- The flat white helped transform specialty coffee from a niche movement into the mainstream by providing an approachable gateway into coffee.
- UK flat white sales increased by 56% year-on-year in 2018 – highlighting how rapidly the drink evolved from an Australasian specialty into a global coffee staple.
- The challenge now is finding another drink that expands specialty coffee beyond its existing audience.
The flat white may be the single most influential product specialty coffee has ever created. Now a permanent fixture on coffee shop menus across much of the world, its significance extends far beyond milk texture or espresso ratios.
The drink helped specialty coffee move beyond its niche audience and into the daily routines of millions of consumers, introducing customers to specialty coffee without asking them to begin with a straight espresso or filter brew – although it often became their first step to doing so.
For all the innovation that has shaped the coffee sector over the past two decades, its most influential product may also have been its simplest. As the industry continues searching for its next phase of growth, an important question emerges: does specialty coffee need another drink capable of doing what the flat white once did?
Specialty coffee’s Trojan horse
Although the flat white’s origins remain contested between Australia and New Zealand, few would dispute its global influence. Appearing on coffee shops menus across the two countries in the 1980s, the flat white largely stayed within these borders for around two decades.
In the early 2000s, Flat White Soho is believed to have introduced the flat white to London – by 2018, national sales of flat whites across the UK had increased by 56% YoY, and it is now a staple item in practically all coffee shops. The flat white didn’t simply become another menu item – it fundamentally changed how consumers entered specialty coffee.
Its success began with the way it reimagined traditional espresso drinks. Rather than beginning with espresso or filter coffee, both of which can present a steep learning curve, many consumers started with the flat white before gradually exploring the wider menu.
Tom Clark is Founder and CEO of Coutume in Paris. Having recently spoken at an industry event on the challenges of a rapid coffee market, he provided some context about the success of the flat white.
“The flat white is arguably the first espresso-based drink crafted and popularised by the ‘new world’ coffee cultures of Australia and New Zealand. As such, it represents the first mass iteration from traditional espresso-based drinks,” he says.
“Rather than simply adding more milk, the flat white was designed to highlight coffee flavour while remaining approachable to a broad audience.”
By 2015, Starbucks – then the world’s largest coffee chain – had also added the flat white as a permanent addition to its US and Canadian menus. In Asia, the adoption of the flat white – such as the Chinese “Ao bai” or “Australia white” – also shows adoption in markets where tea has long been the drink of choice.
This journey explains why the flat white could be considered as specialty coffee’s ‘Trojan horse’ – an unassuming coffee that slowly infiltrated other coffee cultures, influencing menus and preparation styles.
“[E]arly on, you had to make the effort to go to a coffee shop to get a flat white before its mass adoption – as such, it provided a touch point to begin journeying across the specialty coffee menu,” Tom says.
“Ordering a flat white became a statement for wanting more out of a cup of coffee.”
Importantly, the flat white did not remain confined to specialty coffee. It became a drink adopted in and recognised across vastly different coffee cultures – helping normalise specialty coffee for consumers who may otherwise have viewed espresso as too intense, or filter coffee as unfamiliar.
Why the flat white mattered
The significance of the flat white extended far beyond the drink itself. As it became embedded across different café cultures, it helped bring specialty coffee into the mainstream by offering consumers an approachable introduction.
Rather than beginning with espresso or filter coffee, many started with a flat white before gradually exploring the wider specialty category.
In doing so, it didn’t simply become a best-selling menu item – it expanded the market for specialty coffee. It encouraged repeat purchases, increased coffee consumption, and gave coffee shops and roasters an opportunity to introduce customers to the wider world of specialty coffee.
Tom believes its success also came from striking a balance between quality and simplicity. The flat white also proved valuable from an operational perspective, and highlighted a coffee’s inherent qualities without the intensity or subtlety of other coffee drinks.
“This meant a volume friendly specialty drink providing lots of flavour and highlighting the barista’s skill,” explains Tom. “Its simplistic and humble name, ‘flat white’, probably also ingratiated itself too by not sounding too elitist or complex.”
For coffee shops and roasters alike, that mattered. Every customer who adopted the flat white as their regular order represented another consumer drinking specialty coffee more frequently. In turn, this increased coffee sales, created more opportunities to introduce customers to higher-value offerings, and helped specialty coffee evolve from a niche interest into an everyday habit.
Today, Tom notes that the drink has become so embedded within café culture that many customers order it almost instinctively.
“You only have to look at the numbers to get an idea of how the flat white has become a mainstream drink with it often being a top three product across most cafés,” he says.
“Not all customers necessarily know how it’s composed or why it tastes stronger, the appeal is such that it’s become almost an automated reflex.”
Perhaps that is the flat white’s greatest achievement – it ceased to be viewed as a specialty innovation and instead became an everyday coffee order.
Does specialty coffee need another flat white?
While the industry continues to innovate, few new products have fundamentally expanded the customer base in the same way the flat white has done. That success also highlights one of specialty coffee’s biggest challenges today.
In many mature coffee markets, attracting entirely new specialty coffee consumers has become increasingly difficult. While cafés continue to introduce new beverages and brewing methods, relatively few have fundamentally changed who drinks specialty coffee or encouraged more people to make it part of their everyday routine.
Rather than simply creating a briefly popular menu item, the next breakthrough may need to perform the same role as the flat white in the long term – lowering the barrier to specialty coffee, while encouraging more people to make it part of their daily routine.
Interestingly, Tom believes that other drinks, such as cold brew, may already be emerging to match the flat white’s popularity in some markets.
“Across many parts of Asia and North America, it’s becoming a top 3 drink across all seasons,” he says. “Its delicateness and lack of bitterness (when brewed correctly with a quality coffee) explains its wide appeal.”
However, Tom is less convinced that specialty coffee’s future depends solely on inventing another iconic beverage. Instead, he believes the industry should focus on making exceptional coffee more approachable through both its drinks and the experiences surrounding them.
“I often think we spend too much time looking for the ‘next big thing’ when in fact a specialty coffee, when it’s properly sourced, roasted and extracted, by definition will be special.”
“I don’t think it’s necessarily a matter of adding more, but rather paring things back to the basics of how to deliver excellent coffee to my customers in a way that fosters human connection and generates value all across the chain.”
Whether the next catalyst for specialty coffee arrives in the form of another globally adopted drink or through better hospitality, the lesson of the flat white remains the same: the coffee sector grows fastest when it becomes approachable and easier for people to discover.
The industry’s next breakthrough may not simply be the next innovative beverage. Instead, it may be the next coffee that quietly becomes part of people’s everyday lives.
