The search for a decent coffee is a sacred ritual for travelling Australians. We like to see ourselves as laid-back visitors; quick to pick up a smattering of local words, wade into the local cuisine, and take the backstreet slightly less travelled. But when it comes to coffee? We’re raging snobs.

Adopting a love of the espresso from western European migrants, Australia has absorbed coffee into our cultural identity.  Even though we don’t even crack the top 10 for per-capita coffee consumption around the world, Australia has become synonymous with good coffee, and ferociously proud of it. After an ambitious expansion at the turn of the century, Starbucks was forced to beat a costly and rapid retreat from the Australian market after just eight years, shuttering 70 percent of its stores in 2008. The challenge of finding a bad coffee in Australia has become a TikTok trope (even though every local knows it’s very, very possible).

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Mike Brabant is the CEO of Single O, which has grown from a single cafe in Sydney’s inner east to four locations across NSW, Queensland and now Japan. “Australia continues to play a significant role in setting the global standard,” he says. “Australia also benefited from a vibrant independent café industry. Rather than one or two dominant chains defining coffee culture, thousands of independent café owners embraced specialty coffee and set the standard, creating some of the best café experiences you’ll find anywhere in the world.”

Australia’s cafe culture has become one of our most visible exports, up there with the Hemsworths and a propensity to find the nearest pub. I’ve wandered into cafes everywhere from New York to Seoul, lured in like some jetlagged moth, only to be met by a broad Australian accent pulling shots behind the espresso machine. But off all the sunny brunch references we’ve packaged up and sent worldwide, the flat white seems to have risen to the top.

Wherever cafe culture has entered the fray, so has the flat white. In 2014, Bon Appetit called it “The coffee taking the US by storm“; by the next year Time Magazine covered its entry onto Starbuck’s global menus. Soon after, The Independent UK mused “How the flat white conquered the coffee scene.” Over the decade since, it’s become a coffee order with an ability to leap language barriers. In Paris, no barista batted an eye at the order; in Seoul cafes, we might as well have been ordering a flat white in Collingwood.

In Shanghai, which now has the most coffee shops of any city in the world, the flat white is almost always first on the board. It’s even gained itself a Mandarin name: ào bái, literally translated to ‘Australian white’. In Tokyo, in minimalistic coffee boutiques in Omotesando and Shibuya, the milk-to-coffee ratio of flat whites is considered with the solemnity normally reserved for a three-Michelin-starred restaurant. If the cafe is a global sign of gentrification, then the flat white is its beverage of choice.

But what makes it so universally popular?

“It is deceptively simple drink, and that’s exactly what makes it so good,” says Brabant of Single O. “The flat white is the classic Aussie move. We embraced something from another culture, in this case the latte and cappuccino, and put our own stamp on it.

“It’s a drink that puts the coffee first. The milk should complement the espresso, not overpower it, so there’s nowhere to hide. If the coffee isn’t great, or the barista isn’t skilled, you’ll taste it. That’s what makes it such a great drink for specialty coffee,” he adds.

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“That’s also why we’ve always invested so heavily in barista training. More than 70% of café coffee orders are flat whites or other milk-based drinks, so the barista plays a huge role in the final cup. If you’ve sourced a beautiful coffee, roasted it with care and extracted it properly, the flat white lets all of that shine through. I think that’s why it’s travelled so well.”

What is a flat white coffee?

The definition of a flat white can be universally quite vague. Generally one third coffee with two-thirds steamed milk, it’s less foamy than a cappuccino, and usually less milky than a latte. At the most basic, it’s a white coffee with a minimal amount of flat foam and a slightly stronger coffee taste.

Where was the flat white coffee invented?

The flat white is at the centre of a diplomatic stoush, with New Zealand claiming to have invented the brew, despite what we think is compelling evidence otherwise. Our research tracked the origins not to Melbourne, or Sydney, but instead to 1980s Queensland. Whatever side of the ditch you call on, this Antipodean coffee is appreciated for letting the flavour of the beans come through more boldly than in foamier versions, with the silky texture of the milk blending into the coffee.

Related story: Sorry New Zealand, but the flat white actually comes from Queensland