A simple Flat White

The earliest documented references to the beverage date back to Australia in the mid-1980s. A review of the Sydney café Miller's Treat in May 1983 refers to their "flat white coffee". Another Sydney newspaper article in April 1984 satirised a vogue for caffe latte, stating that: "cafe latte translates as flat white." At Moors Espresso Bar in Sydney; Alan Preston added the beverage to his permanent menu in 1985. Preston claimed he had imported the idea to Sydney from his native Queensland, where cafes in the 1960s and 1970s had frequently offered “White Coffee – flat“. Other documented references include the Parliament House cafeteria in Canberra putting up a sign in January 1985 saying "flat white only" during a seasonal problem with milk cows that prevented the milk froth from forming.

However, the origins of the flat white are contentious, with New Zealand also claiming its invention. The New Zealand claim originates in Auckland, New Zealand by Derek Townsend and Darrell Ahlers of Cafe DKD, as an alternative to the Italian latte, and a second New Zealand claim originates from Wellington as a result of a "failed cappuccino" at Bar Bodega on Willis St in 1989. Craig Miller, author of Coffee Houses of Wellington 1939 to 1979, claims to have prepared a flat white in Auckland in the mid-1980s.