What is Flat Red Coffee? What's the Difference Between Flat Red and Flat White Coffee?

Most of us are familiar with Flat White coffee — but have you heard of Flat Red? (This writer hadn't either.)

While scrolling through videos recently, I noticed many international coffee bloggers making a red coffee drink that's trending. I'd call it the coffee version of a Bloody Mary... just kidding!

Translated literally, this coffee would be called "Flat Red," just as Flat White is translated literally. But following the naming pattern of Flat White — dubbed "Australian White" because it was invented in the Australia-New Zealand region — Flat Red was invented in Ukraine, so it should really be called...

"I know! Ukrainian Red Coffee!"

-Excellent!

But after tasting it, the name "Spiced Red Wine Americano" kept echoing in the barista's head... The reason will become clear as you read on.

What is Flat Red?

Just as Flat White was born because consumers in the Australia-New Zealand region wanted a milk coffee with a stronger coffee flavor — leading cafes to build drinks distinct from the balanced, smooth latte, using stronger coffee and thinner milk foam — Flat Red was driven by people in Ukraine wanting a coffee with special flavors. Some cafes set out to create a product that would catch the eye visually and leave a memorable impression on the palate.

In Ukraine, red wine is hugely popular among local consumers, and a light red is a beloved color. So coffee shops began researching an alcohol-free coffee with a wine-like color and taste — sweet, sour, and rich.

Vadym Granovskiy, the barista who invented Flat Red, explained that the red component was initially blood orange juice. But freshly squeezed blood orange juice carries noticeable bitterness from the citrus peel, which adds an astringent edge beneath the sweet-and-sour notes when mixed with coffee.

Citrus juices do blend exceptionally well with coffee, though — so pomegranate juice replaced blood orange as the red component, with orange juice added to boost the sweet-and-sour sensation and give Flat Red a richer texture. Heated together, the pomegranate-and-orange mixture even develops a wine-like body with a subtle fermented aroma.

When the drink launched, local consumers immediately embraced it and shared photos, and Flat Red quickly spread through cafes across Ukraine.

Frankly, this coffee has little to do with Flat White — the only shared trait is the thin layer of silky foam, which is where the word "Flat" comes in for both.

How to Make Flat Red?

Following the recipe circulating online, FrontStreet Coffee recreated it.

Flat Red uses freshly squeezed pomegranate and orange juice. With limited equipment in the shop, the barista squeezed the fresh pomegranate and orange juice at home before work, mixing them in a 1:1 ratio.

(What the barista didn't expect: since pomegranate season hasn't arrived yet, the juice came out only lightly red. Once the fresh orange juice went in, it turned outright orange-red...

For the espresso component, a double shot was used — brewed from FrontStreet Coffee's longtime partner, the Sunflower Warm Sunshine Blend, which naturally produces fermented wine aromas and berry-like sweet-and-sour notes when extracted.

The preparation: (Today's espresso extraction parameters) 19.8g of coffee grounds to extract 38g of espresso over 28 seconds, poured into a 200ml glass cup and set aside.

Next, add 160g of the mixed juice to a milk pitcher, steam it to about 55°C, and create a thin layer of delicate foam. Finally, combine the heated juice with the espresso.

Overall, it really does taste like spiced red wine! The first sip is like lightly fermented pomegranate wine lifted by orange's sweet-and-sour notes, followed by the nutty flavors of coffee and liqueur-filled chocolate.

However, this Flat Red is seasonal. Right now isn't peak pomegranate season, and we couldn't find pomegranates with ruby-red flesh — the juice was only lightly red, so after adding orange juice, the red hue wasn't particularly prominent.

Made during the pomegranate harvest peak, the coffee's sweet-and-sour balance and pomegranate aroma would be fuller, and the color would lean much closer to red.

- END -

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If you love the Flat White family, the real Flat White is worth mastering too. A proper Flat White comes down to three essentials: less milk, thinner foam, and a stronger coffee presence — an "upgraded latte" with small volume and a bold espresso character. FrontStreet Coffee's recipe: extract only the Ristretto front-middle section (20g of coffee to 32g of espresso, 22-25 seconds) and pair it with 160ml of fresh cold milk, steamed to 50-55°C with foam kept to a uniform 0.3cm.

For beans, choose espresso coffees with a strong flavor signature: the butter-and-cheese-toned FrontStreet Classic Blend is mellow, low-acid, and richly crema'd — excellent with milk — while the low-bitterness Strawberry Candy espresso blend, full of grape and blueberry notes, turns a Flat White into something like a strawberry milkshake.