My Favorite Flat White

Flat White Coffee at Licorice Cafe New Zealand

I was recently on a trip back to my homeland and of course made the most of the opportunity to drink as many flat whites as I could. It was a trip of eat, drink, sleep, repeat! Lots of fun and a couple of extra pounds. 🙂

New Zealand is amazing in that you can find the most incredibly good coffee shops in the smallest of towns. Also, unlike the United States, coffee shops, or "cafes" as they are called in New Zealand, generally also serve a fairly extensive array of food offerings, and often wine as well. They are more like a coffee-focused restaurant.

Anyhow, the best, as in most delicious and perfectly-made flat white I had the entire two weeks of the trip, was the one I had at the Licorice Cafe in the tiny town of Motutere on the south-eastern side of Lake Taupo in the center of New Zealand's North Island. I was en route and it was my lunch stop. If you ever happen to be passing by, I recommend a stop. The lunch of a large stuffed sweet potato (kumara) and salad was also very delicious and satisfying.

By the way, the candy that you can see on the saucer is known as a "licorice allsort", a classic New Zealand candy made of layers of black licorice and marzipan. There is a long tradition of serving a candy with some cups of coffee in New Zealand. Most traditionally it was a chocolate fish, but over time this has morphed into other classics such as "jaffas", which are balls of chocolate coated in a hard orange candy. Obviously, in this case, a licorice allsort goes with the name of the cafe.

Hopefully you will get a chance on day to sample the wonders of cafe culture in New Zealand.

If you don't know what a "flat white" is or want to make one at home, check my How to Make a Flat White post.