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

[kissifa.livejournal.com]

According to my trip to Auckland, and a cool video on Youtube to back up my theory, a flat white involves heating but not frothing one's milk, and using a spoon or knife to hold back the foam and add the milk from the bottom of the steamer jug to the espresso, allowing a little foamier milk to enter at the last, which also allows for the contentious addition of so-called Latte art. The flat whites my parents oredered often came with latte art in the form of New Zealand fern symbols, which were very pretty. :)