Flat White vs. Latte: Understanding the Differences in Luckin Coffee's Recipes

Whenever a coffee chain launches a new drink, curious drinkers rush to try it, and many want to recreate it at home. Enthusiasts often ask FrontStreet Coffee how. When Luckin introduced its Flat White, for example, the rich coffee aroma combined with dense milk foam created a thick, silky texture. Let's follow FrontStreet Coffee into this drink.

Are Luckin's Flat White and Starbucks' Flat White the Same Coffee?

Regular coffee drinkers may have noticed that the drink called Flat White at one chain goes by a different name at another, and Guangzhou's local brand JPG gives it the cuter name "Little White." They all refer to the same beverage, Flat White, which FrontStreet Coffee's baristas also simply call that.

As our fondness for Flat White has grown, we have begun to summarize its traits to understand how to make it. Baristas want every sip to combine milk foam and the coffee-milk beneath it. Only when the foam is extremely dense and relatively thin, and the coffee-milk temperature is a touch lower, can every sip carry foam and the drink be finished before the foam separates. A Flat White, then, should have super-dense foam, foam that is not too thick, a moderate milk temperature, and a small cup size.

Is There a Difference Between a Flat White and a Hot Latte?

Anyone who has had a Flat White at FrontStreet Coffee will notice the coffee tastes richer than a latte, the foam is thinner, and the cup is smaller so it can be finished more quickly.

Latte foam is typically about 0.5cm thick, creating a slightly domed full-cup effect once combined with espresso for latte art. Flat White foam is the thinnest and must be kept within 0.3cm, or the "flat" surface is hard to achieve. Exact foam thickness varies by shop; some baristas, wanting customers to taste as much of the coffee crema as possible, do not froth the milk at all and simply heat and pour it into the espresso. FrontStreet Coffee, however, wants a Flat White that is creamy and smooth without feeling watery, so it keeps a 0.3cm foam layer.

When making lattes, shops have their own coffee-to-milk ratios. A Flat White more often sets its milk amount by cup size. To present a richer coffee flavor, New Zealand baristas serve Flat White in small 150 to 180ml cups; with the same amount of coffee and less milk, the coffee proportion rises and the flavor intensifies naturally.

With the arrival of the specialty coffee era, people also began applying more single-origin coffees to espresso, what we commonly call SOE, or Single Origin Espresso. Compared with a large latte or a thick-foamed cappuccino, a Flat White better expresses the regional flavors of the beans themselves. In Melbourne coffee shops, baristas replace the espresso base with a double Ristretto, incorporating foam of about latte thickness in a 150ml cup. FrontStreet Coffee likewise replaces the base with a double Ristretto on top of its house espresso blend.

What Is Ristretto?

Ristretto means "restricted" in Italian and is also called Italian strong espresso. It can be thought of as a restricted espresso, using only the front to middle portion of the extraction, for a stronger taste and a more concentrated flavor.

FrontStreet Coffee's espresso-based drinks are mostly built on Espresso, so before opening each day its baristas use a standard extracted Espresso as a reference. Every bean's extraction recipe varies slightly; this recipe is adjusted by the baristas before daily service and is based on the store's "Sunshine Blend."

FrontStreet Coffee's Espresso recipe: 20g of grounds extracted to 40g of liquid in 28 to 30 seconds. For Ristretto, without changing grind size or dose, 20g of grounds extracts 27g of liquid in 20 to 25 seconds. Because Ristretto contains only the front to middle portion of the espresso, it is more concentrated, more intense in flavor, lower in caffeine, and shows richer berry acidity, wine aroma, and caramel notes.

FrontStreet Coffee's Flat White Parameters

FrontStreet Coffee's espresso drinks use its house-roasted "Sunflower Sunshine Blend," composed of 70% Honduras Sherry coffee and 30% Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry coffee. The sherry's whiskey, vanilla, and cream flavors, combined with the red cherry's tropical fruit and fermented notes, create a rich yet smooth cup.

FrontStreet Coffee keeps the Flat White hallmarks of a small cup, thin foam, and a double Ristretto base. It uses a smaller ceramic cup of about 200ml, smaller than a hot latte, and pours the freshly extracted double Ristretto into it. FrontStreet Coffee believes the milk should not be excessive, or it would overpower the rich coffee aroma, so the coffee-to-milk ratio here is 1:5, or roughly 150ml of fresh milk.

To keep that creamy, non-watery character, FrontStreet Coffee maintains the 0.3cm foam layer, which means frothing with less air incorporation than a latte. It also believes milk temperature is best controlled at 55 to 60C, which highlights sweetness without being too hot. Finally, the frothed milk is evenly incorporated into the coffee for serving.

FrontStreet Coffee's Flat White presents aromas of vanilla, cream, chocolate milk, and whiskey-filled chocolates, along with berry sweetness and acidity. The first sip is fragrant, rich, and mellow, with an exceptionally long aftertaste.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Australia and New Zealand still argue over where the Flat White was born, but everyone agrees it is a milk coffee from the Southern Hemisphere, and however a shop varies its recipe, three rules hold: less milk, thin foam, and a strong coffee flavor. A good Flat White starts with a bean that has a clear flavor signature, because the milk is there to support it rather than dilute it.

For home brewing, FrontStreet Coffee suggests the butter-and-cheese character of FrontStreet Classic Blend: mellow and low in acid, with full, delicate crema that makes a wonderfully rich milk coffee. If you prefer floral and fruity notes, FrontStreet Strawberry Candy Espresso Blend has very low bitterness and, on extraction, a full grape and blueberry flavor with balanced sweet acidity, so a Flat White made with fresh milk tastes like a strawberry milkshake.

FrontStreet Coffee itself makes its Flat White with the Specialty Blend to foreground the coffee. It pulls only the front and middle of the shot as a Ristretto base, using 20g of grounds extracted to 32g of liquid in 22 to 25 seconds, then pairs it with 160ml of fresh milk. As with a latte or cappuccino, the foam should be smooth and fine, but thinner: the thinner foam calls for a short air-intake time, just 1 to 2 seconds, before sinking the steam wand and building a vortex until the temperature reaches 50 to 55C. Even finished, the cup stays silky and delicate, and the first sip brings the creamy hazelnut and white chocolate notes of the Specialty Blend, rich but never heavy.