How Australia came to dominate the inaugural World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops and cement its status as a global leader in café culture.
What is it that makes Australian café culture so special?
It’s a question that can provoke many different responses, depending on who you ask. A highly competitive roasting community, the emphasis on customer service, or the expectation every cup should meet a consistently high standard? Perhaps, it’s the technical skill of its baristas – after all, Melbourne’s Jack Simpson, from Axil Coffee Roasters, is the reigning World Barista Champion.
For years, Australia has had an outsized influence on the global coffee scene. The fact its café culture has been transplanted into cities, towns, and villages across the world – where baristas craft flat whites and long blacks alongside Aussie-inspired dishes – is proof of this. So too is the fact many manufacturers see the market as the ideal place to stress-test their latest inventions.
It’s all anecdotal evidence of a market that not only consumes coffee well, but actively shapes how it is made, served, and experienced.
That reputation was reinforced in 2025 after the inaugural World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops list featured nine Australian cafés, second only to the United States that has 12 times the population.
Australia had three cafés in the global top 10 – with the big headline being Toby’s Estate in Chippendale, Sydney, topping the list. Proud Mary Coffee in Melbourne (4th) and Coffee Anthology in Brisbane (8th) also
featured prominently.
It provided further validation of Australia’s position at the vanguard of global café culture. But how did we get here?
Toby’s Estate General Manager Jody Leslie says great coffee is expected now – it’s the baseline. What really keeps people coming back is the vibe.
“The energy on bar, the team who know your name and know their craft. When a café can deliver that consistently, people feel it,” she says, noting this is something she will unpack on the MICE Café Education Stage, exploring how others are pushing café culture forward.
“Being named the number one café in the 2025 World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops was a huge moment for Chippendale. There are world-class cafés everywhere, so to be recognised at the very top is something we are really proud of. It’s a nod to the team who show up every day obsessed with making exceptional coffee and creating a space where people want to hang out.”
Veneziano Coffee Roasters – whose Melbourne Airport flagship ranked 19th – stands out by listening closely to its customers and designing experiences around how, when and why people engage with coffee.
Sarah Eagles, Brand Strategist, says Veneziano’s approach is a microcosm of the Australian specialty coffee market.
“Australian café culture stands out globally because it’s deeply customer-led,” she says.
“Cafés here have a strong understanding of consumer behaviour and are quick to respond to changing tastes, formats and moments. From the rise of cold and iced drinks to evolving expectations around speed, experience and atmosphere.
“This adaptability sits alongside a strong sense of brand and community, where cafés consistently show up across different touchpoints with quality, care and personality. The result is a café culture that feels both progressive and genuinely human.”
Tracing Australia’s rise
How Australia came to lead a specialty coffee revolution – and continues to stand as a global icon of independent café culture – requires a little excavation. The story is shaped as much by what Australia embraced as by what it resisted.
A defining feature was a reluctance towards large chains and external influence and a celebration of independent and boutique coffee shops, a trait that shaped Melbourne’s café scene in particular.
While debate still swirls over whether Sydney or Melbourne deserves the title of Australia’s coffee capital, what is beyond dispute is the influence of Italian migrants who arrived in the 1950s and 1960s. Bringing with them a deep-rooted espresso culture, they transformed a nation still largely tethered to British tea-drinking traditions.
With easy access to high-quality dairy, Australia’s appetite for milk-based coffee gathered pace – eventually giving rise to menu mainstays such as the flat white (though even that origin story remains contested, with New Zealand).
Today, that drink quality is paired with outstanding service. That’s where Australia gains its edge, according to Adam Wang who founded Coffee Anthology in Brisbane, echoing Jody’s sentiments.
“It’s not just about the coffee itself; it’s the whole package. That includes the coffee, customer service, and the organic engagement we have with customers,” he says.
“In Australia, baristas treat customers like friends. They’re excited to talk about coffee and the overall experience. Skill-wise, Australian brewers are right up there with the best, and there’s also a very strong roasting community.”
Adam says Coffee Anthology stands out for the way it celebrates coffee.
“We’re one of the largest multi-roaster cafés in Australia. Every day, we run at least four different Australian roasters at the same time,” he says.
“On top of that, we have an international coffee bar inside the same shop. So if you come into Coffee Anthology, you can try at least four different Australian roasters and at least one dedicated international roaster.
“We’re really proud of giving customers options – different single origins, different roasters – without charging extra. Everything is one standard price.”
For Veneziano, Sarah says differentiation comes from listening closely to its customers and designing experiences around how, when and why people engage with coffee.
The business invests in understanding trends and behaviours, brand collabs or new ways customers want to interact, and translates those insights into meaningful experiences.
“Behind the scenes, we also prioritise the right technology and systems to drive consistency and efficiency behind the bar, allowing our teams to focus on hospitality. Together, this creates a seamless brand experience that resonates across cafés, at home and beyond.”
For the coffee shops that made the top 100 list, the recognition validates the hard work that goes into delivering an unforgettable café experience, but with that comes pressure to replicate their success. Plus, the ranking has generally driven more traffic to these cafés, with each new customer bringing lofty expectations.
In the spirit of evolution, it begs the question: what will the most successful cafés be offering in future?
“The question then, is how the World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops will view Australia’s coffee shops in 2026, and what sets our venues apart from international counterparts,” says Jody, from Toby’s Estate.
“We set the bar pretty high last year. From here, it’s about seeing how the industry blends innovation within automation on one side, and a real desire for cafés to slow people down on the other. However it shakes out, café culture keeps evolving, and so will we. But the priority stays the same: coffee quality comes first.”
From Veneziano’s perspective, Sarah says the most successful cafés will be those that combine strong brand thinking with deep customer insight.
“They’ll continually listen, adapt and evolve, responding to shifts in consumer behaviour while staying true to a clear brand purpose,” she says.
“Technology will play a critical role in driving consistency, efficiency and quality behind the bar, freeing teams to deliver better experiences out front. Ultimately, cafés that balance innovation with authenticity, and efficiency with human connection, will be the ones that continue to thrive.”
Adam believes the culture will continue in two directions. One will have a pure coffee focus, while the other will hero specialty drinks – potentially beverages that haven’t even been dreamed of yet.
“We’re already seeing that trend now,” he says. “For example, 2025 saw a huge matcha movement. People are drinking all sorts of alternative beverages, and those kinds of drinks are really coming into their own.”
The secrets to becoming a globally-recognised coffee shop will be explored further on day two of MICE during the Café Owners Education Series. Jody will feature alongside Nolan Hirte from Proud Mary Coffee, in the session called What Does it Take to Become the World’s best coffee shop? where they will discuss bringing attention to a café on a local/national and international stage.
They will also canvas how to sustain attention with high standards and consistency beyond being a social media haven and influencer paradise.
This article features in the MICE 2026 Showguide: A coffee lover’s guidebook. Pick up your copy of the showguide at MICE.
