the flat white

After a LONG lapse of time I'm back in the blogasphere or blogosphere or whatever.  As my last entry was about drinking coffe in Leon it feels appropriate to get started again with another entry on one of my favorite beverages.

I know it is hard to keep up with me, but I did make a quick, unplanned jaunt to New Zealand in the early parts of January. The whole thing didn't quite pan out as planned, but what does?  Anyhow among some of my very exciting revelations while there was a pretty epic experience: THE FLAT WHITE. A couple years ago my friend Zach converted me from lattes to cappuccinos, we had this whole theory the cappuccinos were the tacos of the coffee world, a total digression.  But I have been converted once again, the shit thing is you can't get one here especially not from those under trained high school students down at coffee roasters.

So what the hell is this drink you might ask?  Look I am not totally sure, but what you should know, is that for me, a flat white is the perfect ratio of milk to coffee.  None of that stiff ass foam in a one inch layer on top, just a thin layer of perfectly creamed milk. AWWWWW man.  Plus the thing that may make me love it the most is that you don't have to chose a size.  I still don't know what was wrong with small, medium, and large, but this whole starbucks-ization of drink sizes does my head in.  To this day when dealing with that tall/grande b.s. I just point at the size I want, but with a flat white these shenanigans aren't an issue.

Finally Kiwi dairy in general kicks the s--t out of anything that I've ever encountered in the states, except for
Straus' from West Marin.  They've got it going on.  But seriously, the butter and the milk smell, well, grassy.  The milk just tastes better, it's creamy and lovely.

Seriously I had gotten sick of all the anti-American commentary on the coffee front, I defended ladro, and zoka, and told these uppity kiwis that we have award winning baristas up in Seattle.  But then I realized somthing: most people have gotten to know us through our largest brands.  If all you knew of coffee from the states was Starbucks you might think we only have shit coffee.  And that is such a shame as we do have incredible idependent coffee roasters.  Just as we have an incredible microbrew culture, which might be hard to believe if you've only ever tasted Bud.  So, yes, I am missing my flat whites, but I am also challenging you coffe snob Kiwis to come and give our coffee a chance as well.  You might just be surprised.

P.s.  if you have the pleasure of visiting wellington here are some coffee suggestions:

Midnight Espresso (178 Cuba ST.)

Apart from having lovely coffee they also serve a ridiculous selection of vegan and veggie foodstuffs.  They get their coffe from wellington's own Havana Coffee Works.  

As a good Wellingtonian wouldn't be caught dead in a Starbucks I checked out a couple of the local chains, I enjoyed flat whites from both Mojo and Fuel.

Neat.