Flat white
A flat white is espresso with steamed milk textured into fine microfoam, poured so that only a thin, flat layer of foam sits on top. It is smaller than a latte and has less milk, so the coffee comes through more strongly. Australia and New Zealand both claim it.
At a glance
- In the cup
- Espresso and steamed milk
- Foam
- About 0.5 cm
- Size
- Smaller than a latte or a cappuccino
- Origin
- Claimed by both Australia and New Zealand
What is the difference between a flat white and a latte?
Size, milk and foam. A flat white is the smaller drink, roughly two-thirds milk, with a thin layer of foam — Perfect Daily Grind puts it at about 0.5 cm, against at least 1 cm on a cappuccino. A latte is larger, with more milk for the same espresso, so the coffee is milder.
Source: What is a flat white & where did it come from?, Perfect Daily Grind (2022)
Who invented the flat white, Australia or New Zealand?
Perfect Daily Grind calls the origin somewhat contentious, and both leading claims rest on the claimants’ own accounts. Alan Preston says he was the first café owner to put “flat white” permanently on a menu, at his Sydney café in the mid-1980s, for customers who asked for a “white coffee — flat”; his recipe used a double ristretto and milk with little foam. In New Zealand, Fraser McInnes says the name came from a cappuccino whose low-fat milk would not foam: “Sorry, it’s a flat white.”
Source: What is a flat white & where did it come from?, Perfect Daily Grind (2022)
The words may be older than either story: Dictionary.com dates the first recorded use of “flat white” to 1970–75.
Source: flat white, Dictionary.com
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