, chocolate milk, whiskey-filled chocolate, and the sweet and sour of berries, with a smooth, mellow, and rich mouthfeel, and a very long-lasting aftertaste.

Can Flat White Be Made Iced?

Usually, when we drink latte coffee, we can choose to make it iced or hot, but Flat White is only offered hot. This is because baristas want everyone to experience the perfect combination of foam and the milk coffee underneath when drinking Flat White. Only when the foam is very dense, relatively thin, and at a suitable temperature for drinking can every sip simultaneously contain both foam and rich coffee liquid, allowing for quick consumption before the foam separates. After adding ice cubes, the cooled milk coffee will be diluted to some extent and cannot achieve the above effect.

If you're seeking an iced version of rich milk coffee, FrontStreet Coffee suggests trying "Dirty," which has become quite popular in recent years. Extracted espresso liquid is dripped over chilled fresh milk, presenting a "dirty" visual effect. The alternating hot and cold texture is very unique.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473