What is Starbucks Flat White? What's the Difference Between Starbucks Flat White and Latte Coffee - Which is Better and Which is More Bitter?

Flat White: The Rise of a Coffee Favorite

There is a milk coffee that goes by different names in various chain stores. At Starbucks, it's called "Flat White"; at Luckin Coffee, it's known as "Au Rui Bai"; and at JPG, they call it "Little White." This coffee is what we generally translate as Flat White coffee.

The Rise of Flat White

Flat White's popularity as a trending product wouldn't be possible without the promotion by chain coffee stores like Starbucks, which actually coined the name "Flat White." Although called by different names, every coffee shop's Flat White aims to present a richer coffee aroma. Therefore, baristas will create a delicious Flat White based on the coffee beans used by their establishment.

A freshly made Flat White should have delicate, minimal milk foam on top while still allowing the espresso's Crema to be visible. This way, the drinking experience delivers rich milk flavor, while the Crema brings out a distinct and pleasant coffee aroma, leaving a lingering aftertaste in your mouth. (Crema is the golden foam that floats on top when espresso is freshly extracted, often called oils)

In the 1980s, Italians began introducing espresso coffee to countries like Melbourne, Australia. In Australia, a freshly served latte typically comes with about 1cm of milk foam, slightly raised at the cup's edge, with a taste closer to coffee-flavored hot milk. Although cappuccino has a more intense coffee flavor, its thicker foam creates a 2cm high "dome," meaning the first sip is often mostly foam.

As people's demand for coffee increased, compared to the balanced taste of hot latte, Australians preferred to both taste the perfectly extracted espresso flavor and experience the sweet, thin, and dense milk foam in their coffee. Baristas then made adjustments to extraction, milk ratios, and foam thickness, gradually developing Flat White with more prominent coffee flavor. In 2015, Starbucks in China introduced this new milk coffee beverage, naming it "Flat White," and it soon became popular nationwide.

Differences Between Flat White and Latte

Both latte and Flat White belong to the category of milk coffeescoffee beverages made by mixing espresso with milk. However, their most fundamental difference lies in their flavor profile and texture.

Latte emphasizes achieving a balance between coffee and milk, allowing you to taste both the coffee flavor and the sweet, rich taste of milk, with both complementing each other without masking the other's taste. Flat White, on the other hand, adds milk to highlight the coffee flavor, where coffee is the protagonist and milk merely assists. Therefore, Flat White has a more abundant and intense coffee flavor.

Although Flat White has its own characteristics, there is no fixed preparation ratio. Baristas present this rich milk coffee in their own way, thus giving rise to two different preparation methods. One is based on double ristretto with a smaller proportion of steamed milk, presenting a rich texture; the other is made with single espresso, blended with thin milk foam to create what's called a "small latte." FrontStreet Coffee believes that to highlight the unique texture of Flat White, it should possess these characteristics: strong coffee, small cup size, and silky thin milk foam.

Compared to other hot milk coffees, Flat White has the thinnest foam, generally between 0.3-0.5cm. The "Flat" in Flat White means flatthe foam must be thin enough to be level with the cup's rim, not allowing the foam layer to dome, ensuring every sip of strong coffee comes with a dense foam layer. This is why Flat White is also called "Flat White Coffee." Most latte coffees will present a dome of about 0.5-0.7cm, while Flat White's foam must be below 0.5cm, otherwise it's difficult to achieve the "flat" liquid surface. FrontStreet Coffee wants customers to experience a cream-like smoothness that isn't too "watery," so we maintain a 0.3cm foam layer.

The Flavor of Flat White

FrontStreet Coffee believes the development of Flat White stems from everyone's pursuit of specialty coffee bean flavors and textures. Therefore, each coffee shop will present its own unique style based on the coffee beans used and their understanding of Flat White.

For example, FrontStreet Coffee uses its own house-roasted espresso blend called "Sunflower Warm Sun Blend," which consists of 70% Honduras Sherry coffee and 30% Yirgacheffe natural processed red cherry coffee. The sherry's whiskey, vanilla, and cream flavors paired with the tropical fruits and fermented notes of red cherry create a coffee that's rich in texture and smooth in the cup.

For the coffee base, FrontStreet Coffee chooses double ristretto, where 20 grams of coffee powder extracts 30 grams of coffee liquid in 25-27 seconds. However, FrontStreet Coffee needs to remind you that each coffee bean's extraction parameters will have slight differences. This extraction plan is adjusted by baristas before daily business and is based on the Warm Sun Blend used in the store.

The extracted coffee liquid is poured into a pre-prepared cup of about 200ml capacity. 150ml of milk is poured into a milk pitcher for frothing. The milk frothing requires less air than latte coffee, creating a thinner and denser foam layer, with temperature best controlled between 55-60 degrees Celsius for better mouthfeel. Finally, the frothed milk is evenly blended into the coffee liquid.

FrontStreet Coffee's Flat White presents the texture of chocolate milk and whiskey-filled chocolate, with a silky, fragrant, and rich mouthfeel, and an exceptionally long aftertaste.

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Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473