Coffee at Adelaide airport at 2 p.m., 9 July 2006. In all innocence, I prepared to judge carefully two flat whites. The Melbourne-based franchise chain Hudsons Coffee proclaimed a ‘formidable reputation for consistently making great cups of coffee’, but its airport outlet provided no evidence of this.

‘Two flat whites, please,’ she said to the waiting Kelly. ‘In mugs.’

It was during this break that Cole realised that New Zealanders had no idea how to make coffee, serving up flat whites in cups the size of cereal bowls, and suggesting they were caffe lattes.

My boss orders two flat whites. I′ve got to hand it to her, there′s no pretention about a flat white.

Flat white

Meaning

Noun

Synonyms