Is Iced Flat White Available? How to Make Flat White Coffee? What Does Flat White Mean? What's the Difference Between Flat White, Latte, and Cappuccino?

Although FrontStreet Coffee regularly shares many types of espresso coffee in its articles, friends who have visited the store know that FrontStreet Coffee's blackboard menu only features four types of espresso coffee. Popular espresso coffees like espresso, dirty, and flat white are not included on the menu. However, this doesn't mean FrontStreet Coffee doesn't make them. If you want to enjoy these coffees at FrontStreet Coffee, simply make a request to the staff at FrontStreet Coffee, and they will still prepare them for you.

The reason for setting them as hidden menu items is quite simple: these coffees have some special characteristics. For those who know coffee well, they basically order them without looking at the menu. But for friends who don't have a deep understanding of coffee, the existence of these special categories increases their difficulty in choosing. At the same time, it can easily lead to some special requests, such as—iced flat white, hot Dirty. When guests make such requests, they often get negative responses. This has made many friends curious: "I can understand why Dirty can't be made hot, but why isn't flat white made iced?"

Why Isn't Flat White Made Iced?

The answer is actually quite simple. We only need to know what the characteristics of flat white are and how it differs from other coffees to understand why flat white isn't made iced.

The Controversial Origins of Flat White

Flat white—it's a highly controversial espresso milk coffee. There are many aspects of controversy, such as the well-known dispute between New Zealand and Australia over flat white's place of origin. Then there are stories about its creation: some say flat white was developed because Australians didn't like thick milk foam; some say it was because milk fat back then was insufficient to create thick milk foam; and others say it was a beautiful mistake caused by a barista's error... In short, there are many different theories. Besides this, the translation of flat white and how it's made are also highly controversial topics. Tsk, this milk coffee is quite controversial...

Understanding Flat White's Characteristics

Setting aside the controversies, let's talk about flat white itself. The popular preparation method for flat white in China typically uses smaller cups than latte, generally around 180-200ml. Moreover, the milk foam is thinner, less than 0.5cm. Because of this, flat white not only has a richer coffee flavor but also a smoother texture. Compared to cappuccino, because flat white's milk foam is thin enough, with the same cup size, flat white doesn't emphasize the coffee flavor as much as cappuccino does. This is because it has more milk than cappuccino, so naturally it won't be as bitter. Therefore, we can see that flat white's characteristic lies in highlighting coffee flavor without making the coffee too bitter—striking a perfect balance between coffee and milk.

Why Flat White Isn't Served Iced

The secondary reason flat white isn't served as an iced drink is that when it was first invented, flat white was only available as a hot drink. But it's not just flat white—latte and cappuccino were also only made as hot drinks when they were first invented. It was only later that coffee shops developed iced versions to meet more customers' needs. That's right, including flat white—major chain coffee shops basically have iced versions, but it's mainly specialty coffee shops that don't offer iced flat white.

The Main Reason

The main reason is actually that when flat white is made into an iced drink, it cannot showcase the characteristics it has as a hot drink. Let's review the main differences between the three drinks mentioned above. Besides cup size, what's another key distinguishing factor?

That's right! It's the thickness of the milk foam! Let's look back at the original name of flat white. If translated directly, "flat" means 平 (píng), and "white" means 白 (bái). But for this coffee, "flat" represents flat, thin milk foam, while "white" represents white coffee with milk added. Put together, it means: white coffee with flat milk foam. Other milk coffees would be directly called "white coffee" in Australia, so we can see that flat white's signature characteristic is its thin milk foam.

In hot drinks, the thickness of milk foam not only determines the coffee's concentration (with the same cup size, thicker foam means less milk and higher coffee proportion) but is also closely related to the coffee's texture and mouthfeel, because in hot drinks, the milk foam is connected to the coffee itself. When the milk foam is thin to a certain extent, the coffee's mouthfeel is enhanced because when you take a sip, the foam along with the coffee enters your mouth, giving the coffee better richness and smoothness. When the milk foam is thick to a certain extent, it brings a denser tactile experience. Therefore, we can understand that the differences between these three drinks largely come from the milk foam. When made into iced drinks, because the milk foam is prepared separately, it's in a separate state from the coffee, which cannot enhance the coffee's mouthfeel. Therefore, except for cappuccino which is characterized by thick milk foam, the iced versions of the other two drinks have no milk foam.

An iced flat white without milk foam is, at best, a small cup of iced latte, and in coffee shops, there are simply too many similar products. Besides iced latte, there's also dirty coffee with the same cup size but without ice. Combining these two reasons, an iced flat white that lacks distinctive characteristics and has many similar products naturally wouldn't be offered by coffee shops.

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