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

Whenever a coffee chain launches a new beverage, curious friends flock to try it, even wanting to recreate it at home. Many enthusiasts ask FrontStreet Coffee how to make these drinks at home. For example, when Luckin introduced its Flat White, the rich coffee aroma combined with dense milk foam creates a thick, silky texture. Let's follow FrontStreet Coffee to explore this beverage～

Are Luckin Flat White and Starbucks Flat White the same coffee?

For those who regularly drink coffee, you might have noticed that what's called "Flat White" at Luckin is known as "Flat White" at Starbucks, "Flat White" at Costa, and has a cuter name "Little White" on the menu of Guangzhou's local coffee brand JPG. Without a doubt, they all refer to the same coffee beverage—Flat White, which FrontStreet Coffee's baristas also like to call "Flat White."

As our love for Flat White grows, we've begun to summarize its characteristics to better understand how to make it. First, baristas hope that when drinking Flat White, every sip allows you to experience the perfect combination of milk foam and the coffee milk beneath. Only when the milk foam is extremely dense, relatively thin, and the coffee milk temperature is slightly lower can you taste the foam with every sip and finish it quickly before the foam separates. Therefore, a Flat White should feature super dense milk foam, foam that isn't too thick, moderate milk temperature, and a small cup size.

Is there a difference between Flat White and Hot Latte?

Friends who have had Flat White at FrontStreet Coffee should notice that the coffee tastes richer than a latte, the foam thickness is thinner, and the cup size is smaller, allowing you to finish it more quickly.

Typically, latte foam is about 0.5cm thick, creating a slightly domed full-cup effect after being combined with espresso for latte art. Flat White foam, however, is the thinnest and must be controlled within 0.3cm; otherwise, it's difficult to achieve the "flat" liquid surface. Specific foam thickness varies by coffee shop. Some baristas, wanting customers to maximize their tasting of the upper coffee crema, don't froth the milk at all, simply heating and pouring it into the espresso. FrontStreet Coffee, however, wants customers to experience a Flat White that's creamy smooth without being too "watery," so they maintain a 0.3cm foam layer.

When making lattes, coffee shops have their own coffee-to-milk ratios. Flat White typically determines milk amount based on the cup size. To present a richer coffee flavor, New Zealand baristas serve Flat White in small 150-180ml cups. With the same amount of coffee but reduced milk, the coffee proportion increases, naturally intensifying the coffee flavor.

Additionally, with the arrival of the specialty coffee era, people began applying more single-origin coffees to espresso extraction—what we commonly hear as SOE (Single Origin Espresso). Compared to large lattes and cappuccinos with thick foam, Flat White is better suited to express the regional flavors of coffee beans themselves. In Melbourne coffee shops, baristas replace the espresso base with double Ristretto, incorporating foam of similar thickness to lattes in a 150ml cup. FrontStreet Coffee also replaces the base with double Ristretto based on their house espresso blend.

What is Ristretto coffee?

Ristretto means "restricted" in Italian and is also called Italian strong espresso. It can be considered a "restricted" version of espresso, typically taking only the front to middle portion of the espresso extraction, resulting in a stronger taste and more concentrated flavor.

FrontStreet Coffee's espresso-based beverages are mostly made with Espresso as the base, so FrontStreet Coffee's baristas use standard extracted Espresso as reference before opening. Each coffee bean's extraction recipe has slight variations—this recipe is adjusted by baristas before daily operations and is based on the "Sunshine Blend" used in the store.

FrontStreet Coffee's Espresso extraction recipe: 20g of coffee grounds extracted to 40g of coffee liquid, taking 28-30 seconds. For Ristretto, without changing grind size or dose, 20g of coffee grounds extracts 27g of coffee liquid in 20-25 seconds. Since Ristretto only contains the front to middle portion of espresso, it has higher concentration than Espresso, more intense flavor, less caffeine content, and presents richer berry acidity, wine aroma, and caramel flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee's Flat White parameters

FrontStreet Coffee's espresso beverages use their 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 fruits and fermentation notes create a rich yet smooth coffee experience in the cup.

FrontStreet Coffee maintains the Flat White characteristics of small cup size, thin foam, and double Ristretto as the base. FrontStreet Coffee uses a smaller ceramic cup of about 200ml capacity for Flat White (smaller than hot latte), pouring the freshly extracted double Ristretto. FrontStreet Coffee believes milk shouldn't be too much, otherwise it would overpower the rich coffee aroma, so the coffee-to-milk ratio here is 1:5, approximately 150ml of fresh milk.

FrontStreet Coffee wants customers to experience a Flat White that's creamy smooth without being too "watery," so they maintain a 0.3cm foam layer. Therefore, milk frothing requires less air incorporation than lattes to achieve such a thin foam layer. FrontStreet Coffee believes milk temperature should ideally be controlled at 55-60°C, which highlights sweetness without being too hot. Finally, the frothed milk is evenly incorporated into the coffee liquid for serving.

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

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