Black sesame in Melbourne

Roasted black sesame ground to a paste and stirred into lattes and matcha: nutty, toasty and a little bitter, and it turns the drink grey. In all our data to 14 Nov 2026, The Froth has seen it at 33 Melbourne cafes across 26 suburbs, in posts, customer reviews and menus. The 27 in "Where to get one" are the cafes with it on their current menu or in a cafe or creator post.

It is on 23 Melbourne cafe menus right now, including Plus Coffee & Co in Melbourne, Light Years Cafe in Hawthorn East, The Sitting Wombat Cafe. in Croydon and Tokyo Lamington Carlton in Carlton. 4 more cafes have posted it, though it is not on their current menu. The "Where to get one" list on this page has every one, with the price where the menu gives one, links to the menu or post, and directions. Menus change, so check with the cafe before you go.

The average is $7.06, from 18 Melbourne cafe menus as of 14 Nov 2026. Most charge between $6.14 and $8.50; the lowest we have seen is $5 and the highest $8.50.

It is on a bigger share of Gold Coast cafes: 1.6% against Melbourne's 1.4%, over the last 90 days.

Melbourne cafes also sell black sesame as "Black Sesame Latte", "Iced Black Sesame Latte", "Black Sesame Soy Milk Frappé", "Black Sesame Genmaicha Latte", "Black Sesame Matcha", "Black Sesame Oat Latte" and "Coffee With Black Sesame". The Froth counts every one of these names as the same trend, from cafes' own posts and menus.

It is early days. The Froth rates black sesame as Emerging as of 14 Nov 2026: it is on a small share of cafes (1.4% in the last 90 days) and holding steady. In the 90 days to 14 Nov 2026, 1.4% of the Melbourne cafes we see well (an Instagram post or a current menu in that time) had it. Among the 1,210 cafes we have followed through both periods, 3 of the same cafes had it, against 1 in the 90 days before. Melbourne searches for it were level in Aug to Oct 2026 compared with Aug to Oct 2025.

There were 320 searches for black sesame in Melbourne in Oct 2026, with all its names added up. Across the 23 months we have, from Dec 2024 to Oct 2026, it ranged from 140 searches (Dec 2024) to 390 (May 2026). These are monthly estimates of search demand in Melbourne.

The earliest Melbourne cafe post or customer review about black sesame that The Froth has is from 15 Feb 2023. We only see what we collect, so that is when we first saw it, not when it started: it may have been sold earlier, here or elsewhere.

A typical black sesame latte, drawn from Melbourne cafes' own posts, is built from the top down with black sesame seeds (toasted, scattered on top), sesame cream (cream whipped with a little of the paste; some cafes add espresso), ice (fills the cup before anything is poured), cold milk (about 200 ml, turning grey where it meets the paste) and black sesame paste (roasted black sesame ground with sugar or honey, 2 spoonfuls). Each cafe makes its own version, so this is a typical build, not one cafe's recipe.

A cafe counts for black sesame from the first public post or customer review we found about it, the cafe's own post or a customer's, and while it is on the cafe's current menu. Shares are of the cafes we see well: those with an Instagram post or a current menu in the same 90 days, a chain counting once. A change compares the same cafes in the last 90 days with the 90 before, only among cafes we have followed through both, so newly added cafes never look like growth. The 90 days end on the latest day with cafe posts or reviews (14 Nov 2026), not today. Searches are monthly search demand in Melbourne with all of a trend's names added up. Captions stay private; we only link to public posts. The full method is on our "How we track cafe trends" page.