Oh Lord!! I am losing the will to live.
Flat Whites are being pushed by the high street chains at the moment - but are they all that they are cracked up to be?
The chains will market them as being the next big thing, trying to distinguish between their rather poor lattes and their not so bad lattes. To me they have got the names the wrong way round - how dull does a 'Flat White' sound. Like a Flat Tyre, Flat Foot, Block of Flats, Flat Notes and now we have a Flat White!!!!!
Well I've tried a couple and to be honest about them, they weren't bad at all. However, what really gets me, is they are precisely what Lattes should have been from the beginning!!
There are a growing number of independant coffee stores that take great care how they produce their lattes, in fact when I train new baristas, I always leave the latte till last as it is the hardest coffee do well. It is precisely for this reason that most chains have avoided doing the Latte as it should and have opted for hot steamed milk plonked on to the coffee.
Flat Whites do prove two things though - Firstly, do coffee right and you can command a higher profit margin. Secondly the best places are often the good independant coffee stores to buy your coffees.
