The Origin and Historical Story of Flat white: was Australia invented in New Zealand or Australia?

In the industry, there has been an imprecise saying: when a coffee appears on Starbucks' regular menu, it shows that it has become mainstream to some extent. In 2015, Starbucks added Flat white to the menus of all its stores in the United States under the name "Fragrance White" and quickly became popular.

In China, in addition to "Fuluibai", it also has Australian white, Xiaobai, mellow white, and Australia Ruibai and other names, a variety of translation names can be said to be numerous. Not only that, there are different opinions on the concentrated extraction, milk ratio and container used by Flat White, and even the original place of origin is also controversial, even causing a quarrel between the two countries in the southern hemisphere.

So Qianjie today, let's gossip about the history of Flat white's fame and see where this popular star in the coffee world comes from.

How did coffee become popular in Australia?

According to records, coffee first landed in Australia in the 18th century, and the first batch of coffee was brought by the first British immigrants in 1788. But it was not until the 1830s that coffee culture began to become popular in Australia, mainly influenced by the prohibition movement at that time.

After World War II, around the 1950s, a large number of European families emigrated to Australia, including Italians. In order to make a living, they brought their hometown's best "specialty" Italian concentrate here and started a coffee business.

With the prosperity of local coffee culture, coffee stalls on the street continue to occupy the streets of Melbourne. At that time, in Melbourne, cafes could be roughly divided into two types: one was to serve all kinds of drinks and light meals in the form of a milk bar, with only Long Black, Latte and Cappuccino in the coffee section, which was the equivalent of a place where the working class could settle for lunch. The other is to provide only coffee and sweets, coffee options are also limited, will be divided into pure black coffee and white coffee with milk.

In the more prosperous urban areas, all kinds of coffee shops featuring Italian concentrated style began to emerge in the streets, the coffee styles and choices provided by the bar are also increasingly rich, and people's taste in coffee is rising all boats. In this way, Flat White, which reflects that Australians have the ultimate pursuit of the taste and quality of coffee, came into being.

Australia and New Zealand have been quarrelling over Flat White

Square: Fraser McInnes, a New Zealander, claims that the word "Flat white" is a new name he gave to a cup of cappuccino with too thin foam when he was working in a coffee shop called Cafe Bodega in Wellington in 1989. In fact, such a cup of thin milk full-bodied milk coffee has been produced as early as 1984, and his experience has also been included in some coffee origin textbooks.

The opposite: Australian barista Alan Preston retorts that the drink was first developed by Moors Espresso Bar, a cafe he runs in Sydney, and has been on the menu since 1985. Although he had already switched to selling other goods, Preston showed the photos he took when he opened the store on a website as evidence.

Although up to now, the original dispute over this popular style of coffee is still inconclusive, it does not prevent its popularity in two countries and even around the world. For example, Hugh Jackman, who plays Wolverine as the pride of the Australian people, is a veteran Flat white enthusiast. In his coffee shop LaughingMan Coffee in Manhattan, Flat white is the number one product.

Flat White with different presentation modes

No matter which country created this beloved drink, it is clear that its spread can be attributed to the international expansion of Australian cafes and baristas' unique insights into boutique coffee. The essence of Flat white has always been the perfect compatibility of concentrate and milk.

Compared to lattes with a large proportion of milk and thick foam, Flat white has the iconic thin foam, warm but not hot taste and medium to small cup size (5.5oz). The upper layer of milk foam is generally only 0.5cm, a closer look at the smooth liquid surface can be found to be composed of countless tiny bubbles, people call it velvet texture. Technically speaking, these features are also more conducive to skilled baristas to make complex and meticulous art patterns.

In the extraction of concentrated substrates, some cafes are not limited to espresso, but use a higher concentration of extraction, that is, only take the middle and front segment of espresso, which is called ristretto. Although it is true that coffee has become stronger than a latte, the amount has also decreased, and it is still difficult to highlight the flavor of coffee when mixed with milk. To this end, the Melbourne barista directly replaced the substrate with the amount of double ristretto and then presented it with a glass with a capacity of about 150ml.

Here, Qianjie adds a little bit, in fact, the production of Flat white does not have to use double ristretto as the substrate, some baristas will choose the regular espresso, mainly based on the product demand and the final taste. The reason why people always emphasize this distinction is to quickly figure out the difference between it and a latte.

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