Easy answer: when Starbucks or Costa Coffee are making it…

What’s a flat white you ask? I discovered it around 18 months ago, but it’s an Australian classic in the coffee world. The perfect bridge between a double espresso macchiato and a really strong latte, which, done well is the perfect coffee for someone who wants a strong coffee kick and a bit, but not too much, milk on the top. The milk is always full fat, and very silky. The coffee base is usually three shots of “ristretto”, the first bit of espresso that comes out of the machine.

The two big coffee chains I mentioned have recently jumped on a bandwagon that in the UK at least started in coffee houses in Soho and Bloomsbury. Stores such as Monmouth, Flat White, Fernandez & Wells and Lantana have been serving the drink for a few years, and it’s become popular with the crowd of coffee connoisseurs who frequent this rash of independent, antipodean-inspired coffee stores in central London. I’m not sure of the mass appeal of the drink in the UK, because it is quite strong, but it’s certainly an improvement on the popular “latte” or jug of milk with a hint of coffee which people in this country seem to love so much.

Starbucks was first, and it was initially only available in the fancy new concept store just off Regents Street. When I saw the ad I was intrigued and I tried it straight away. Verdict? Starbucks’ bitter coffee isn’t the right base, and the milk they use is semi-skimmed I believe. The new cup they introduced is nice, and the barista tried to achieve the typical flat white pattern on top, but it wasn’t a flat white. It was bitter.

When I landed at Heathrow last Saturday from my trip to Lebanon, I noticed that Costa was making quite a fuss about its version of the flat white. I tried it. Apparently the company has spent upwards of £1million to train staff on how to make this new drink perfectly. What a waste of money! The poor barista, who I truly felt sorry for, couldn’t achieve the pattern which Costa had captured so perfectly in the poster for the new drink. He tried, but explained to me that the one in the poster was the “Picasso version”. The drink itself wasn’t too bad – the coffee an improvement on Starbucks, but there was too much milk as the cup was too big.

If these two coffee monsters are betting that their versions of the flat white are going to make up for falling revenues, I think they’ve bet on the wrong horse. Well actually, maybe the masses will take up the drink and enjoy it. But for a stuck-up, snob of a coffee purist like me, these two versions of a coffee favourite don’t cut the mustard.

If you want to experience the true flat white, get in touch and I’ll take you to Fernandez & Wells!

I write this in the knowledge that I have to leave Beirut several days before I intended to. A mixture of circumstances have conspired to get me back to Britain this weekend rather than next Wednesday. Somewhere in the process of getting here I’ve injured my foot to the extent that I cannot walk without it hurting. Beirut isn’t the kind of city where you can sit around – you need to get out and walk, a lot! And walk I’ve done, today at least, with a great deal of pain.

Beirut is by far the craziest city I’ve visited anywhere in the world. The single word I could use to describe this place would by schizophrenic. This is a city of amazing contrasts. I live in central London and I’ve never seen so many Range Rovers or Mercedes in a single day. Those luxury cars share road space with the archetypal white jeeps with a big black “UN” painted on the side (they’re here as part of the UNIFIL peace-keeping & stabilisation mission). At the same time you’ll find children tapping the windows for change. The downtown/”centre ville” area is absolutely pristine – cleaner even than Geneva. Other parts of town are shabbier, but overall Beirut leads other cities in the region in terms of cleanliness and tidiness.

Last night when I arrived, after spending about an hour walking around the Gemmayzeh district, I was under the false impression that Beirut is a city of serenity. Today’s experiences have proven otherwise. The noise of the traffic here is inescapable. The fumes from the car exhaust are ever-present. I have never seen traffic chaos like I saw today. There is serenity in places though, like the main Al-Omari mosque, which is one of the most beautiful structures I’ve seen – it’s like a huge yellow & blue diamond just fell out of the sky. You can’t walk anywhere near it without being captivated by its beauty and presence.

The Beirutis too are a contradiction in terms. You have the most glamorous looking people who could compete with the elites in London, Paris or New York. But they share a city with people at the far opposite end of that spectrum. A vast swathe of land between the seafront and the main down-town area has been reserved for luxurious high-rise apartments buildings, and hotels like the Four Seasons with its imposing security barricades and Lebanese tanks and soldiers on guard outside. The Hezbollah area in the south, quite close to the city’s international airport is a little less glam, but it appears on the outside at least, to serve its purpose.

People say that the Lebanese are quite an insular people, and I have mixed feelings about that. It’s not terribly difficult to start a conversation with people, but also I can see that many Beirutis can come across as snobbish and closed off. If you know people here though, I guess you might see things differently. People in the Middle East are usually impressed to speak to a white foreigner (this sounds awful I know), but not here. They don’t really give a damn who you are, because you’re in Beirut!

This is the last post from Lebanon – I will post some pictures I took when I get home.

I’m sitting in a cafe in downtown Beirut, minutes from the Mediterranean coast. It’s around 18c outside, and quite a clear day. I arrived in Lebanon quite late last night but I’ve already had a bit of a look around. My sprained foot really isn’t helping matters, and I’m quite annoyed at Orange for not allowing me to use my phone/Blackberry here at all (not even for phone calls). But hey, I’m in Lebanon so I better try to enjoy it a bit!

First impressions are that this is a very rich country for the region. The roads and infrastructure generally seem very good, despite the regular power cuts here at Costa Coffee. The roads weren’t as scary as people said they were. The airport is quite new. The streets are safe 24/7 apparently, and so far I can see that people are very friendly and helpful – it feels safer than London. The plane had some ridiculous turbulence at around 10 minutes from landing – around the same spot where the Ethiopian Airlines flight went down earlier in the week. One of BMI’s flight attendants was injured, and the other attendants came dashing through the cabin with a look of death on their face. But hey, it got the passengers talking to each other.

The taxi driver from the airport showed me the boundary to the Hezbollah controlled area. Apparently I’ll be arrested if I go there, although they say that Hezbollah are quite friendly and very nice whilst arresting and interrogating trespassing foreigners… I’d rather not find out.

Now, after four espresso macchiatos, I better go and do some sight-seeing and take some more photos.

I’ve just read that the Lebanese PM Sa’ad Hariri fears an incursion by Israel soon. Jolly good – that will make this trip even more exciting then.

The picture here is of the Al-Omari mosque in central Beirut, which I took this morning.