Coffee is black, right – so what the heck is “White” coffee? Does it mean the roast, is it some special exotic kind of coffee?
Nah, “white coffee” is coffee with milk, or coffee with cream. So, it’s black coffee, which turns white (well, not really…) when milk or cream is added to it.
There’s not really a great deal more to it than that ;-), however, this might not have been quite what you were looking for, so let’s expand on the question.
White Coffee Vs Blonde Roast
Some people asking this question, might be referring to “blonde roast” – which, of course, isn’t the term given to coffee beans roasted by a coffee roaster with blonde hair.
Blonde roast refers to the roast level, and it’s simply the phrase that Starbucks came up with to describe their lighter roast beans.
Roast levels traditionally refer to the colour of the beans after roasting, and “blonde” is simply what Starbucks decided to use to refer to their lightest roast.
Actually, the practice of labelling roast levels based on colors, is very limited. It kind of works for mainstream coffee, but it doesn’t quite work for specialty coffee in my opinion.
Specialty coffee is roasted in much smaller batches, and the roast level is very specific to the bean in question – but not all beans will end up the same colour when roasted to the same degree.
In other words, the beans aren’t being roasted to a specific pantone reference, they’re being roasted to a specific level of development – what colour they actually end up, will depend on the beans, the varietals, the processing method and the elevation they’re grown.
Anyway, I digress, the point is that “blonde roast” refers to the roast level.
What is a Blonde Roast Coffee?
Different Types of White Coffee
I’m a Brit, and if you ask any other Brit what a white coffee is, they’ll tell you it’s simply coffee (any kind of coffee) with milk added, you’ll get the same answer from Aussies & Kiwis, and from most Europeans, I’d imagine.
So, by this definition, literally any type of coffee with milk, milk alternative, or cream added to it, would be referred to as “white coffee”.
Many Americans tend to distinguish espresso from coffee, with coffee being thought of as drip coffee or French press coffee, and espresso being thought of as completely different to “coffee” – so if the idea of classing espresso based drinks as “white coffees” seems strange, it’s just a language thing.
Café Au Lait
I think a lot of Americans are probably thinking of Café Au Lait when they say “white coffee”, as it’s basically drip coffee or French press coffee & milk.
I used to make a version of Café Au Lait” as a kid, using something I’d now consider to be a swear word… instant coffee ;-). I’d heat milk in the microwave, add some hot water to instant coffee granules, and then add the hot milk.
Would I enjoy this kind of white coffee now, well, maybe not, but I certainly enjoyed it back then.
Flat White
While most Americans probably wouldn’t think of a flat white as a “white coffee”, technically speaking, any coffee (regardless of the brewing method) with milk added, is a white coffee.
The name for flat white came from an abbreviation of “Coffee, White, Flat” – with the “flat” simply referring to the fact that there was no foam, as it was initially held back when pouring, or scraped off the top, in Australian coffee shops throughout the 1980’s.
Coffee shops in Australia begin shortening the name on menus from the mid 1980s, and some point, the flat white became distinct from other white coffees made with microfoam textured milk, by being more intense in coffee flavour, and being made with a silkier microfoam than latte and cappuccino.
Caffè Latte
You could certainly be referring to latte when you say “white coffee”, Caffè Latte literally means “milk coffee” in Italian.
Again though, I’d think many people would think of a latte as something different to a white coffee – but technically speaking, it’s an espresso based white coffee, made with milk foam.
White Russian?
OK, this is more than likely not what you’re referring to when you say “white coffee” – but this is a great excuse for me to make (and taste…) a white Russian in one of my future videos, because, you’re now wondering what a white Russian is, and how to make one, aren’t you? Thanks, I’ll do that very soon :-).
In case you don’t know what this is (which probably means you’ve never watched the movie The Big Lebowski) – this is a cocktail made with coffee liquor, vodka & light cream.
We’ve actually started to do a segment at the end of Coffee Kev videos called Coffee Kev’s Coffee of The Week – in the first couple of videos that we’ve done this, I subjected the crew to a Marmite latte, and a Marmalade latte, I think they’ll be way happier tasting a white Russian.
When Did People Start Drinking White Coffee?
As soon as coffee landed in Europe, in the 1700s, Europeans added milk or cream to it.
I’m no historian by the way, so feel free to correct me in the comments if you are, and if you have a more accurate account of this history of white coffee.
My understanding of the history of white coffee, is that it became popular in various parts of Europe at a similar time.
In Austria, whipped cream was initially added to coffee – while in France, adding milk to coffee became common at similar time, sometime in the 1700s.
Cappuccino, by the way, has Austrian origins, rather than Italian.
The modern cappuccino is of course espresso based, and espresso is an Italian creation, but cappuccino is an espresso based descendent of the Kapuziner Kaffee.
I made my interpretation of the Kapuziner in the video below – how closely this resembled the original drink is hard to say, because each cafe in Vienna would closely guard their specific version of the recipe, mainly involving the mix of spices used – but the version I made tasted more like a modern spiced latte.
Coffee with milk also became a popular breakfast drink in other parts of Europe over the years, with the craze reaching Germany by the 18th Century.
Italians weren’t as quickly persuaded, from what I can gather it took a bit longer to catch on there – I mean, even these days if you’re an adult and you ask for a cappuccino or latte later in the day, you might get a few confused glances ;-).
These days, of course, adding milk to coffee is pretty much a global phenomenon, and no doubt there will be some people reading this post, thinking “what, of course I know what white coffee is, how the heck did I end up on this post, and why am I still reading?”
Well, I can’t say how you found your way here, but hopefully you stuck around because you’re a fan of my waffling ;-).
Not everyone wants to sit down and read more than a few sentences, and I get that – sometimes I’m not in the mood to read, either. But, you can’t argue that I didn’t deliver a very straight answer to this very simple question, very early on in the post.
So if you’re still reading at this point, that does mean something.
What it probably means is that you like my style, so you should probably bookmark this blog, or just write “CoffeeKev.com” on a post it note and stick it to your desk, so you know where to go when you need a coffee related question answering quickly, but with some mildly entertaining and informative information thrown in, just in case you wanted to stick around a bit longer.
What’s that, you want to know even more about white coffee? OK then, here you go ;-).
White Coffee FAQ
Does White Coffee Have More Calories Than Black Coffee?
In a word, yes. This will of course depend on what you’re adding to your coffee to make it white, skim milk for example is going to add a lot less calories than the same volume of half and half, or heavy cream, but of course when you start adding with calories, to coffee, you’re increasing the calorie content of your coffee.
Coffee by itself has technically zero calories. If you have your coffee black without sugar, its technically guilt-free!
Is White Coffee Less Acidic?
Coffee can be acidic, depending on many factors. Light roasts tend to be more acidic, than dark coffee roasts.
White coffee generally has less acidity compared to black, because milk has diluted the pH level down.
As a result, white coffee can be easier on the stomach.
If you find that the first coffee of the day, when you take your coffee black, causes stomach issues such as acid reflux, try adding milk to your morning coffee, you may be surprised!
Is White Coffee The Term For Light Roast?
No, blonde roast is another term for a lighter roast, but “white coffee” is simply coffee with milk or cream added.
Is White Coffee The Term For Raw Coffee Beans?
No, we refer to raw beans as “green” coffee beans. Why we do this, I’m not sure, they’re not green, they’re more white than they are green ;-). OK, they do have a slightly greenish tinge, but they’re more like a very light yellow than green.
They’re not beans either, come to think of it. As you’re probably aware, we call them beans because they look like beans, and someone at some point made the mistake of calling them beans, and the name stuck. To be a bean, the coffee plant or tree would need to be part of the legume family, which it’s not.
So we should actually be referring to them as “coffee seeds” – I’m glad we don’t, though, it just doesn’t sound quite right – and it would remove all the potential for “bean” related puns.