Black sesame in Melbourne
Emerging
It is on a small share of cafes (1.4% in the last 90 days) and holding steady.
Fewer than 5 Melbourne cafes have it, or the first cafe post or review we have is under 120 days old, or creators are posting it before any cafe has it. It also covers anything on a small share of cafes that is holding steady.
The stages run Emerging, Rising, Peaking, Mainstream, Fading. A trend can skip a stage or move back.
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.
Where to get black sesame in Melbourne
29 Melbourne cafes: 25 on their menus, 4 from posts.
Showing 10 of 29 cafes, A to Z
- #HKFOODIE$8.80
- BetterburntUnverifiedPrice not on the menu
Seen in a post, not on its current menu.
- Bing Chillin Doncaster EastPrice not on the menu
- Bing Chillin GlenPrice not on the menu
- Botanic Cafe$6.80
- Chayō$6.50
- Drip CafePrice not on the menu
- Golden Mug Cafe$8
- Golden Mug Cafe North Melbourne$8
- Gram Cafe & Pancakes Chadstone$6.90
Melbourne cafes with Black sesame on their menus or in their posts.
Flavours we're seeing
Each bar is the Melbourne cafes whose menu lists black sesame in that flavour. Under each flavour is the menu line most of those cafes use.
A chain counts as one cafe however many shops it has.
- Banana“Black Sesame Banana Smoothie”1 cafe
- White chocolate“Black Sesame White Chocolate Latte”1 cafe
Is black sesame still growing in Melbourne?
It's emerging: early days yet.
Melbourne searches a month
Mar 2025
Searches up by half on Dec 2024.
May 2026
390 searches, the busiest month.
Tap a number for what changed then.
How Melbourne compares
Share of each city's own cafes with it, last 90 days.
Melbourne's share of Australia's searches
29%Aug to Oct 2026Down from 35% in Aug to Oct 2025 (the green tick).Cafes posting it
Per 1,000 cafes that posted that month, in Melbourne.Of the cafes in Melbourne that posted anything that month, how many posted black sesame, per 1,000 of them.
It is a share, not a count, so it does not grow just because we follow more cafes. It only grows when more of the cafes we follow take it up.
The month in progress shows here once it is complete, so a part month never reads as a drop. A month with too few cafes posting is left out.
2.2 per 1,000 in Oct 2026
On menus
Cafe menus listing it now, Melbourne.
25 cafe menus
We started reading cafe menus in late 2026. Cafes adding and dropping it each month show here once the first whole month of menu reads is in.
Melbourne, Australia and the world
Searches in Oct 2026, circles sized to match.
How black sesame spread across Melbourne
26suburbs with cafes posting it
By Nov 2026 (so far)
Each bar is the Melbourne cafes with a post or customer review of it that month; Nov 2026 is not over yet, so its bar is so far.
13 suburbs are known only from a menu, which we can't date, so they count in the last month.
Black sesame Melbourne FAQs
Black sesame is on 25 Melbourne cafe menus and has been posted by cafes in 26 Melbourne suburbs.
What is black sesame?
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 34 Melbourne cafes across 26 suburbs, in posts, customer reviews and menus. The 29 in "Where to get one" are the cafes with it on their current menu or in a cafe or creator post.
Where can I get black sesame in Melbourne?
It is on 25 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.
How much is a black sesame in Melbourne?
The average is $7.15, from 19 Melbourne cafe menus as of 15 Nov 2026. Most charge between $6.16 and $8.50; the lowest we have seen is $5 and the highest $8.80.
Where in Australia is black sesame biggest?
It is on a bigger share of Gold Coast cafes: 1.5% against Melbourne's 1.4%, over the last 90 days.
What else is black sesame called?
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.
Is black sesame getting more popular in Melbourne?
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 1,224 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.
How many people search for black sesame in Melbourne?
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.
When did black sesame first show up in Melbourne cafes?
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.
How does The Froth count this?
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.