Do you know your lattes from your cappuccinos? We talk to coffee guru, Paul Asquith about Australia's most popular styles.

AMERICANS will soon be able to enjoy a real coffee — Starbucks is set to introduce the flat white to its US menu from next week.

Food website Eater reports the move is the latest bid from the coffee giant to reclaim some credibility after years of pushing caramel macchiatos and iced frappucinos.

A spokesman said the Starbucks flat white, which has been on the UK menu since 2010, will be made from two ristretto espresso shots topped off with whole milk steamed to a “micro foam”.

Created in Australia in the 1980s, our national breakfast beverage (which the Kiwis try to claim credit for) has reportedly gained something of a following in the US in the past year or so.

Still, the news has sparked an amusing debate in the US as Americans scramble to get their heads around the alien concept of a coffee that doesn’t come in a yard glass.

“It’s like a cappuccino, except that instead of a top layer of flavourless, airy, milky foam, it’s a velvety, dense foam that is mixed evenly through the drink,” Reuters executive Jason Fox told food website Bon Appétit.

Quartz has also tried to get to the bottom of the mystery, compiling an array of opinions from Americans on exactly what makes a flat white a flat white.

It’s a “hotter version of a cappuccino with a lighter layer of foam”, according to one barista. Just a “small latte”, says the New York Times. Actually it’s a “wet cappuccino”, says Toby’s Estate.

The news has sparked a bit of debate on Twitter.

"Flat white" coffee drink coming to Starbucks! (It's just like a latte, people, chill out.) http://t.co/U1sgaw5K8F — Fork & Chocolate (@fchblog) January 1, 2015

Starbucks lost its 14-year battle with Australian coffee snobs last year, with the global chain selling its 24 remaining stores to 7-Eleven operator Withers Group.

Its failure in the Australian market was put down to trying to open too many stores too quickly, and trying to impose its weak, syrupy products in a market that prefers strong, espresso-based coffees.

In 2008, losses to the tune of $143 million forced Starbucks to close 61 of its stores — two thirds of its outlets — sacking 685 staff in the process.

frank.chung@news.com.au