What is "Flat Red," the creative coffee from Ukraine? How is it made?

Introduction to Flat Red: Ukraine's Unique Coffee Creation

Since coffee culture exploded in wave after wave, many cafes have been striving to develop the next viral beverage. We've witnessed the surge in popularity of Frappuccinos, Flat Whites, Dirty Coffee, and more, but it seems no one talks much about a reddish-colored coffee beverage. Today, let FrontStreet Coffee introduce you to a coffee drink from Ukraine called "Flat Red"!

The Origins of Flat Red

Flat Red is a coffee beverage that few people know about outside its home country of Ukraine. Similar to the birth of Flat White, people in the Ukraine region are particularly fond of tasting red wine (consuming nearly 3.2 billion bottles annually), and many locals are enthusiastic about brewing their own red wine at home. Therefore, some cafes hoped to develop a non-alcoholic beverage that resembles both the color and taste of wine.

According to Flat Red's inventor Vadym Granovskiy, when initially developing this novel beverage, he chose not to add milk to make it more unique and interesting, and wanted to create a coffee drink with a light red appearance.

After trying to add Sicilian blood orange juice, it was found that freshly squeezed blood orange juice has obvious astringency, which creates an unpleasant experience when combined with coffee. However, citrus fruit juices pair exceptionally well with coffee, so pomegranate juice was used for the red component, along with seasonal orange juice sourced from countries like Turkey, India, and Israel. The combination of these two fruit juices not only brings richer sweet and sour flavors to the coffee but also creates a smooth texture similar to red wine when heated, along with a subtle fermented wine aroma.

Rise to Popularity in Ukraine

When Flat Red was served in the inventor's own cafe, customers could watch the barista hand-select, wash, cut, and prepare the fruits. These few minutes of preparation not only provided visual entertainment but also increased customer anticipation.

When the light red beverage was served and tasted, everyone was deeply attracted by its striking appearance and unique flavor. People took photos and shared them on social networks, and Flat Red quickly became popular throughout Ukraine. More and more Ukrainian cafes began offering Flat Red. Especially during Ukraine's long, cold winters, this warm coffee with fermented aromas and sweet-sour flavors became a highly recommended local beverage.

However, in the domestic market, Flat Red remains quite obscure and hasn't acquired a Chinese name like "Flat White" (澳白咖啡).

FrontStreet Coffee's Recreation of Flat Red

Based on Vadym's shared Flat Red recipe, FrontStreet Coffee couldn't wait to try this coffee's "depth"! Due to limited conditions, FrontStreet Coffee couldn't completely use fresh pomegranate and orange juice as Vadym emphasized, so we settled for bottled fresh juice. We mixed pomegranate juice and orange juice in a 1:1 ratio and chilled it in the refrigerator.

Extract a double shot of Espresso and pour it into a cup for later use. We still used "Sunflower Warm Sunshine Blend Espresso Beans," which, besides rich vanilla and cream aromas with berry flavors, also naturally contains slight whiskey aromas. Today's extraction parameters were: 19.8g of coffee powder extracted for 29 seconds to obtain 37g of coffee liquid.

Take the 1:1 mixed juice and pour about 160g into a milk pitcher. Use the steam wand to heat the juice to 55°C and create a thin layer of foam. The foam thickness should be about 0.3-0.5cm. (FrontStreet Coffee found during actual operation that creating dense foam is quite challenging, so do your best.)

Finally, pour the hot juice into the espresso and mix thoroughly. A Flat Red from Ukraine is perfectly recreated! From appearance, the only similarity between this coffee and Flat White is that both have a thin layer of foam that provides a silky texture. This might be why it uses the word "Flat" in its name.

Tasting Experience

Upon tasting, first comes the bright acidity of the orange juice, followed by full-bodied, rich fermented wine aromas. After swallowing, the lingering coffee aroma and fruit acidity with fermented notes are remarkably persistent. Since the orange juice FrontStreet Coffee selected still contains some fruit pulp, biting through these particles releases hot original orange juice, creating a full sensory experience.

Conclusion

So now you know about this coffee beverage from Ukraine called "Flat Red"? Interested friends should try recreating it!

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