The name of drink was not coined by chance. The fact is that historically, both in Australia and New Zealand, there lived a lot of immigrants who came from Europe, in particular from Greece and Italy. They brought with them a love for black coffee brewed in a French press or a geyser coffee maker. Such coffee was called black. When the fashion for drinks with milk came from Europe and the USA, they were designated as white. Those who ordered coffee simply specified which option they needed - "black" or "white" (by "white" they meant lattes and cappuccinos too). Since there was little milk in the new recipe, and the foam layer turned out to be thin, the drink was called "flat white" (flat white).
Flat White would have remained a local landmark if it were not for fellow Australian Peter Hall and New Zealanders Cameron McClure and James Gurnsey. In 2005, the three of them opened a tiny take-away coffee shop Flat White Soho in one of the busiest areas of London and unexpectedly became stars of the coffee world. Four years later, in an interview with The Independent, McClure admitted that the coffee shop sells more than 700 cups of flat white a day.