I'm fairly disciplined about what I hurl into my mouth in the name of nutrition. I've always been like this, but am even more so when I'm racing bikes. A pound of fat on the chassis really hurts at the end of a hilly time-trial. The secret I've discovered over the years is to eschew sweet things. This is easy for me as I don't have a naturally sweet tooth anyhoo. But occasionally I find sugar trying to storm the citadel in a secretive and highly mediated form. It tries to weasel aboard basically. I think I may discovered another one of late: the flat white.
The flat white was devised (well, reborn really) in Australia. Aussies are notoriously suspicious of ornamentation and bullshit, and it didn't take long before their collective jaundiced eye spied it in abundance in coffee shop bills of fare. Froth, squirty cream, flakes, smarties - you name it, it's available in high street coffee chains, dressed up as sophisticated adult mid-morning libation 'solutions'. Stick a cock-headed and meaningless Italian-sounding name on what is essentially a cup of trifle and that's the job done. The great unwashed down under got fed up with this, and demanded an alternative, a cup of straightforward 'Joe' with no froth on it. That's why it's called 'flat'. It's coffee with a dash of milk.
It took off. Sadly by the time it reached these shores, it had be marketed to death and therefore transformed utterly. I've started drinking flat whites in London recently as they're the only thing on the menu that runs to less than 29 fluid ounces. They do still have the virtue of being small. However, they are short on flat and big on froth. I initially thought the froth was just that: excited milk. But now I'm not so sure. I think there might be sugar in there too. This of course is why they're so moreish. I must investigate further.
Beware my froth.
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