Flat white factions

Contentious as the origin of the pavlova, the flat white “is the most recognisable coffee contribution to come from Australia, a country known for its obsessive and highly skilled baristas” according to The New York Times. Wikipedia has it otherwise, stating that the drink originates from New Zealand, and was created in the early eighties by Derek Townsend, the co-owner of DKD cafÈ in Auckland. Times blogger Oliver Strand explains: “The drink migrated to London in the 1990s as baristas from Australia and New Zealand (where the drink is also found) jump-started that city’s small but explosive coffee scene, and soon the flat white became a signifier of artisan cool: if it was on the menu, the joint was good.” Then in December 2009, the giant English coffee chain Costa and Starbucks UK both announced that they were rolling out the flat white. It was a bombshell. By January 2010, a flat white in London was as edgy as a soy latte. Still, it was a savvy marketplace move. Costa’s parent company, the hotel and restaurant group Whitbread, credited the flat white with a 9.5 per cent quarterly increase in same-store sales that helped stabilise the financial outlook of the entire corporation, one of the largest in the country. The flat white had become big business.”