Flat white

I first heard about Flat White coffees some years back on the radio while in the car. I normally make coffee in a cafetière and drink it without milk, but this sounded interesting. Travelling from our house to the marina where Erin Mae lives in the winter, it's become our habit to stop at Cherwell Valley and have a coffee, so my first experience of a flat white was at the Costa there. I really enjoyed it, and it's become my go-to tipple on the road.

During this summer's travels it has proved extremely hard to find anyone else making it to the same standard. Some coffee shops have never heard of it, others say they'll do one, but what comes is more like a black coffee with a generous splash of cold milk. I sent back the one from the eatery in the mill in Saltaire because it was watery and lukewarm. This was my experience again at Weston Hall on Sunday, where we decided to stop for coffee between worship at the Wildwood church in Stafford and lunch at the Hollybush in Salt. Weston Hall presents itself as a rather upmarket hotel / restaurant / bar complex. I'd asked for a cafetière for two, because there was a picture of one on the menu, only to be told that they didn't do those any more. They had a machine, I was told, but it does use proper fresh-ground coffee. My heart sank. I was being informed about the minimum for a decent coffee as though it somehow moved them into the top league. When the coffee came, it was really no better than the one in Saltaire, but I didn't have the heart to send this one back – probably to do with it's being Sunday and the fact that the waiter had gone upstairs to bring us down some nice shortcake biscuits. When I came to pay the bill I was told we could have those on the house.

Today I searched the internet for what makes a flat white. Wikipedia's article was interesting, and there were some other good sites as well. It seems to be about getting the milk to the right temperature with steam, using the correct part of the heated milk (the "microfoam"), and then having the right proportions in the final concoction to ensure that the coffee is what predominates. Costa also teach their baristas to do a bit of "Latte art" on top, which is nice and usually looks like a fern leaf.

Some people don't think much of Costa's coffee, and I think it's over-priced. But while they remain (IMHO) the standard-setter for a flat white, I think we'll continue to stop at Cherwell Valley.