Creative drinks
How we pick them
708 drinks from 442 cafes in 8 cities, the newest added .
We read drinks on cafe menus in every city we cover, and in what cafes post in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Gold Coast. Any drink only one or two cafes in a city have is rated by AI from 0 to 10 on how unusual it is, judging what goes in it, not its name.
- 0 to 4
- Staples and common flavours: vanilla latte, iced mocha, berry smoothie.
- 5 to 6
- Twists now on many menus: pistachio latte, strawberry matcha, salted cold foam.
- 7 to 8
- Unusual pairings most cafes do not have.
- 9 to 10
- Genuinely surprising: savoury, technical or cross-cultural.
Only 7 and up are shown, and a person can take any drink off. Prices are from menus we've seen and may have changed.
New across Australia
Most unusual this month
Tofu Milk Tea with Cheese Milk Foam
TopTea上茶
Sydney
Every creative drink
Espresso Blended with Organic Butter and MCT Oil
MO Wholefood Cafe Ipswich
North Ipswich · Brisbane
HotTofu Milk Tea with Cheese Milk Foam
TopTea上茶
Sydney
Gesha Natural Filter Coffee
Industry Beans York St
Sydney
Hot
Questions people ask
What are the most creative cafe drinks in Australia right now?
Iced Yuzu Orange Filter Coffee at Matta Blackburn in Blackburn North, Melbourne (yuzu, orange juice, soda water, filter coffee and dehydrated orange); Kanji (Indian Spiced Kombucha) at JUICE VEDA MELTON in Melton, Melbourne (7 days fermented black carrots, mustard seeds, lemon, chilli, black salt); Pandan-Rice Cold Brew at Haiku in Camberwell, Melbourne (pandan-rice cold brew with coconut water and genmai cream float). The full list has 708 drinks from 442 cafes.
Which city has the most creative drinks?
Melbourne, with 217 drinks from 131 cafes, then Sydney (201), Brisbane (74) and Adelaide (68). Pick a city above the list to see only its drinks.
Where are the most surprising drinks?
6 drinks are rated 9 or 10 out of 10, the most in Melbourne (3). Choose Most unusual to see them first.
How do you decide a drink is creative?
We read drinks on cafe menus in every city we cover, and in what cafes post in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Gold Coast. A drink only a cafe or two in a city has is rated from 0 to 10 by an AI model on how unusual it is for an Australian cafe, judging what goes in it rather than its name. Staples score low and common twists like pistachio or strawberry matcha score in the middle. This page shows drinks rated 7 or more, and a person can take any off.
Can I still order these drinks?
Find it on each drink gives the cafe's address and directions, and links to its menu when the drink came from one. Specials and seasonal drinks come and go, so check with the cafe. A drink that leaves a menu we read drops off this page.
Where these drinks come from
- Menus: we read cafe menus in every city we cover. A drink whose name is on at most two cafes' menus in its city is a candidate, so staples and chains drop out.
- Posts: in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Gold Coast, an AI model reads cafes' own posts and picks out the drinks they offer. A drink that is not one of our tracked trends is a candidate.
- Each candidate is rated by AI from 0 to 10 on how unusual it is for an Australian cafe, from what goes in it. The model describes the drink in its own words and never copies a cafe's words.
- A drink named only as a common drink ("Cold Brew") is left off, and a cafe's second listing of the same drink shows once.
- "On the menu since" is the first time we read it there. A drink that was already on the menu when we first read it has no date. A post date is the post we found, not when the drink started.
- Nearest uses your location only in your browser, to sort the list. It is never sent to us or saved.