Melbourne Coffee Culture Tour
- ziastravelblog
- Jan 30, 2019
- 2 min read
The city of Melbourne is known for their street art, laneways and coffee. Everywhere you look you can see a little café or coffee shop where people mainly order cappuccinos, lattes, flat whites and espressos. These different coffee drinks are made to specific proportions of coffee, milk and foam and usually served at a cooler temperature than in the states. Brewed coffee is not very popular in Australia and you will have a hard time getting even a typical Americano.
The tour focused on the city's coffee history and its hidden cafes that you wouldn’t find as a tourist.
The tour was run by a company called Hidden Secrets Tours and the guide’s name was Jess. Her tour focused on the cities coffee history and its hidden cafes that you wouldn’t find as a tourist. Melbourne is a fairly new city, established in the early 1830s rich in gold. Over the 19thand 20thcenturies, many immigrants from Italy, Turkey and Greece came to create a new life, with them they brought European style coffee.
First Stop: Liaison Café - 22 Ridgeway Place
Situated at the bottom of the consulate of Monaco in a quirky modern building, designed by McBride Charles Ryan, Liaison Café is a small place making perfectly constructed coffee. I had a skim milk flat white and a blueberry cake which were both excellent.
Second Stop: KoKo Black -52 Collins
Opened in 2001 by a local named Shane Hills, Koko Black is Belgian chocolatier making ethical sourced chocolates. All their dark chocolate is at least 54% cocoa. Im not a chocolate fan so for the tasting I got a rose infused Turkish delight dipped in chocolate and it was very good.
Third Stop: Patricia - Little William St
Serving three different local roaster’s coffees and four ways of serving it. Black, White (with milk), and filtered (hot or iced). No sign and standing room-only, this place still gets lines out the door. We tried the iced filtered coffee and it was fruity, aromatic, smooth and so light it looked like tea.
Fourth Stop: La Belle Miette - 30 Hardware Lane
A cute Parisian style shop tucked into Hardware Lane, La Belle Miette specialize in macaroons and specialty tea. I tried the lavender infused macaroon and it was a little on the sweet side, but the lavender was very nice and had no artificial flavors.
Fifth Stop: Manchester Press - 8 Rankins Lane
Tucked down one of the city’s signature laneways, it’s a great place for lunch and quiet compared to the bustling city.
We ended the tour at Manchester Press with lunch. I learned so much about the city and coffee culture of Australia on the tour. Without this tour I would never have stumbled upon these great local cafés and would recommend it to anyone who is interested in coffee.
Yes it seemed like being discrete and minimalistic is the next new thing!
Sounds delicious- especially the chocolate shop. Can’t believe that one coffee shop doesn’t even have a sign....I guess that’s the new hip thing to do.