I have measured out my life in coffeespoons

[venta]

Oh dear, I think I just misinformed an Australian couple in a café :(

They wanted "flat whites". In England (particularly in branches of Pieminister, which do marvellous pies, but really only serve coffee as a sideline) we do not understand this term.

There was some confusion. Having (I thought) had the term explained to me by quantumboo last year, I suggested they wanted filter-coffee-with-milk. Sadly, I fear Quantumboo may have told me what a flat black was, and I extrapolated.

A flat white was, said the Australian lady, like a cappucino without the froth. Aha, said the English-not-first-language serving-person, a latte. No, said the Australian lady, nothing like a latte.

I think they got filter coffees in the end. But now Wikipedia suggests I'm wrong, and they're going to have got something not nearly milky enough. Wikipedia is also rather vague about the difference between a flat white and a latte.

Does anyone understand this posh foreign coffee stuff ? What would you understand by the term flat white ?

Comments

[blackmetalbaz.livejournal.com]

As someone who spent several years working in a "posh cafe", I'm a little confused myself. Wikipedia, the font of all knowledge, turns out to be useless... what they are describing sounds like a latte. It's suggested that a flat white might be closer to a cafe au lait, which to be brutally honest is effectively the same thing. Despite this, it claims that in the States a latte and a cafe au lait are sold as distinct beverages but fails to explain in what sense they differ. Further information would be handy, as I can see myself back in the waitering trade anytime soon :-P

[triskellian]

(Note that I drink hardly any coffee, but I do live with a coffee fiend.)

I'd expect a latte to be a shot of espresso with a lot of hot milk, and a cafe au lait to be a filter coffee with a shot of cold milk. Same ingredients, different proportions. But IANACoffeExpert.