New Zealand’s first-ever Oat Flat White chocolate bar is here thanks to Wellington Chocolate Factory (WCF) and really, where else would it have come from?
WCF teamed up with Havana Coffee, using their Pacifica blend, to make the new chocolate, just in time for Wellington Anniversary weekend. They’ll be available to buy at WCF’s Eva and Chaffers Street stores, as well as online, but they’re only making 1000 of them so you’ll have to be quicker than a Wellingtonian commenting how unbeatable their city is when the sun’s out.
Wellington Chocolate Factory's new Oat White Chocolate Bar. Credit: WCF
WCF’s co-founder Gabe Davidson says the vegan chocolate bar is a flawless mixture of coffee and chocolate, and pretty much a welly local’s wet dream.
“Havana’s Pacifica Blend is upfront and lingers long enough after the chocolate has been eaten. The oat is perfectly balanced, resulting in a creamy, vegan coffee delight,” he said in a press release.
“When you think of coffee, you think of Wellington. There’s something magical that happens you combine coffee and chocolate. After the incredible demand for our first Oat Bar… we’re excited to follow it up with our take on an Oat Flat White, just in time for a weekend that celebrates everything Wellington.”
That same press release has a line that took me by surprise - “from the city where the flat white was invented…” it says, speaking of our capital. That’s right, apparently, the flat white was created in Wellington, news to me.
The story goes that in 1989 Fraser McInnes, a barista in Wellington, tried to make a cappuccino but he used low-fat milk and it just did not froth like he wanted it to. Instead of throwing it out he simply named it the ‘Flat White’.
Australia, of course, also claim the Flat White. According to a review in the Sydney Morning Herald, Miller’s Treat cafe in Sydney offered a flat white back in 1983.
Aucklander Darrel Ahlers also claims to have invented it. In 2015 he told 3News some Australians saw it on his menu while holidaying in Auckland and then took it back to Aussie, claiming it as their own.
