The Ultimate Guide to Flat White Coffee: Origins and Recipe

01.03.2023 - 13:15

Coffee addicts here!

Hello everyone. Nowadays, there are so many options when it comes to coffee that we get confused. No lie, sometimes they even all look alike. In this article, we answered the questions of what is 'flat white', considered a new entry into our 'coffee life', where did it come from, and we also gave a recipe for making flat white at home.

Flat white coffee is among the increasingly popular coffees we have started to see on café menus. Due to the similarities between lattes and flat white coffees, it is often described as "a smaller latte," but this is not entirely correct.

Latte, cappuccino, and flat white are made from steamed milk and espresso, but the amount of coffee, the preparation of the milk, and the methods used to add the milk are different. Flat white is a unique coffee with its own texture.

This coffee is obtained by pouring microfoamed milk over a single or double ristretto shot of espresso. It has a dominant espresso taste. As for its origin, flat white is a coffee originating from Australia. However, New Zealanders also claim that this coffee belongs to them.

New Zealanders say that flat white coffee was first invented by Derek Townsend at DKF Café in 1984, while Australians claim that the original inventor of flat white was Fraser McInnes, who coined the term flat white in 1989 to describe a cappuccino at Café Bodega, where he incorrectly prepared the foam.

The main criteria for making flat whites is the use of micro foam. The milk is poured over the espresso from a single point to ensure that the espresso and milk are completely intertwined. Instead of the large foam used in cappuccino, dense foam is created in flat white.

Furthermore, in order to prevent the milk from mixing with bubbles, it needs to be steamed at a consistent temperature that is evenly spread throughout the liquid. This provides a creamy flavor to the coffee.

The ideal measurement for flat white is tulip-shaped cups with a volume of 160-165 ml. These cups are generally much smaller than the glasses used for lattes and cappuccinos.

A delicious flat white recipe you can make at home.

Ingredients:

2 shots of espresso (60 ml)
100 ml hot foamed milk

Preparation:

Firstly, you need to make two ristretto shots of espresso in an espresso machine. You can obtain two shots by putting 18 grams of coffee in the machine's hopper. Then, heat and froth the milk with the machine's steam wand. The steam wand of these types of machines emits steam. The prepared and heated milk is then poured onto the prepared espresso and served hot. If you don't have an espresso machine, you need to have a Moka pot at home. Moka pot is a pot that allows you to make espresso at home. After making your espresso in the Moka pot, you can heat the milk by whisking it in a pot. After pouring the milk onto the espresso, you can serve it.