Origins and Story of Flat White Coffee Brewing Ratio - Differences Between Flat White and Latte

Recently, a friend asked FrontStreet Coffee, "Excuse me, when making a Flat White, how much espresso and how much milk do I need?"

Italians are truly masters at crafting specialty coffees. They can create new products by pouring espresso over ice cream—what can't they do? That's right, by simply adjusting the ratio of coffee to milk, they can create entirely new products. Indeed, we're talking about the Flat White.

Some friends might wonder, "Wasn't the Flat White invented by Australians (or New Zealanders)?" Not so fast—here's roughly how the story goes. Early Australia and New Zealand were colonized by British and Irish people. Among them, some had coffee-drinking habits and brought their coffee culture to the region. Unlike today's specialty coffee shop offerings, they drank coffee in a home-style format, without complicated names—simply Black coffee and White coffee.

Black coffee was essentially filtered black coffee brewed with water. White coffee was black coffee with milk added, turning the coffee's color from black to milky white—hence, "white coffee."

After World War II, much of Europe lay in ruins (physically speaking), and Italy faced unemployment waves. Large numbers of Italians went to Latin America and Australia seeking livelihood opportunities. Most who went to Latin America and Australia came from northern Italy (where industrialization and urbanization levels were higher, while southern Italy was more agriculturally developed), bringing Italian-style coffee with them.

Any specialty product entering a local market must undergo localization to survive; otherwise, it's difficult to thrive. This can be verified in America—when Italians first opened Italian-style cafés in the United States, they initially copied the Italian approach exactly. However, Americans simply wouldn't accept such strong coffee, and so the "Americano" in Italian coffee was born. Similarly, even American-style Italian lattes would use a larger ratio of espresso to milk to make the coffee flavor less intense.

Returning to Australia, Italian cafés were educated by the market, understanding what kind of latte Australians needed. They wanted a latte with a stronger coffee flavor and one that wouldn't leave them with a mouthful of milk foam (which could lead to awkward social situations). The solution was simple: use less milk and less foam. Of course, after making these changes, a new name was needed to make people believe this was a different product. Because the foam became thinner, it couldn't reach the traditional 11/10 fullness—at most, it could be level with the cup's rim, hence the name "Flat White." "Flat" means "level," and "White" refers to the white coffee with milk added.

Later, second-generation Italian immigrants, evolving with the times, made the Flat White more distinctive compared to other milk-based coffees. For example, many coffee shops offer two or more types of Italian coffee beans. When making classic Italian lattes and cappuccinos, they might choose Italian-style blends, while for Flat Whites, they use single-origin beans or blends different from traditional Italian flavors to highlight the coffee characteristics in the Flat White.

When extracting the espresso base, some coffee shops don't limit themselves to standard espresso extraction methods. They use a richer extraction method, taking only the early to middle stages of espresso, known as ristretto. Because only the early to middle stages of espresso are used, although it's more concentrated, the quantity is smaller, making it difficult to highlight the coffee flavor when mixed with milk. The solution was rather straightforward—if one shot isn't enough, use two. This way, the quantity of double ristretto becomes similar to that of espresso.

It's important to emphasize here that Flat White coffee doesn't necessarily have to use double ristretto as its base. Some coffee shops choose espresso instead—the specific choice depends on the final flavor profile. However, as people urgently sought to distinguish between lattes and Flat Whites, many adopted different espresso bases as one distinguishing feature.

Therefore, a commonly used set of parameters for making Flat White today is approximately 30g of double ristretto, with milk added in a 1:5 ratio—that is, 150ml of milk, with foam as thin as possible. Using a 200ml capacity cup, the combination of espresso, milk, and the mixture of foam with coffee crema perfectly aligns with the rim of the 200ml cup.

A friend said: "I just wanted to know the coffee-to-milk ratio for a Flat White, but you told me a whole story!"

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