In Australia, Italian immigrants and their descendants have transformed the land Down Under – and inspired such customs as "flat white" coffee made from espresso and steamed milk. Holly Williams checks out how an Aussie helped popularize flat whites to the world.

Ingham

The flat white coffee, now enjoyed in cafes from Los Angeles to London, is believed to have originated in Italian-Australian communities in rural Australia. The drink consists of espresso topped with steamed milk and is distinct from a cappuccino due to its minimal froth. 

Italian immigrants brought their coffee traditions to northern Australia in the late 19th century, influencing local cafe culture. While there are rival claims from New Zealand about the drink's origins, many credit Italian-Australians and cafe owners in Australia for popularising the flat white. The story also touches on the broader contributions and challenges faced by Italian-Australians, including experiences of discrimination during World War II.

Popular Italian-inspired "flat white" coffee spread from Australia

To top off your coffee this morning, we're heading down under, where Holly Williams has the story of a global coffee phenomenon that's all the buzz. It's Saturday morning in the Australian outback, and Karen Venables is brewing up coffee for her customers. The crowd favourite is the Flat White, a coffee beloved by hipsters around the world. It's a shot, or two, of rich dark espresso, topped with creamy steamed milk. And unlike a cappuccino, it's light on the froth. About a third coffee, two thirds milk. I love a flat white actually. It's good. That is delicious. This cafe in the sleepy country town of Ingham is around 10,000 miles from Europe, but just about everyone here is Italian-Australian, many of them third or fourth generation. So with all your grandparents came over? Yes. So I got the flat white, extra hot. The flat white coffee may be the biggest thing in caffeinated beverages right now, enjoyed by connoisseurs from Los Angeles to London. But some coffee historians believe the flat white has its roots here, in this small Italian community in rural Australia. The climate in this region is tropical, and perfect for growing sugar cane. Italians first came here as labourers in the 1890s, before buying their own farms. Adrian Scavazzi owns 1,500 acres, on land where his grandparents harvested sugar cane by hand. That must have been really hard work. Yeah, it would have been, yeah, for sure, absolutely, especially coming from where they come from, and sort of like thrown in the deep end and said, this is your way of life. Put them to a timber handle with a blade on it, and yeah, getting the job done. The Italian immigrants brought their coffee with them, to the towns of northern Australia. It was something so unusual, you'd never seen anything like it, and I just remember the noise of the espresso machine, and just thinking how wonderful it was, it was sort of another world. Alan Preston is not Italian-Australian, but told us he learned about coffee from them in outback cafes in the 1970s, where he says they were selling something called a flat coffee, perhaps the milky coffee the Italians call a caffè latte, though not served in a glass, and rechristened for those who didn't understand Italian. Preston took the concept to Sydney in the 1980s, where he opened several cafes selling flat whites, and within a few decades, it had gone global. Should you be getting 5% on every flat white sold? Well, it'd be nice. Just give me a cent. One cent per flat white, that'll do. No, I don't feel as though I own it, because I didn't invent it, I just popularised it. There's a rival claim, the New Zealanders also claim that they invented the flat white coffee. No, it's not true, it's not true. The best they can come up with is 1989, so I'd been going along about four years by then. Australia is a nation of immigrants. Around 30% of its residents were born overseas, and nearly 5% identify as Italian. But many Italian-Australians have encountered terrible racism. Elsie Quobba and Rose Cavallo were both born in Australia, but were locked up in an internment camp for enemy aliens during World War II, because Italy was allied with Nazi Germany. Italian alien child. What does that mean? Well, you were born in Australia. They've never had an apology, but told us they don't harbour any bitterness. What do you think Australia would be like without the Italians? There'd be no spaghetti. Well the cane, no cane cutters either. And no good coffee. No good coffee. Italian-Australians have contended with huge challenges in the land down under, but they've also transformed it with their hard work, enterprise and invention.

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