Flat White
A double shot under a shallow layer of steamed milk, less of it and less foam than a latte.
CC BY-SA 4.0 · Cropped, white-balanced, graded and re-encoded to WebP by eXir.
A flat white in a white cup, tulip-shaped latte art in the microfoam, on a matching saucer with a spoon
Serving
Drink spec, per drink
Every figure above is per drink and does not move with the count, which is what makes the two service modes comparable. Sugar per litre, strength and standard drinks stay in the units their own authorities publish, because they are figures for comparing rather than for pouring.
Diet and allergen labels are computed from the ingredients listed on this page and nothing else. They cannot account for cross-contamination or for the particular product you buy, and they are not medical or safety guidance.
Extraction
No extraction yield is shown. It needs a measured dissolved-solids figure from the finished cup, nothing on a bag of coffee supplies one, and estimating it from the method would be inventing the single number the calculation exists to establish.
Ingredients
36 g coffee
130 ml whole milk
100 ml water
- 36 g coffee
- 130 ml whole milk
- 100 ml water
Glass
Vessel
180 ml of liquid, served without ice, inside the 180 ml the glass holds. The build fails if a recipe ever exceeds its stated vessel.
A batch needs a vessel that closes and fits a fridge shelf.
Method
4 steps · 1m 35sGrind the 36 g coffee fine for the espresso machine.
Steam the 130 ml whole milk to a glossy microfoam, pulling the wand out before a dry cap has time to build.
The wand is pulled from the milk earlier than a cappuccino needs, leaving a glossy microfoam with almost no dry foam to spoon off, so the whole pour sits at one texture rather than splitting into a cap and a body.
Pump the 100 ml water through the grounds at 93 °C for 28s while the milk steams.
Pour the milk into the cup over the shot in one steady stream, finishing with a thin, level surface rather than a raised cap.
Common pitfallA double ristretto pulled long, the way a single shot is, dilutes the shot before the milk even goes in; the drink is meant to taste of coffee first, and a thin shot leaves the milk with nothing to sit on top of.
Keeping and make-ahead
Steamed and pulled to order. Microfoam this thin collapses fast, so nothing here is made ahead.
About
A double shot under a shallow pour of microfoam, claimed as a national invention by both Australia and New Zealand with neither claim settled.
Documentary evidence places the name in Sydney by the early 1980s: a May 1983 newspaper review of the café Miller's Treat refers to a "flat white coffee" on its menu 1. Alan Preston put the name on the menu at his own Moors Espresso Bar in Sydney in 1985 and later said he had brought it south from cafés in far north Queensland 2.
New Zealand's claim is later by the calendar but no less confidently made. Auckland's Cafe DKD, run by Derek Townsend and Darrell Ahlers, is said to have served a flat white as an alternative to the Italian-style lattes then fashionable, having learned the name from someone who had worked in Sydney 1. A separate and more often repeated account places the drink in Wellington in 1989, where barista Fraser McInnes is said to have served a customer a cappuccino whose low-fat milk would not foam, apologised for it, and called the result a flat white 2.
Neither story is documented well enough to settle the question, and the dispute itself is now part of the drink's public identity: it resurfaced in 2015 when a large chain's press materials credited Australia by name, which New Zealand's press disputed in turn 2. District Magazine's own assessment is that both accounts rest on personal recollection rather than contemporary record, and that the debate is "too obscured by history for anyone to win" 2. This page does not choose between them.
What is agreed is the drink itself. It is built from a double shot and a shorter pour of steamed milk than a latte takes, finished as a single glossy layer of microfoam rather than the cappuccino's thick, spoonable foam 1. It is a smaller, stronger cup than either of its more famous milk-forward relatives, and one built around the espresso instead of around the milk.
- 1Flat whiteen.wikipedia.org
- 2The Disputed History of the Flat Whitedistrictmagazine.ie