Luckin Premium Flat White: An Exploration of This Coffee's Quality and Flavor Profile - Comparing with Cappuccino

Every winter when temperatures drop, the production rate of hot milk coffee at FrontStreet Coffee significantly increases, including lattes, cappuccinos, flat whites, and more. Compared to these two classic beverages, flat white coffee is a relatively recent "internet sensation." Most people became familiar with this drink through chain brands like Starbucks or Luckin, where it appears on their menus as "Flat White" or "Australian Flat White."

What is Flat White Coffee?

Flat White originated in New Zealand and Australia, where Australians call it "Flat White." Before the 1970s, Australian coffee shops primarily used French presses, manual drip methods, and other techniques to brew black coffee. In the early 1970s, Italians brought espresso machines to Australia, officially launching a new wave of coffee culture.

Legend has it that the birth of Flat White occurred when a barista accidentally created foam that was too thin while preparing a hot milk coffee, but still served it. Unexpectedly, the customer loved this coffee beverage with its delicate foam. Later, people named it "Flat White" based on its liquid surface being level with the cup rim.

The original intention behind Flat White was to ensure that with every sip, drinkers could experience the perfect combination of foam and the underlying coffee milk. This is only possible when the foam is extremely dense, relatively thin, and the milk coffee temperature is slightly lower, allowing one to taste the foam with every sip and finish the drink quickly before the foam separates. Therefore, when making Flat White, one must first have super dense foam, followed by foam that isn't too thick, moderate milk temperature, and a small cup size.

Flat White's Base is Ristretto Espresso

FrontStreet Coffee's espresso is made using their house-roasted "Sunflower Warm Sun Blend," which consists of 70% Honduras Sherry coffee and 30% Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry coffee. The whiskey, vanilla, and cream flavors of the Sherry blend with the tropical fruits and fermented notes of the Red Cherry create a rich and smooth cup of coffee. FrontStreet Coffee maintains the characteristics of small cup size, thin foam, and double ristretto espresso as the base when preparing Flat White.

Ristretto means "restricted" in Italian, and ristretto coffee can be seen as a "restricted" version of espresso, using only the front and middle portions of the espresso extraction. Since most espresso drinks in the shop use espresso as the base, FrontStreet Coffee's baristas use standard extracted espresso as reference before opening daily. The extraction parameters for each coffee bean will have slight variations. These extraction parameters are adjusted daily by baristas before opening and are based on the Warm Sun Blend used in the shop.

FrontStreet Coffee's espresso extraction plan: 20 grams of coffee powder extracts 40 grams of coffee liquid in 28-30 seconds. For ristretto, without changing the grind size and powder amount, 20 grams of coffee powder extracts 27 grams of coffee liquid in 20-25 seconds. Since ristretto contains only the front and middle portions of the espresso, its concentration is higher than espresso, with a stronger taste and less caffeine content. In terms of flavor, it exhibits more intense berry acidity, wine aroma, and caramel notes.

The extracted coffee liquid is poured into a pre-prepared approximately 200ml capacity cup, and 150ml of milk is poured into the milk pitcher for frothing. The milk frothing requires less air intake than latte coffee, with a thinner and denser foam layer, preferably controlled at 55-60 degrees Celsius for better drinking experience. Finally, the frothed milk is evenly blended into the coffee liquid, with or without latte art. FrontStreet Coffee's Flat White presents aromas of vanilla, cream, chocolate milk, whiskey-filled chocolate, along with the sweet and sour of berries, creating a mellow, aromatic, and rich mouthfeel with a very long aftertaste.

Which Tastes Better: Flat White or Cappuccino?

Friends who frequently drink milk coffee may have noticed that Flat White, hot latte, and cappuccino—these three common beverages—are all made only from espresso and frothed hot milk, yet they result in different tastes, textures, and appearances.

Usually, the thickness of the foam is our main reference factor for distinguishing Flat White from other milk coffees. Baristas make cappuccino using one shot of espresso liquid and thick foam, typically presenting a "hamburger-style" layer 1-2cm thick, requiring one to first inhale the foam before drinking the coffee liquid. Latte coffee's foam is slightly thinner, about 0.5cm thick, allowing one to taste the combination of coffee liquid and milk foam with every sip.

To better taste the coffee liquid and emphasize the smooth "velvet-like" texture, Flat White's foam is the thinnest. Some baristas even filter away the foam layer, keeping only the coffee liquid, hoping to produce a Flat White unaffected by the taste of cream. So how thin should the foam layer be? Initially, there were no fixed numerical indicators. As this drink became increasingly popular, to distinguish it from regular hot lattes and cappuccinos, the thin foam of Flat White was defined as approximately 0.3cm-0.5cm.

FrontStreet Coffee believes that everyone has unique preferences for coffee, so there's no question of which is better—just choose the coffee type you like. If you want a balanced taste of coffee and milk, you can choose a hot latte; if you hope to taste the full aroma of coffee beans, we recommend ordering a Flat White coffee; if you want both rich coffee flavor and the experience of thick foam texture, cappuccino couldn't be more suitable.

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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