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Does Canberra do coffee better than Melbourne? Photos: Thomas Lucraft.<\/p>\n
Melbourne: laneway cafes, painfully cool hipsters, terrible weather and over-crowded trams. And, until recently, the best coffee in Australia.<\/p>\n
But I am here to bust this case wide open: Melbourne has been knocked off its coffee perch by none other than humble Canberra.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a big call, I know, but I have the receipts to prove it!<\/p>\n
To start with, coffee is no longer at the forefront of Melbourne\u2019s trendy food and dining scene. The cool kids are drinking matcha and milk tea. I found myself in desperate need of a flat white one afternoon in Melbourne\u2019s CBD and walked past THREE separate milk tea shops before I saw a blessed coffee machine.<\/p>\n
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ONA Coffee is surely our bean ambassador. Photo: Kazuri Photography.<\/p>\n
Each milk tea takeaway had some kind of \u2018how-to-order\u2019 sign aimed at assisting those of us who are terribly uncool and unsure whether this joint does pots of Earl Grey (they do not).<\/p>\n
Milk Tea is the next iteration of the bubble tea trend, serving different types of tea in elaborate ways: topped with a creamy foam, blended with fruit and heaving with sago pearls. It\u2019s certainly a lot of fun and can be very tasty, but it just doesn\u2019t sate my caffeine addiction.<\/p>\n
Matcha is, at least, very well caffeinated, and I even visited a truly excellent matcha-focused cafe (the green powder ground before my very eyes!) However, matcha still doesn\u2019t scratch that coffee itch.<\/p>\n
Finally, a cafe is in sight and what should they be serving but Canberra\u2019s very own ONA coffee beans!? And this was not an isolated incident: I drank ONA at several Melbourne cafes over my short visit. I\u2019ve even had it in sunny Darwin (iced, naturally).<\/p>\n
ONA is not even my go-to Canberra coffee (it\u2019s very good, just not my local grind), but it has become our de facto bean ambassador.<\/p>\n
To further highlight the global supremacy of ONA coffee, in 2019 I was sitting at a cafe in Esfahan, Iran. In the corner, a few staff were undergoing a barista training session, and my ears perked up when I heard the name Canberra. I asked the trainer to explain what he was saying.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have very good coffee there. The best barista in the world comes from Canberra.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was, of course, referring to ONA founder Sasa Sestic, who is big enough in the world of coffee to have his own Wikipedia page<\/a>. And apparently, he\u2019s such a big deal that he gets a mention in Iranian barista circles. Who knew?<\/p>\n I know, and I\u2019m sure you do too, that Canberra\u2019s coffee scene is much bigger, broader and more diverse than just one man and one brand. But I think it\u2019s telling that Canberra\u2019s coffee star has ascended beyond Melbourne\u2019s historic supremacy.<\/p>\n Is matcha the next big thing for cafes? Photo: Kazuri Photography.<\/p>\n But perhaps it\u2019s actually a sign that we are behind the times. Maybe we are on the precipice of a milk tea revolution, or a matcha-green takeover (at least it\u2019s handy for supporting the Raiders)!<\/p>\n Either way, it made me feel the tiniest bit patriotic to see the Canberra flag waved in Melbourne.<\/p>\n![\"Bright](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/zDSC_2685-1200x798.jpg\")
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