A latte to think about Is the flat white really Australian? Laura Brehaut

THE AVERAGE COST OF A CUP OF COFFEE IN CANADA DEPENDS ON WHERE EXACTLY YOU LIVE, ACCORDING TO SQUARE. THE PRICIEST CUP CAN BE FOUND IN CALGARY, AT $4.22 A POP, WHILE THE CHEAPEST IS IN MONTREAL AT $2.67.

‘One of coffee’s biggest arguments is who claims the flat white,” says Liz Clayton, coauthor of Where to Drink Coffee and associate editor of global coffee culture website Sprudge. Luscious and milky, it’s has taken the specialty coffee scene by storm.

As recently as five years ago, Canadian coffee connoisseurs would have been hard- pressed to find a flat white at a local café. But since it hit the mainstream in 2014 – first at Second Cup and then Starbucks the following year – the drink has become a menu mainstay at independents and chains alike.

Both Second Cup and Starbucks market the drink as an Australian invention. But like the pavlova before it, the particulars of its Oceanic origins are disputed. According to the New Zealand Herald, the flat white is “the quintessential Kiwi coffee.”

“The ironic thing is that Starbucks did quite badly in Australia and had to close shops, which is funny because they were happy to represent ( Australians) on the world stage,” Clayton adds. (Starbucks closed nearly 75 per cent of its Aussie shops in 2008 but according to News Corp Australia, as of 2016 the coffee company had begun “ever so quietly – reopening coffee shops in the country’s biggest cities.”)

Antipodeans seem to agree that the flat white first appeared in the 1980s, in a Sydney cafe. Perhaps as a response to the fluffy, dry foam of the era, which did little to enhance enjoyment of a cappuccino. However, who’s responsible for perfecting the drink is a murkier issue – one that has sparked trans-Tasman strife.

Some coffee experts claim that the modern flat white is all thanks to a coffee pioneer in Auckland who “improved” the Sydney flat white in 1988. “The creator of the flat white is commonly known in New Zealand to be none other than Derek Townsend,” Al Keating of New Zealand’s Coffee Supreme told the Kitchn.

“As legend would have it, he could steam three jugs of milk in one hand, make more than 1,500 flat whites in an hour, and could grind coffee to the correct particle size using nothing but his bare fists. Not surprisingly, his first cafe was called ‘Cafe Xtreme.’”

Although New Zealand and Australia share many cultural and historical influences, it was Italian immigration to the latter than spurred innovation in espresso, Australian food historian Michael Symons writes.

After the Second World War, newcomers to Australia set up cafés and restaurants and started serving coffee, Italian style. Espresso quickly became fashionable and “with a devotion to espresso exceptional outside Italy, Australians developed local peculiarities.”

While Australia has long been a leader in espresso culture, New Zealand’s coffee renaissance didn’t occur until the 1990s, due in large part to different immigration patterns, according to Symons.

Baristas in both counties are now renowned specialists in espresso drinks and lush “milk coffees” – lattes, flat whites and cappuccinos – although Australian coffee has a much higher profile abroad.

“Anywhere you go now, an Australian has opened a rad coffee shop. There’s no two ways about it,” Clayton says. “In New York City, where we now have hundreds of great specialty shops, there’s an Australian one every few blocks.”

The fact that many people outside of Oceania associate the flat white with Australia has as much to do with the recent proliferation of exceptional Australian cafés in cities around the world as it does with the marketing tactics of a coffee giant.

The unusual name of the drink is part of what makes it appealing, Clayton suggests. In line with other Australian coffee terms – “short black” ( single shot of espresso) and “long black” ( double shot with hot water) – espresso extended with steamed milk became known as a “flat white.”

“If you had told people it was essentially a cappuccino that you would get at a specialty or third wave (artisanal coffee) shop, nobody would have thought that was anything new or exotic,” Clayton says.

Besides its origin, the question of what makes a flat white is also up for debate. Some coffee experts have abandoned naming “milk coffees” altogether, such as 3fe Coffee in Dublin, Ireland, which sells “espresso with steamed milk.”

In 2016, the World Barista Championship moved from a “cappuccino” category, with set criteria, to “milk beverage” instead: “a combination of a single shot of espresso and steamed cow’s milk.”

The flat white isn’ t a defined drink, Clayton explains. Even in Australia and New Zealand, the espressoto-milk formula can vary café to café, as can other factors like how the milk is textured. “We make our flat white the same way we make our cappuccino,” says Shaun Harnack, manager of Broadview Espresso in Toronto. “The owner ( Mike Cullen) based them on the flat whites in Australia – he spent a year there and that’s where he learned.”

This means either one or two shots of espresso topped with smooth and glossy microfoam (in contrast to dry, frothy foam) in an eight- ounce cup. Although the specifics differ, cappuccino-like flat whites are the norm at modern specialty coffee shops in Canada and the U.S., Clayton says.

“If I’m ordering a flat white, I’m expecting something that is also what I would ( look for in) a cappuccino, which would be nothing super foamy. Something with really tightly textured milk that releases its natural sugars through the steaming process,” she adds.

A well-crafted flat white is velvety with a harmony between espresso and milk. In an age of over-sized coffee beverages, it’s also delightfully petite, coming in anywhere from five to eight ounces. Rather than fixating on its genesis and specifications, the flat white requires comfort with ambiguity. Despite the seemingly unanswerable questions, this is a drink worth knowing.